Elf's Shrine

2012-02-07T02:02:00.002+08:00

Vacation Planning. Seriouz Biznez.

One of my friends had asked two other mutual friends and myself to go to Japan next year. Still, I have to consider my vacation plans for this year!

I had been thinking about making it to Europe this year.. but I think that might be a little tough on the wallet. If I don't go this year, I might not go next year as I will be going to Japan with my friends.

Yet, I do not know where I want t go this year. Japan looks like a good idea... Korea is a maybe.. Hong Kong is attractive as the airfares are affordable... Urgh! I am looking at the period just after National Day to Hari Raya.... Yet that might be a little bit of a problem because I might still have lessons at Uni.... Hmmmm. Hmmmmm. Hmmmmmmmm.

2012-02-05T16:33:00.004+08:00

Mini Spa Frenzy

I'm currently on this mini "I want to go spa" frenzy. Well, if you are thinking of those full body spas.... not quite. I'm referring to more along the lines of a nail spa or a facial spa.

Long long ago, my friend dragged me down to this nail spa in Mohammad Sultan. It was absolutely indulgent as it's name (Indulge) suggests. Unfortunately, that place has long closed down. maybe they were a bit too indulgent for business sense? Back then a $50 mani / pedi session had us sitting there for at least 2 hours (IIRC). They really spent time letting you soak your hands and feet and dry your nail colour! Thus when I went to someplace else, I was unaccustomed to the process where I was asked to sit at some corner to dry my nails and I could leave after 20 mins of drying.

To this day, I look forward to finding someplace with a good spa mani / pedi. I'm on the hunt now!

Tried Juup nails yesterday. They have three types of Spa Mani / Pedi and I tried the cheapest spa pedicure yesterday. I will definitely go back to try the other two. What I like about that place:

1) Comfortable
2) No hardsell (they do let you know about their package but they don't push)
3) Tea and chocolates!
4) The Nail tech was gentle (maybe too gentle lol)
5) A veritable list of services to choose from, I love options!

I also chanced upon Plush in 313 Somerset yesterday. I guess I will give them a visit soon!

I also want to try the Green Sanctuary by The Body Shop :P

2012-02-02T01:13:00.002+08:00

Start of School. Again. :(

I'm really struggling in school now. It's like my mind is telling me to give up but my heart says Just .. hold on a bit more. I guess I should at least give myself this one more semester... I've always like languages but never the technical portions of it, so it's quite tough right now. Also, getting to school now after work is quite a challenge. I went to pick up some books on Tuesday evening and I had to miss 2 Service 74 at Dover before I could get on a bus. Good thing was that I managed to get a seat on the third one. Was almost late for materials collection.

Not sure how I'm going to survive through the semester with this kind of crowd.. but I guess that is to be expected with the 55% government subsidy given to UniSIM students.

Need to plan my leave for this year, figure out what other courses I wish to take up.. and it's already February but I have yet to get some stuff in motion. Need to decide on where to go overseas for this year. I'm considering like Hong Kong or something. Korea is a mild possibility. Intend to go Penang for eats. I'm just such a travelbug with no money.

First day of New Year my cousin got admitted into hospital. She was discharged about 5 days later and she has just gone in again on the tenth day of New Year. Hope she gets discharged soon. KTPH is refusing to recognise her status on social welfare. KKWCH is willing to recognise it although she hasn't gotten her new card for February 2012 onwards (the KTPH admission was in January when the old card was still valid). I hope it doesn't have anything to do with the fact that the KTPH Patient Care Assistant just randomly asked me to go in for admissions procedures without telling us it was for admissions purposes. My mum is worried that will cost my cousin her social welfare status because as we all know, no one can afford to get sick in Singapore.

2011-12-30T23:46:00.002+08:00

Bangkok and Back

Yup! Did a short trip to Bangkok from the 27th to the 30th of December. Just gonna do a quick summary in one post cos it's seriously nothing to break up into days for.

Day 1) 27th of December
Got up all bright and early! Last minute packing before I was supposed to leave home at about 0730. Flight departs at 1055 from terminal 1 but Friend A told Friend B to meet her at airport for breakfast at 0800. I wouldn't have know about this arrangement had I not asked both A and B if we were going together or separately and B told me that she was meeting A at 0800. Oh well, is not the first time A only sms B and probably think she is telling everyone...

Dropped off our bags and had BK breakfast!! Hands down so much better than sucky mac's.

We were gonna fly by Airasia so I have to say I had a little bit of apprehension going on. I flew Jetstar to Beijing and back, so I do wonder what Airasia would be like. Was aggravated the night before when I was doing online check in, because I thought that I had purchased designated seats ($9) when I booked the airfares, but it turns out the seats were split 2 and 1 out in the boondocks... Paid $9 to get seated in a row. Same for the return flight but since the one seat was just one row behind us and a similar seat to the one I wanted to change, I decided to save the money and try asking the passenger if he'd be so nice as to change seats with us.

Flight was fairly ok. Seats not that bad, just awfully small leg space as expected.

Landed at Suvarnabhumi Airport and proceed to the Immigration counters .. and there was this huge swamp of humans!! It looks absolutely crazy cos you have absolutely no idea whether there was even a queue! We managed to get ourselves somewhat into a queue and then some russian-looking people started to squeeze past us to get ahead in the queue because they had someone there. Lucky it wasn't my queue but I was still just as pissed. I got so pissed I didn't allow a poor Singaporean boy to pass when he asked if he could pass. Sorry but I really get my heckles up when queues get cut and my brains doesn't work well when I'm like that! Good thing was, he was also upset at the queue cutters and tried to inform the staff to no avail. Airport with smiles = you cut queue they also smile.

After finally clearing the immigrations, we collected our bags, bought prepaid phone cards and grabbed a taxi to our hotel. Although they have a taxi assigner there, the driver still didn't switch on the meter. Charged us flat 500 + toll for total of 570 baht. Because I had previously heard from my friends that getting into Bangkok would cost around 300 to 500 baht, I didn't want to haggle on the price and the meter. Incidentally for info, on our way home we took the cab to airport for 330 baht (toll inclusive) the driver was so sad when I wanted to get the 20 baht change back from him (gave him 350). Lol, maybe I should have tipped him.

Stayed at Miramar Hotel along Mahachai road. It's really near Yaowarat which is Chinatown so it's great if you think you want to be in Chinatown all the time but it's not so good because the taxi drivers will tell you traffic jam due to the massive jams in Yaowarat and then try to charge you 100 baht to get there. Throughout the trip we were usually overcharged by around 40 baht or so which is ok.. but I was upset at the 200 baht we were charged for travel between Wat Pho and Wat Phra Kheow. Serve us right, cos we didn't know the location. By meter it would have cost only about 40-50 baht.

Anyway sometimes you will still get a driver who will turn on the meter once you ask them to. The odd thing is they don't ask you for flat rate when you get on so I wonder what their plan was if I never asked them to turn on the meter? Maybe they have a "Free 1KM" or something like that promo hahahaha! Dream on.

After checking in at around 1530, we walked all the way through Yaowarat and ate at China Scala. The food was not bad and since we were there kind of early, there was no one else in the restaurant.. which was kinda scary but service was good. Ate a 100 baht bowl of Bird's Nest and my mum scolded me over the phone when she heard that. "why eat cheap stuff!! Eat the better stuff!!"

The list different types of bird's nest and then for the same listing they have different pricing. That is NOT the size of serving, like I erroneously thought... it's the quality. So I got the cheapest crap in the house lol!! My friends got the 200 baht version which looked like agar agar. Mine looked like mini pellets lol.

After dinner, it was taxi to MBK. We were quoted a flat 100 baht for this ride but as the ride went on, I got happier cos it was incredibly jammed wherever our driver turned and I was sure the meter would have read more than 100 baht had he turned it on!! Too bad loh, I ask you to turn it on, you don't want and you say traffic jam. Not my fault.

Shopped at MBK and found lovely Auntie Anne's Nori Ham and Cheese mini rolls. I tell you it is DAMN YUMMY. Oh I forget nowadays people no like salt in SG. Ok maybe not yummy to you.

Dinner was Japanese. Japanese food is cheap in Bangkok. If you do not know what to eat, go Japanese. After that we went back to hotel.

Day 2)

Started the day with breakfast in Hotel. As our booking did not include breakfast, we had to pay 295 baht for the buffet. It was so not worth it. Sunny side up eggs, one type of cocktail hot dog, fried rice, fried noodle, bread for you to toast, soya bean milk.. is all I remember from the spread.

After breakfast took a taxi too....... MBK again. One of my friends likes to shop. And I thought.. well we could have used the 295 baht per person to stuff our faces with Auntie Anne's!!! The Nori Ham n Cheese was only 89 baht for 10 pieces....

After MBK, went Siam Discovery and Siam Center and we ate at CoCo Ichibanya in MBK for lunch!! Never managed to try it in SG yet but tried it in Bangkok. Not bad, I shall certainly go for it back in SG!

End of day we went to Yaowarat on our way back to the hotel, bought the pork products (crispy pork skin!!) bought our KFC dinner and tried the hotel's massage services. One of my friend's legs were hurting so bad so she was really eager for massage. I only tried foot massage though but my friends went for the head, neck and shoulders option too. They originally wanted to do it again the next day but one session was enough to let them take a few days to recover!!

Day 3)
Morning was shopping again, near the hotel there is this place called Chinaworld so we went there for breakfast and shopping. Also went along Soi Wanit for more shopping. We wanted a drink so we stopped by one of the roadside stalls and one of my friends was like "Yay they speak teochew!!". Didn't intend to order food but we decided to order a bowl of kway teow just to.. you know.. be nice even though the lady boss didn't say anything. I took one bite and declared that it was something one of my friends would love cos it tasted it kway chap! So she decided to have one bowl too but she did not want pig's blood in it. Oh yes, that bowl was 30 baht and had pig's blood. You blood lovers should start going there now.

After a morning of shopping it was finally decided that we would go visit some Wats. Took a taxi ride to Wat Pho to view the Reclining Buddha and then got bloody overcharged for the trip to Wat Phra Kheow (my fault really cos I didn't know the distance.)

While at Wat Phra Kheow... I wasn't sure if it was the heat.. but my 'shopping' friend looked not so happy. Anyway my other friend's legs gave up on her and so we went back Chinaworld, had dinner at a hotpot place which had pretty good service and then back to hotel.

Day 4)
Wen to KFC for breakfast and ended up in Chinaworld again for more shopping. went up to the hotpot place to clarify some receipt issues with the place and then we bought donuts to prep for our flight!!

Checked out and got to the airport in good time. Do always be careful in Bangkok because of the unexpected jams and queues (if you can find the queue) that may delay you. Dropped off baggage, chilled in Starbucks... and then when we went into the departure area...... more shopping for my shopping friend!! I think she really loves it.

Finally got on the flight back home and the passenger did change seats with us. Thank you so much! Although I could see that he had an unfriendly face at first... I probably would give that face too if initially asked!!

All in, it was almost a complete shopping trip. My friend was always buying something for mum etc so it's quite amazing how she keeps going!!

2011-12-17T21:16:00.001+08:00

Roundup of Beijing Trip.

Ah. End of the trip and it'd be good to do a quick summary.

I usually wouldn't go on group tours because I like slacking out, especially when on holidays! I chose to go on a group tour this time because I decided that would be more convenient for my parents. My original plan for when I bring my parents to Beijing was to get a local guide so that we can customise the itinerary. I even got a contact from my friend who liked her guide! However due to planning issues and changing of destinations and all that, I decided to go with Chan Brothers since their itinerary included a half day free time.

Cost us about 1.1k+ each person, flying by Jetstar. As previously mentioned, the half day free time vapourised. Haiz. I'm not too happy about that but that is how things are when you are with group tours. They will definitely make time for you to go shopping, cos that's where their commissions are.

Food wise, the local guide kept emphasising how we get specially arranged food and all that. I have to say that it was really healthy food with low salt and oil. This was 'special order' because apparently northern food is not so bland. The local guide went on about how northern food was not suitable for Singaporean palates due to the oiliness and saltiness. I'd like to think that that it's only in recent years that we Singaporeans ate like that. "Too Salty!" "Too Oily!" "Too Sweet!". The health conscious. I"m not health conscious so I felt most of the specially arranged food was blah. I remember the food I ate last time was way tastier... cos it was not specially arranged. Anyway, what's the point of going somewhere to eat something that doesn't taste like how the locals eat it?

Every meal was in a restaurant and seriously I have to say that these were well arranged. Just that we ALWAYS had that infernal fish. That same fish, prepared in different ways. That same fish with gazillion bones in it's body. Scary fish.

On the last night when we were supposed to have dim sum supper and the restaurant screwed up, my mum commented that it was the same vegetables all over again. However, the dishes in that restaurant was much more to my taste!! It was saltier, hehehe but we had already had dinner and I was feeling sick too. Bah.

On hindsight, yeah, for all the meal we pretty much had almost the same stuff, albeit at different restaurants. The special stuff was Peking duck at Quanjude. Goubuli buns in Tianjin. Shaomai (烧卖）. And Jiaozi （饺子） feast.

Good stuff actually but.. just not that fun food wise.

Oh and it might be a good idea not to stay with my parents in future. I always get woken up WAY earlier than morning call!! My father wakes early and towards the last few days tended to leave the room early to go down to breakfast. Nobody needs to rush down to breakfast at 0600+++...... *grumble grumble*

Itinerary was a bit tight, as to be expected. Hardly get the mood for photos, really. I was worried because I forgot to bring my CF card reader and my card could only capture about 291 shots. Turns out I didn't even manage to fill it up. However the good part is that we get to listen to the guide explain things to us. Just that we can't leisurely stroll wherever we want and that means certain places you don't get to explore fully (like the Temple of Heaven when we didn't get to go and see the spot where the Emperor used to stand to pray to the heavens).

Good to go on a group tour if you want to see most in the shortest span of time, don't want to bother arranging things yourself and all that. Bad for slackers like me.

2011-12-16T10:03:00.000+08:00

Beijing. Day 8 (Day 9 by itinerary)

Two hours into the flight and my bum hurts. Jetstar has different flight configurations and this flight has an individual monitor for each person. You still don't get entertainment though but I think that you get free earphones.....

Slept a bit on the flight but felt generally lousy. Couldn't even eat much of my breakfast.

Lousy thing was I started getting diarrhea. Lucky thing was it only started as we were landing in SG.

Home Sweet Home.

My lovely sunny warm humid Singapore.

Oh I hear the MRT went kaput.

Heh.

2011-12-15T23:59:00.001+08:00

Beijing. Day 7 (Day 8 by itinerary)

Tianjin today. We checked out of our hotel in the morning and stuff our luggage onto the coach. We will go to Tianjin by the Intercity train that travels at speeds of around 290 km/h. We reach Tianjin in 35 mins. The return trip will be via bus.

AFter arrival in Tianjin, we take a taxi to the food street for lunch.

Tianjin is mainly for shopping and I had long planned to pick up some stuff here. Tidbits... not so much but the arts stuff here is nice and cheap compared to the stuff we're brought around to see in Beijing (jade, silk etc). Spent some time walking up and down 食品街. Every other shop sells the same thing so it doesn't really matter who you buy it from. My mum bought some 麻花 that was not from 十八街 though. Anyway, probably the taste will not differ much.

After lunch, we went to 文化街. This is a much larger area than the food street. My first aim was 泥人张. They have some very nice clay sculptures at reasonable prices.

There was also a 妈祖 temple here and we visited it as well. I kept thinking that there was a large shop with paper cuttings, but we couldn't find it. I think it's all the shops that have some kind of paper cuttings or another instead of one shop like 泥人张.

When you come to Tianjin, there are the 饮食三绝: 狗不理包子 (Goubuli buns), 十八街麻花 (mahua), 耳朵眼炸糕 (fried cakes).
When I last came with my Orchestra conductor, he said that there was also the 文化三绝: 泥人张 (clay figurines), 剪纸 (paper cutting), 笙王 (Maker of Sheng). Whether or not 笙王 is really counted as one of the three... I guess it depends on who you talk to. I believe others will tell you that calligraphy is the third. 笙王 is this person who makes the music instrument 笙. On my last visit to Tianjin, my Orchestra conductor claimed that I had technically seen all the 天津之绝 (Best of Tianjin).

Tianjin is also where my (ex) erhu instructor comes from. And also where some of the best erhu players come from. It's a good place, it is.

After Tianjin, we get back to Beijing, dinner and then we are headed off to a massage parlour. My parents and I didn't want to get a massage, as well as another family so we spent time lounging around their cafe area. I wasn't feeling too good either so it was getting kinda depressing as we waited. At least the cafe was warm!

Finally, after their massage session ended, we headed off to supper which was supposed to be dim sum. The restaurant screwed up and we got the regular dinner menu which really stressed us out cos we weren't really that hungry! Our SG tour leader was very upset and started screwing the restaurant crew over. They managed to get the restaurant to prepare century egg porridge, which was pretty much the only stuff we managed to eat.

We scurried away from the restaurant before they served the fish. It's scary fish I tell you. Same fish every meal.

From the supper place, we headed over to the airport. Our flight would depart at around 0250, so we reached the airport just after midnight. It was cold... and it was a bad idea to open my backpack's buckle outside the airport but I obviously didn't learn from breaking a buckle in Wangfujing... so I opened my backpack to stuff something in and one of the buckles 'tooth' broke. My backpack!! So sad.. if I had the patience to wait till I was in the airport, I would be warmer (less exposure to the winds) and my buckle would still be ok :(.

Oh well. The buckle was still functional.

Check in and prepare for departure back home!

2011-12-14T23:59:00.001+08:00

Beijing. Day 6 (Day 7 by itinerary)

Today we go to 承德 Chengde. This is where the Emperor goes to hide when it is really hot in Beijing. We visit 避暑山庄.

Chengde is around 10 degrees cooler than Beijing, so it was easily subzero temperatures even in the daytime. Along the way, the bus windows that were not facing the sun started frosting up!

As we all know, 乾隆 really liked calligraphy and would write for alot of plaques. This is to show you even Emperors can write a wrong word!

So it's ok that I don't really know how to write Chinese characters ok :P

Apparently, in the days after the fall of the Imperial system, there was looting of the wood off the pillars as the wood as apparently good for warding off bugs. The wood was subsequently repaired with the same material being plugged into the holes created.

We also saw what was probably the world's shortest river, the 热河 (Rehe) . Think it's only about 30 meters long.

It's quite amazing cos everything else is frozen and the water here still runs and there's even fishes! The water is still cold though, it's apparently about 10 degrees.

We also visited 烟雨楼 which is supposedly where they shot some scenes for 环珠格格.

Overall 避暑山庄 is really quite pretty. Chengde itself is a small city with nothing much but 避暑山庄 is probably the one location that brings in the dough.

After lunch, we headed back towards Beijing... and more shopping.

After dinner we went to Wangfujing. The winds were really biting!! I didn't realise it was due to the cold at that time but it was so cold, when I opened my camera bag's buckle one of the teeth broke. Very sad.

Might be due to the cold, but started feeling not so good. Got back to the hotel at almost 2200hrs and we have to pack cos we are checking out in the morning!! frigging intense schedule... I didn't even get my last chance to watch 节振国传奇... :(

2011-12-13T23:59:00.000+08:00

Beijing. Day 5 (Day 6 by itinerary)

Skiing day!! Woohoo!! So excited to be going out to a Ski Resort where we will get to ski although it's on man-made snow. So my parents also decided to try out the skiing and we got ourselves an instructor just for 2 hours. Can't learn much during this time but we probably wouldn't get anywhere if we didn't get an instructor. I suppose all the instructors there come from the North East, primarily Heilongjiang. The one we got has a regular job but comes to Beijing to earn extra from the winter skiing opportunities. Haiz, the things people do just to earn more money. It's so competitive in there, little wonder why they want to come out of China to work too.

It's quite fun chatting with them actually. Especially since the instructor we got didn't quite know about Singapore but he's all like we're all Chinese anyway! He asked me who the President of Singapore was, then decided he wanted to ask about the PM and then we finally figured out he was trying to ask about the Philippines and that terrible excuse of a President who smiles at people's tragedies (recall the hijack of the HK tourist bus and how el presidente handled it with a smirk?).

I was quite disappointed with the afternoon's itinerary. The main reason why I picked this Chan Brothers package was that it included a half day worth of free time for us to spend as we please. I had planned to being my parents to 白云观 (Baiyunguan) which is a rather important Taoist temple in Beijing. When we booked the package, we were told that we would fly in one day in advance due to flight timing of Jetstar. So basically I was given to understand that I would fly in today and tomorrow I would start the itinerary proper as opposed to SIA and Air China flights which start on the day they arrive. My SG tour leader said that was not the case and we were actually short on time to complete the itinerary and thus we could not afford the half day free time. I wanted to suggest that we give up the half day arranged for us after the skiing as that was when the half day was supposed to happen anyway but she was concerned about us leaving the group.

She suggested that we consider not joining on the Chengde leg or the Tianjin Leg instead but I felt my parents would prefer to go to those places rather than half day worth of shopping. Anyways, my mum decided that it was ok not to go to Baiyunguan and we could try to go another time so it was decided that we would stick with the group for the shopping.

Our original departure and arrival dates given when booking the package was 8th Dec depart SG. 17th or 18th Dec arrive SG. When we went for briefing the arrival date was confirmed as 16th. Seriously, Chan Brothers needs to make sure their sales guys know their stuff. If I had known that the half day was iffy... I might not have gone on this group. It's not even that cheap since you also have to add in the tips here and there and the expensive places they bring us to for shopping (think commission).

Anyway the rest of the day was just shopping. Boring.

2011-12-12T23:59:00.000+08:00

Beijing. Day 4 (Day 5 by itinerary)

Today is the big day where we get to do all the physical stuff! We're going off to the Great Wall of China and the Ming Tombs. Alot of walking not to mention a long trip on the bus!

After reaching the Great Wall, it's just quite a cool feeling to be there. You know the old saying “不到长城非好汉”. However this was the second time I was at the Great Wall and did you ever hear that there was another line ? “再去长城是笨蛋”。 So I guess I am 笨蛋, but it's ok!! The only thing is this time round I did not bring my Great Wall Capriccio (长城随想). I listened to it at the top the last time round and I tell you, that feeling... was just majestic. I was at Badaling (八达岭) and this time I went to Juyongguan (居庸关) but I am sure that feeling would have been quite as cool.

This time round though, I didn't go all the way to the top. It's bloody tiring for one, and I was with my parents. My father has a heart condition so he should really exert himself too much. He went as high as the third signal tower though!! With enough time, he could have gone up further but he also did not want to end up being late for the group gathering time.

My last trip, you could get your 好汉证书 at the top, but nowadays you can get it right at the carpark! You don't even have to climb. :P

After lunch, we went to the Ming Tombs. So far, only one of the 13 tombs has been excavated. The other 12 have not yet been opened up since there is currently no technology to prevent disintegration of the items once they have been excavated.

There were 16 Emperors of the Ming dynasty. Two were not buried in Beijing and there was one who's body could not be found as he fled after his seat was usurped and thus there are only 13 tombs in the Ming Tombs site.

We explored the area of Dingling (定陵) and also visited the underground chambers. We were told not to touch the walls, although I have no clue whether it was because the walls would be very cold.. or some other reason. No photos here cos our SG tour leader kept reminding us to leave the cameras in the bus since it was considered a cemetery and "no Chinese takes pictures of cemeteries right?". *cough* I actually do *cough*. But it's ok, she was being kind to remind us to be careful about things that we may not know about so I left the camera in the bus.

On the way out, we will pass by this archway and we would need to proclaim our return. It's kinda fun actually and all you do is sweep your sleeves and then go "我回来了!". It's apparently fine to do it in any language so I guess "I"m back!" will work just as fine as "ただいま！" although I don't think Japanese will gain you much favours in China.

2011-12-11T23:59:00.000+08:00

Beijing. Day 3 (Day 4 by itinerary)

Now when I keep listing Day x by itinerary in the title, it does not mean that our route follows the stated itinerary... it just means that it is considered Day x by the tour whereas I consider it to be one day less because we left Singapore on the 8th but landed here on the 9th so to me the 9th is the first day in Beijing but the tour considers it as Day 2. Minor detail.

Today we hit the first of our shopping joints. 同仁堂（Tong Ren Tang）. You get a lecture on TCM and then a personal consultation. When you choose to purchase medication from them it is minimum a few hundred SGD for each person. I had previously bought some medication from them when I visited 10 years ago, which is why I am prepared to spend money here this time. For my parents, it's ok. Plus they have this really cool cordyceps pills which you can consume very conveniently. You don't have to boil it or anything, just dunk it. That alone is worth the trip to 同仁堂（Tong Ren Tang）. Total bill for this location was almost as much as the trip. Sibeh broke liao.

After the wallet breaking session, we went to visit an actual Siheyuan （四合院）. This particular Siheyuan used to be the abode of an 爱新觉罗 (Aisin Gioro) who is of course related to the Imperial family. Imperial Cousin or Uncle. The host's father bought it back before the cultural revolution and stayed in it until the revolution came along and then the place was confiscated and more families were placed in the Siheyuan. A few years ago, there was a policy to return housing to people mainly initiated by the Olympic projects. I guess the Plympic really did a lot of good to the local populace. So the government gave money to the families staying in the Siheyuan so that they could move out and the host's family reclaimed most of the place except two parts where the tenants refused to move out after receiving the disbursement from the government. Hopefully the tenants move out someday so that the host can finally have their home back entirely.

Oh, the place is worth quite a few millions. In Singapore dollars that is.

very sound advice. Don't smoke.

After lunch we went to 秀水市场。 Bought two overpriced seals for my parents and then just walked around and around and around till dinner which was a western buffet at the top of the same complex.

After dinner we went to view the largest LED in Asia at 北京世贸天皆。It's kinda like a shopping area with low level buildings on both sides of the LED. If you cannot imagine that, then think of Bugis Junction. Bugis Junction is basically a bunch of streets closed off to form a shopping centre. So the area where the LED is, is somewhat like one walking street with similar buildings on both sides and the LED overhead.

They have a very apt slogan. 全北京向上看。 You really have to look up!

2011-12-10T23:59:00.000+08:00

Beijing. Day 2 (Day 3 by itinerary)

Today's locations include........ The Bird's Nest stadium and the Temple of Heaven.

The stadium gets converted to a skating rink in winter and I must say that it is kinda cool to see the way the supporting pillars intersect with each other. Just a tad disappointed to not see where they had the Olympic fire. Our tour guide even had us taking fake cheering photos in the audience seats. Cheap thrill but what the heck :P

In the afternoon, we went to the Temple of Heaven. I know my mum really wants to come to this place so it was an exciting location. The famed building where not a single nail was used.

Unfortunately, due to the time restrictions I could not bring my mother to the spot where the Emperor used to stand while he prayed to the heavens. I went there before but I was also hoping to bring my mum there. I guess that's one of the disadvantages of following groups. We had some free time but we were told not to exit any doors in case we left the park.. so we didn't dare be adventurous... plus I doubt that we could have made it there and back in the time given.

Still, I like the older locations like this so.. not bad! Maybe next time.

After dinner we watched another show. Legend of Kungfu. It was in English so I was stunned when they started speaking in English.

2011-12-09T23:59:00.004+08:00

Beijing. Day 1 (or Day 2 by itinerary reckoning)

Today we go to Tiananmen Square and the Forbidden City!

We landed past midnight in Beijing and was greeted by the local guide. We were immediately hustled to our hotel and I reckon it was at least 0230 before we started getting ready to sleep. Morning call was supposed to be at 0700 but my father couldn't sleep and eventually my mum joined him and I couldn't sleep by 0600. Cranky start to the day.

I was hoping to get a photo of the sculpture near the Mao Ze Dong mausoleum at Tiananmen, but unfortunately our group didn't go near there. That's the problem with group tours. Haiz.

This is the sculpture that I wanted to get a pic of. This is not my pic. :(

So we went through the Tiananmen Square, and then into the Forbidden City. There is so much history to be learnt in Beijing. It's a great place to be, just maybe not in winter lol. Temperatures are between 5 and -5 degrees and it's quite dry as compared to Singapore where it is more humid.

One of the things that left a deep impression on me the first time I visited the Forbidden City 10 years ago where the large cauldrons that had multiple scratch marks on them. They used to be coated in gold but when the western powers came into China, they scratched away the gold just as they took away whatever treasures that could be removed.

A visit to the Forbidden City is one that reminds you of the grandeur of old and the weakness of a nation that led to trampling by others.

In the afternoon we went to Yiheyuan, the Summer Palace. This is where the Emperor would spend most of the hot days in Beijing. Nice place. We also saw the area where Guangxu lived, it's quite sad actually. Being an Emperor but under house arrest. His personal space was not larger than a 3 rm HDB since the side house in his Siheyuan were blocked off by Cixi.

There is a wall of bricks just behind the door.

Following that we had dinner. Our guide kept emphasising how we would be having a variety of food throughout our trip and that we are not used to the Northern tastebuds so they have specially instructed the restaurants to use less oil and less salt. Oh dearie me. I'm no typical modern Singaporean. I'm still of the era where we live by oil and die by salt.

At night we watched a performance called 金面皇朝 (Golden Mask Dynasty). Not bad, it was quite nice except that the theatre itself was cold and we had to keep our down jackets on... so I have no clue whatsoever how the performers were able to perform in that temperature! Plus they had a huge flooding scene where the entire stage flooded, so I tell you.. all those performers are considered heroes and heroines!

2011-12-08T23:59:00.000+08:00

Beijing. D Day.

So today is the day that we leave Singapore for Beijing! I'm so excited to be able to bring my parents to Beijing. My main objective for booking us onto a group tour is so that it will be convenient for my parents. They won't have to walk too much (my mum's legs aren't too good sometimes) and hopefully with the guided tour, we can better appreciate the places we go to.

I've been to Beijing before but I'm excited to see what we'll experience with Chan Brothers.

Our flight departs in the evening from terminal 1. It's interesting to note that the passengers taking Jetstar queue up to board very early. I have no idea why since we all have seat numbers on our boarding passes. There were announcements made to ask the people to sit down and wait for boarding which will start with families with elderly and children and then go by seat numbers (which is the usual) but still the queue did not shorten. These people were adamant! The queue only shortened when there was an announcement made that the flight would be delayed, and only shortened by about 15% at that.

It's really interesting to take a budget flight. Almost everything except your seat belt and the toilet comes extra. In fact, since our airfare includes the meal... I felt like a premium passenger. You could rent their Video on Demand system or you could buy ear pieces to listen in to the 'latest' movie shown on the big screen. Said latest movie was Remington Steele. With Pierce Brosnan looking like he was 28. No kidding. I brought my own entertainment though so I didn't shell out on either options. Only thing was I forgot to bring a book as well.

6 hours to Beijing. :D Flight lands past midnight local time.

2011-12-07T18:29:00.001+08:00

Beijing. D - 0.

So, I was determined to go overseas in December. Determined I tell you. Why? I have almost the whole of December off from work and I figured that I should not spend it all at home. Can't waste the entire month right?

In case anyone wonders why I got such a good deal, having such long leave during this period... let me explain.

This is NOT a good deal. I did not intend to clear so much leave in December. I originally wanted to clear some leave in June but it was not to be. As such, I was forced (Forced I tell you! It was definitely not my choice to be on leave for so long during the end of year school holidays!) to schedule all my leave in December. I mean, if you can't let me clear in June when I just ended my studies (best time cos I don't have work commitment) ... then I have to clear when I am next available.

Going overseas at this time is both cold and expensive. Not really my first choice but at least I get to go leave!!

So anyway I was initially looking at going overseas with my parents to Hong Kong, free and easy. Then, my father didn't seem too keen on going to Hong Kong, so I decided to try looking for a group tour package to Beijing. My father was interested in going to Beijing, so I decided to pick a package with Chan Brothers because they had a half day free for our own activities. My original intention for Beijing was to go there on our own and get a local guide... but I figured that perhaps we could try going with Chan Brothers.

Paid around 3.3k for 3 pax 8 day Beijing - Chengde - Tianjin, fly via Jetstar. Originally wanted to depart on 12th Dec via Air China since I had a performance on the 11th, but during booking I forgot about the performance and booked for the 8th instead. Oh well. The person who was handling the booking had no clue that they had a flight depart SG on the 12th. I had to tell him they had that flight. Haiz.

Anyway, immediately after booking the package on that day, we went to Winter Time to buy some winter clothing. Spent almost $600 there that day. My pockets are wailing!!

Since then, my parents (especially my mum) has been shopping around for winter stuff. I went to Chinatown twice with my mum just for long johns. My mum has also been quite unhappy that I was not preparing stuff for the trip early enough. I never pack earlier than the day before, but my mum was going on about how her friend's daughters are already packed for a HK trip days before departure.

They kiasu lah.... I tell you the day before and the day itself they still have to be packing. You still have the toiletries and all those stuff you still have to use before departure leh..? Anyway, my mum's definition of last minute packing seems to be the day before departure. I say she ain't seen last minute packing unless the packing is done 2 hrs before being required to be at the airport.

So anyways, most of the packing is done today. Most of our clothing goes into one big luggage and then I'm gonna bring my backpack along for extra space if required. My chargers and stuff will go into the backpack too. I hate packing but when I wanna pack, no one can beat a Teochew at stuffing things I tell you.

Some of the cute stuff my mum wants to bring includes the packaging box for each of the three thermos flasks that we are bringing. Argue not, just stuff it in.

2011-08-23T00:32:00.003+08:00

High Key Every Day

It's been just over a month since I started classes in full swing. It's tiring no doubt. From my work place to my class venues.... I really have to leave my work place by 1720 or else I would be ridiculously late.

Dinner is usually a quick grab of something. On Mondays and Wednesday, it is likely to be something from 7-11. Tuesday is more humane, I get to sit down at the canteen for 15 mins to eat chicken rice. The same routine on Thursday gets me late for class but I have not much choice.

I was headed for practice last Friday when I had the time to sit down to dinner at Ajisen Ramen and I really had a good thought about how cool it was that I finally had time to sit down and have food that I didn't need to shovel down.

The weeks been passing me by in such a way that I lose track of schedules. I just need to hang on till November and all this will settle down!! However, November will be the Big Storm before the Calm.

The weekend of 3rd and 4th September is gonna be such a busy one. Got two shows to watch and one to put up.

Also been getting in touch with friend that are over a decade old. Haiz, now I really feel old since I have lots of people that I know for over a decade.

Other stuff that I still have planned: Erhu Lessons (maybe), Beginner French (Confirm, just waiting for time), Vocal Lessons (Waiting for time and $$), Piano lessons (maybe).

2011-06-19T22:41:00.002+08:00

The Week After

And so, it has been one week since I went back to work. Yes, I did not go on leave. It certainly sucks when you have looked forward to something for so long and then it went poof into thin air just because someone said something and maybe didn't even mean it seriously.

If you still can't imagine that... just imagine that you are walking along the streets with temperatures of about 40 degrees and then you think that when you reach the end of the street, you are going to get an ice cream from the ice cream vendor that you see. And so you reach the vendor, buy the ice cream and suddenly someone snatches it away from you and what do you know, that was the very last ice cream the vendor had.

Anyways, I shall now plan to clear all my leave in December because from July to September, I have lessons every night and then till October I have lessons 4 nights a week and then till November I will have lesson twice a week. How to take leave and go overseas like that? So no choice, December it shall be although I don't really want to go overseas in winter.

Hopefully I can get my friend to join me in French classes too, somewhere around September. hehehe, gonna be a really really packed second half of 2011 for me!!

2011-05-24T01:26:00.002+08:00

Leave, Leave, I wanna go on Leave.

Even my mum has gotten to the stage where she asks "Why are you always having problems with your leave?"

Actually to be fair, I think I actually have it pretty good as it is. I can almost freely determine when I want to take leave, but subject to modifications and approval of course. Just that quite a few times, I've had to adjust my leave for some work or another but I'm sure everyone out there has met such stuff before.

Anyway I had so looked forward to taking some leave at the end of my Advanced Diploma course to 'reward' myself. Slack around etc. Original plan was to go to Beijing with my friend but then my friend cannot take leave because it is the June holidays after all and parents with children would like to take leave to bring their children overseas and we surely cannot block them since we are single and can go any time of the year.

Anyways I've had a bit of an issue with my workplace ion the issue of leave. I asked if I could take leave for 2 to 3 weeks after 10th of June and I was told to deconflict with Colleague A. I asked why I needed to deconflict with him, and that was when I was told I was taking over him. Aww... how sweet to inform me of this at the juncture when I want to take leave.

So I checked with A and ... A has already booked his leave for late June. That means I can only go on two weeks of leave. Wow. Very efficient deconflicting here. Not much choices anyway. That's fine though, but then I was also expected to go back to work to take over A's branch in the two weeks of leave that I was gonna take. I'm so appreciative of the fact that they felt that I might be too bored during my leave and thus need some other activities planned for me. You know, because I so wasn't planning to go overseas.

Subsequently, I made a bit of noise, yadda yadda and got told that yes I can go for my three weeks leave. I then happily sussed out some trips and was planning to go on a trip with my parents... but I didn't want to book anything till my leave application was confirmed as approved. I didn't want to be the type who say "but I booked already".

And so, goondu me waited to confirm and now the latest is that I am allowed to go on the leave IF I attend a briefing before I go on leave. One of my colleagues has also super efficiently scheduled a briefing for this Thursday. Unfortunately, I am still on attachment for my Advanced diploma but it seems that no one quite noticed that. I guess they think that I can just waltz out of the attachment, and go wherever.

I think I should just forget about the leave and instead, go back to piss some people off.

2011-05-23T17:56:00.002+08:00

A1 Crispy Puffs

I usually only eat curry puffs from one place only, and it ain't OCK. I don't think OCK is even worth the $1.30 (or is it $1.20?) compared to the curry puff I favour. I like curry puffs from Tip Top Curry Puff. Although it has gotten less tasty in recent years (not to mention more expensive), it still remains the best curry puff I've ever eaten. I have to say that I have not gone around Singapore tasting every single puff lah, so I am definitely no puff authority.

Anyways, today I decided to buy an A1 puff. I had decided to go against my usual practice and buy a non tip top puff. After all, you never know what you are missing right?

So here, is my personal opinion on the A1 crispy puff. Benchmark puff is, naturally, Tip Top Curry Puff. I will comment on the following areas: crust, meat, flavour.

Crust
Bland. That's all I can say. I love Tip Top curry puff's crust because it has a buttery flavour to it, although nowadays, even their crust has fallen in standards. Still A1's crust has nothing on Tip Top's. Not by a long shot by ICBM.

Meat
In English, the name of the puff is Crispy Curry Puff (w/egg) so I guess it is acceptable that you can hardly find any chicken meat in it. Yet in Chinese characters there is the word for chicken. Anyways, I personally prefer a puff in which I can bite into chicken meat chunks. CHUNKS, not mush. Could only find one small piece, I think.

Flavour
Very mushy. Some people love it, I don't. As previously mentioned, I prefer to be able to bite into the meat chunks. If there wasn't a paper bag to contain the puff, my puff would have fallen all over my clothes and the floor. And egg. The egg was kinda lost in there.... The puff was more spicy than flavoured with curry. Yes, I believe that curry does not have to be overly spicy. Curry and Chilli are not siamese twins.

Granted that these days, even Tip Top's puff has lost it's standard in flavour (I believe that is due to a change in the recipe in order to gain the Halal certificate, what a shame) but Tip Top's puffs flavour still beats A1's hands, feet, nose, hair, teeth and whatever else down.

And A1's puff cost $1.50 to Tip Top's $1.30, although A1's puff is larger. Though I still think Tip Top's is more worth it cos it has more meat.

2011-05-15T02:58:00.002+08:00

Last Month of Advanced Diploma Course!!

And it has finally arrived!! By sheer blundering and what not (not to mention the great help I received from my classmates) I have finally arrived at the last month of this course. This course has given me great grief and anguish but it also let me meet some of the best people I've known.

I just hope that I pass all my papers (still waiting on the results of two papers).

I probably won't be able to attend my examinations at UniSim AGAIN. This is getting so irritating. My lecturer asked me how much this all cost so I told her about 1 to 2 k each module, with 4 modules being about $6 to 8k. I wish I could keep that money in my pocket. I could go travel to so many places.

After this course, I plan to take a vacation. For now the plan is Beijing. Had some hiccups with my leave (was expected to take only two weeks cos it clashed with someone else's leave and also within that two weeks I was further expected to go back to take over a department. Lame.) but that seems to have been resolved now, so I can happily plan my vacation! As much as people think that going on studies is a break from work, it's not exactly a holiday. It's been some time since I last had tonnes of deadlines bearing down on me.

I would actually have preferred to defer my vacation until I completed my isotretinoin course, but as it is, it is safer to take the vacation now as one never knows when one can next take a break. If I have to take the same modules for a third semester, I think I might apply to defer my UniSim studies for one semester. Just getting a bit sick of the same old thing.

Ah, I should just go to bed now cos I'm starting to feel hungry and that's not good.

2011-05-03T01:19:00.002+08:00

Hustings!!

And so the much anticipated General Election 2011 has finally arrived. It seems as if everyone has been waiting for this since last year. I have been waiting for this day too!

I can't say that I dislike my MP, but sometimes, I wonder why is it that I could settle something with two phonecalls when two of his letters to NEA and Town Council didn't work? Otherwise he's not too bad.

Almost everyone has a choice this time round. All I hope is that everyone makes a choice because he / she wants to vote for that party and not because they don't like the other guy. Yet, that may be exactly what I am doing. I may not be voting because I want to vote for that party. It is likely to be because I prefer not to vote for the other guy. We'll see when the time comes.

Until 6th May, we're all gonna have a field day with the hustings. I'm still disappointed that I haven't caught a full Teochew speech this time round but I guess we all need to grow out of that!! If this goes one, Teochew is gonna be the 'opposition language' or something!

At least this is something to get me through another week of boring attachment. I also have 2 assignments to complete and 4 exams coming up soon.

/cry

2011-04-20T23:35:00.002+08:00

Where Did All The Time Go?

Oh yes, I have forgotten once again about my blog. In fact, I'm only back here today cos someone actually msned me about the lack of updates on my blog.

The reasons for the lack of update is as follows:

1) I plurk / twitter / FB too much :P

2) I'm lazy

3) My life is boring

4) I would just whine on here anyway.

Anyways, I've finally finished the academic portion of my Advanced Diploma course. We're onto the attachment portion which I absolutely detest. I have to get through it though or else I can't graduate. The best part was that my lecturer had told me on monday that she hadn't gotten the approval from the hospital that I was supposed to go to for my OJT, to let me get my OJT completed there. Why do I have this problem? Cos I do not belong to any hospital and so the school has to find one for me to go to.

Given that it took the school 4 weeks to tell me to write a letter in to request for leave to attend SIM exams..... this might be a bit of a challenge to pull off. Then again this is to their detriment if they don't get it done right so I think at the end of the day it'd be ok. I was first told that I would be going to this hospital for OJT about 3 or 4 months ago.

Although I am now done with exams for my advanced diploma, I still have my SIM exams to go for and I think I'm in super big trouble this time. It's been so long since I last attended lessons... I can be prepared to fail...

Anyway for the rest of the year I think it will be really packed. There are so many courses that I want to take. French (cos I hate not being able to pronounce French words), maybe erhu again, maybe piano, possibly vocal lessons (if I have the money), makeup. Argh... too many things and not quite enough money.

Oh and I haven't got my 2B down yet. Had pain in my hands so took a bit of time off 2B lessons and then got lazy cos school was a pain. My RTT is expiring soon.. so I guess next time I will only take RTT when I need to, instead of before.

Well, that's about it for now I guess. I still need to get my uniform rinsed up and wake up in time for AM shift tomorrow.

I hate attachment :(

2010-11-29T17:17:00.003+08:00

Student and Lecturer... Different You Know.

So the other day, on my way to school, I was mildly engrossed in some thoughts and walked slower than usual. As such I ended up in class 3 mins past the hour.

First off, my course coordinator asked me why I was late. I was surprised by the way she asked it so my answer was "Sometimes 0900, sometimes 0910. I haven't decided yet."

"No, it's 0900." she said.

Now some background information on the timing. Our classes are supposed to start on the hour. However for the Diploma studentsm their classes start 10 mins past the hour so they essentially have a 10 mins break after every lesson.

What does this mean? All other lecturers, apart from our course coordinators, start the lesson at 10 mins past the hour. So a lesson scheduled for 0900, will start at 0910 instead.

I am not saying that I was right to be late for 3 mins, especially since it was mentioned that even being late for 1 min is considered being late. That's fair. However, so can we now conclude that all those other lecturers have been at least 10 mins late? Some come at 15 mins past the hour, so 15 mins late? What about the lessons that get suddenly cancelled? Student's time not worth anything I guess.

Student handphone must be switched off, lecturer phone very important no need to switch off. his is another person though, not mu coordinator. My coordinator is usually very nice and friendly.

Anyway, what to do? I was late mah.

The next lesson with that coordinator, I was definitely on time. In fact, I was early since I was already in school. What time did she arrive? 6 mins past the hour.

'nuff said.

2010-11-05T16:29:00.003+08:00

My Thoughts on the Learner Bike Accident

Days after the accident had occurred, my trawlings on the internet digs up post after bashing post on either the school or the gender of the trainee.

Now, I realise that I am probably presenting a defensive stance towards the issue but if people can bash, I can say my piece.

On the part of the school. I am not saying that the school was absolutely blameless but is the amount of bashing equitable to what they should have been expected to do? Whilst this incident showed that the existing safety measures could be challenged, would many people have questioned the adequacy of the safety measures implemented before this incident happened? I would not know the answer, because these are just questions in my mind.

Would a reasonable man, asked to inspect the building and safety measures, have declared them as adequate or inadequate?

Still, I understand all the comments on the safety measures and indeed they are not that nasty. What I find truly nasty and irresponsible are the comments on the learner's gender. Do they mean to tell me that by being a female, she deserved to crash and burn? Ok, she didn't burn but I certainly do not believe that it was a matter of fact that she should have deserved it just because she is a female. This is coming from someone who is a supporter of the school of thought "Females are a special breed of drivers" so I guess that says a lot.

Would a male trainee have fared better under the circumstances? Maybe, probably. Then again we would never know for sure since we cannot ethically conduct trials to measure the significance of gender influences in such conditions.

Would the accident have been less serious if it was not in a multi level building? Maybe the bike could have crashed through the fence and the learner would have ended up on a busy road. Now that would have been seriously nasty. Yet again we can't know for sure.

If we cannot know so many things for sure, we should probably stop badmouthing and bashing. We should instead give the unfortunate person our blessings for a swift and complete recovery.

2010-10-22T23:36:00.003+08:00

Back to School. Again.

Yup, I know many of my friends are just simply confused about what I am studying. In fact, when they ask me how my studies are, I will invariably ask them which one?

I had just started my Adv Dip in Nursing course on the 18th of Oct. It's back to my Alma Mater after all these years but all I can say is that this time, I have been aggravated so much, the slightest little provocation can draw great ire from me. Anyways, let's just hope things get better from now.

1st week of my Adv Dip course and I am more broke than when I was working. Of course, one of the main causes is the brand spanking new HTC Desire phone that I had bought since I am now free to carry a camera handphone for the next 8 months. That set me back a good $298.

Also had to pay for the uniforms since we would have field visits and attachments. We had a choice of pant suit or dress. I picked the dress option since it was only $35 per piece. The pant suit option would have cost $70. So for uniform, I paid $105. I would also need to buy some new shoes to go with it.

I haven't bought any textbooks yet, but if I did that would cost me easily around $300. I'm too broke to afford that now and I don't know if I can claim the textbook expenses (my colleague had trouble it seems) so I won't be buying any if I can help it.

I no longer get free lunches now. Well, come to think of it, I usually don't eat the free lunch anyway so it shouldn't make that much of a difference. However, my meal expenditure is still increased due to the greater variety of food available. We really can't have our cake and eat it...

Also, so far I believe I have already contributed about $40 to photocopy fees. So many notes to pay for, I wonder how many trees we have killed in the first week alone. Not to mention that they seem to expect us to have a laptop or a netbook. To be clear, lessons are not very electronic. It's still very much paper based but it seems like a laptop or netbook is expected. Don't ask me why. I don't think that buying a netbook or laptop for this course is a good idea because it is only required for watching some videos which they have put on the intranet instead of the internet. I will never understand why I supposedly cannot watch the videos from home. Luckily, I have a netbook that was given to me by Singnet, so I don't have to spend money on this.

I'm also concurrently doing my degree in SIM. It's really crazy now. Some days I have 10 hours worth of classes... it's really terrible. Additionally, I informed my Adv Dip coordinator of my degree exams dates and she asked me to postpone my exams. I just asked her how I should go about doing it.

Unfortunately, if push comes to shove and I have to miss my exams to clock my attendance for the Adv Dip, then I shall have to do that since the Adv Dip is sponsored but the degree is self paid.

Let's see how things goes.

2010-09-18T12:30:00.003+08:00

After the First Term

So the first term had just ended last week. I have to say that I really could work harder, as in I don't spend that much time revising my texts.

Met up with my classmates two weekends ago to discuss an assignment. I think that was the first time in my life that I actually went out of school compounds for a discussion. And probably the first time I looked forward to a discussion lol.

The one thing I have with the assignments is that some assignments are due before the face to face session for all the units required in that assignment is completed. I know it's all adult learning and all, but I still find it kind of odd. The only way that I can see to work around this is really to start working on your assignment way before the sessions and start spamming the tutor through email.

It's also hard when some of the modules are based in stuff that I don't have a foundation in and I find the concepts abstract. Seriously, I need to throw in some severely heavy work if I'm looking to be able to read and analyse Chinese texts. In 6 weeks. Haiz. I guess just gotta have to make it work.

So for this semester, the modules I am doing includes the following:
Chinese Reading and Comprehension
Chinese Writing
Introduction to Chinese Linguistics
Understanding English Grammar

I have already finished the seminars for Chinese Reading and Comprehension (It's tough. Abstract. I have not much clue how to answer the questions) and Understanding English Grammar (I was never good in grammar). I'm still working on those two and I have two more modules worth of seminars coming up. It's all looking like a Uno Stacko tower!!

Can one, can one. Can do it one. Haiz.

Just had the seminar for Introduction to Chinese Linguistics last night. Seems quite interesting at them moment and my ego got stoked because I always disturbed my friends with the following line. I speak 广东话 (guangdong hua) but I don't speak Cantonese."

Many just go WTH. It's the SAME.

Actually, it's really not. I speak Teochew and Teochew can also be considered a form of 广东话 (guangdong hua) and my attention seeking ego was so glad that my definition is linguistically correct!

Next will be the NYP Adv Dip. I do not know whether they will be offering me a spot until the end of this month but I don't think I really care about it anymore. It is extremely aggravating. I will not understand how anyone things offering spots three weeks before a 8 month full time course commences is actually a workable idea, but I guess I might have some erroneous concepts of society and they way it runs. I should have thought that when the registration closes in mid August, the course offer can be made by early to mid September.

Then again I had also thought that the course commencement date can be set before the registration opened in early August. Obviously, it was unreasonable for me to expect that.

Well, if they don't offer me the course, I guess it's also better cos I hate having to find a surety so that I can go for a course. Not to mention I need two. Grrr.

2010-08-03T23:58:00.002+08:00

First Lessons Over!

And so, I guess I have stepped into another phase of life. I guess I could call myself a part time Uni student now? It's not NUS or NTU but it's still something of an upgrade to what I had previously. Whether this upgrade will turn out to be useful or not will be another thing entirely. Who knows, this piece of paper that I may earn might turn out to be totally useless.

My very first lesson was was conducted last Friday. Like I said, it's not NTU nor NUS but I'd be lying through my teeth if I said that I did not feel the slightest twinge of excitement as I walked through campus to look for my lecture theatre. We had rather small numbers for the LT though. I believe there are at least two tutorial groups for the module (Understanding English Grammar) and we have a fair number of students from the English Language and Literature course joining us. Grammar didn't seem so bad after all in the first lesson.

Yesterday was a Chinese module. Chinese reading and comprehension (中文阅读与鉴赏). Seriously, after I applied for my 4 modules this semester, I began wondering whatever I had gotten myself into. 3 Chinese modules in a semester can't be that good an idea since I haven't done much Chinese writing since my 'O' Levels.

The lesson was kinda challenging because our tutor would pose questions that you could only answer if you had been reading Chinese Literature. You don't even have to be an avid reader but you just had to at least have some surface knowledge. Yet, that is not as worrisome as the assignment that we have coming up.

The assignment is supposed to be due on the 15th of Aug. It covers Unit 1,2,3 and 4 . Last night, we covered Unit 1. The tutor said we also covered a bit of Unit 4 but the thing is, the assignment is due the day after the 2nd session. I have no clue how we are going to cover all 4 units by the next session and complete the assignment the day after... but I guess there is no choice.

The only consolation that I have is that the next modules that I have coming up are English modules. I don't think they will be easy either but at least I don't have to wonder how to write the words.

It's all quite exciting. I hope this excitement will bring me along further. Many a times we choose not to do certain things because we expect failure. I know that very well. If you never did it, you can't have failed it right? I had so much more to talk about this thought, but I don't want to rush out the words. Perhaps someday I shall sit and type it all out.

For now, I shall think about the classes that I need to attend!

2010-07-11T23:24:00.002+08:00

Nigerian Scams do work!

Alright. You know what I am talking about? Those email scams that claims to want to give you money due to some reason or another, but then in the end con you of your money? Anyone ever wondered why anyone would fall for those? Well, my friend did and in a way I did too.

Although these scams are not necessarily all from Nigeria, I just call them Nigerian scams because it's the easiest way to identify it.

It was funny. I had recently resolved to never lend people money (not the $10, $20 type lah) for any frigging excuse (this debt that debt) and then my friend ends up calling me for a loan. Claims that her uncle needs money urgently due to a friend's business problem. My other friend and I lent her some money, although it wasn't enough for her. She called the lawyer who was dealing with the case and settled the rest through negotiations with the lawyer.

The case did not sound logical at this point in time as there were some weird parts. For example she was saying that she needed money to pay for a cheque to release funds or some crap like that. However, we didn't probe that much at that time because she is the type that comes across as not really knowing what happens in the world (she can't even download avg without me giving her a direct URL leading straight to the download page) and not making much sense is quite normal for her.

This time, this proved to be our downfall. Ok, maybe downfall is a bit strong.

A few days later, she called up again and asked what is the fastest method of tranferring overseas funds into a local account. I helped her check and then I told her that I hoped the funds would come through smoothly although I had an inkling that it wouldn't.

Two more days passed and she called up to say that she needed funds to secure some certificate from IMF to release the transfer of funds as the funds was stopped by IMF. I was suspicious of this but as there was something else going on at my workplace I didn't have a chance to check it out before I stupidly transferred some more money to her. I was probably thinking that as long as she didn't get the full sum, she can't do anything anyway and the money would still be safe with her. At this point she had admitted that she had lied about her uncle needing the money (KNS!!) and that it was her colleague who needed it. Said colleague was an item with her (I was like since when did she get a boyfriend!!??) and were contemplating marriage once he gets his inheritance from UK and migrates to Singapore.

This is where I should have suspected another lie but I didn't, sounds like a scam but I couldn't figure out was why they would actually get to know someone in person to scam them. Waste of time and resources imho.

I ran a check on the net when I had time and I confirmed that it was a scam. Sheesh. So pissed with myself for getting scammed too. SMS'ed my friend that the cert was a false claim but she had already transferred the money over. Figures. They just want to get every cent they can ASAP.

Long story short, pulled my friend out for a meeting with my other friend and we managed to pull out the entire story. Bloody hell it was a typical Nigerian scam. She got to know the person through email. *Everything falls in place now*. Said person likes her and wants to come to Singapore to be with her. Wants to transfer inheritance to her name so that there will be lower taxes on the inheritance. Along the way hiccups happen and she needs money.

Yes, I know some people will tell me that maybe my friend is the scammer. I don't deny that she might possibly be the one scamming us but to go through such a lot of trouble to scam us of a bit of money and risking friendship over it? I dunno. Anyway, according to what I know her total loss is about 64.5k. Heck I wish I could save money like her. Her personal savings were somewhere over 55k. All gone. To a email boyfriend of 1 month.

Tried to convince her to make a police report. She did not want to, but finally agreed. At the station she changed her mind as she was worried that she might lose her job over this. I got so pissed I didn't even want to talk to her.

I'm mostly pissed cos I got conned by her lies. Not at her, but at myself. Bloody hell, I need to be more hardhearted!! This will impact my financial / study plans for the rest of the year because I didn't have much to begin with..... Probably lucky cos then I won't have much to be conned out of too.

I just wanted to post this because... YES, Nigerian scams REALLY DO WORK!!! They don't even have to work on you. They just have to work on your friend if you are kindhearted enough to help friends!

Be kind and helpful to others, but be wary and take care of yourself first :(

2010-07-10T19:04:00.001+08:00

UniSim Orientation!!

OMG, I can't believe that after so many years, I am going for orientation again. I was initially worried that the orientation would be some crappy stuff like what goes on at NUS and NTU (no offense kiddies but I'm too old to play like that ok?).

I initially set a ridiculously early time to leave home and as usual, I was later than that lol. I wanted to arrive early to collect my course materials and the map on the UniSim website is not particularly details as to how you should walk to Blk 82 of Ngee Ann Polytechnic. When I arrived at NP, I decided to walk in through NP instead of through SIM. Surely you can get to a NP block within NP right?? Yep. Except that there was some construction going on and I had to detour... detour.. detour.... and when I finally found Blk 82 I was like "Sheesh!!! That is SIM HQ right there with a gate to Blk 82 so Blk 82 is almost bloody next to the main road. Bleah at least I got some exercise out of it!!"

Anyway I still ended up in SIM early. Walked around a bit to get orientated to the area. Can't say that I'm familiar with it but I guess I should be able to not get myself lost in there for hours. Checked out the washrooms (VERY IMPORTANT!!), not too bad. At least they don't seem to stink although I am not sure if it is because it was because it was an orientation Saturday lol.

Checked out Popular, the files with the SIM logo was definitely cheaper. I might consider buying them although I think I might end up not using them lol.

Got a thumb drive as a door gift when registering for the orientation. Not bad lol. I love freebies. Especially freebies that are actually useful (I don't need anymore travel adapters, travel locks, flashlights and stuff ok?). Also got a free messenger bag later on in the day! During the welcome address, the acting Dean kinda forgot my programme. Got to say I was a little sad on that but then later she came back on to specially address the fact that she forgot about our programme. I guess that makes it all A-OK!

After the School's welcome address, we were split into programmes for more detailed briefs. Our programme is quite small compared to the other programmes. I wonder if the BA Tamil Language and Literature programme is smaller than us or not. We might be smaller than they are! According to our programme head, this was the smallest intake so far. Only 28 students. I'm not sure if that is a good thing though..... plus I think NTU is coming up with a similar programme. Oh well, anyway I won't be able to qualify for the NTU intake and I'm not exactly expecting that this degree (should I manage to complete it) is well recognised.

I have a colleague who is unhappy with UniSim because his wife to be took a degree course in education and it is not recognised for employment by MOE. I would say that I wouldn't have expected to get a private degree and expect MOE to employ me because there is this place called NIE. Of course, if the degree is totally unrecognised by anyone, it'd be quite sad but one's gotta be prepared before you start the course, not find out after. For example, I don't think I will be able to find a job at the MFA based on this qualification, but I guess the skills I learn will be useful. I sure hope at least the skills are properly taught even though the paper qualification may not count for much.

Right now, I'm kinda excited for school to start but I think that halfway through the first semester I will start to feel sian of studying. I'm not quite the studying kind.

I am also worried about my Chinese standards. 3 out of 4 modules in my first semester are Chinese modules. I'm so worried!! It seems like there are some other people in my cohort who are also worried, but I think they should have a better standard of Chinese writing than I do. My writing sucks. I also found out that I'm amongst the 'not so old' in my cohort. I didn't quite expect that lol. I guess what my programme head says is true. The younger ones tend to prefer Business related topics instead.

For now, I hope I can keep up the enthusiasm for as long as possible. This is costing me almost $3000 for this semester alone!!!

2010-07-05T22:15:00.002+08:00

*Cough* Exercise plan! *Cough*

I've got a friend who wants to go up Mt Fuji. I'm sure I've mentioned her before. Unfortunately she is in no condition to do it anytime soon. She says that she wants to lose weight, but I don't think that it's gonna get started anytime soon.

So I was thinking that I should encourage her, but then I have no moral high ground to stand either lol. As such I am trying to convince myself to exercise regularly. It's gonna be hard. I have incredibly high inertia.

On Saturday, I bought a Nike +. I used it for the very first time last night. I didn't calibrate it, but it says that I ran about 3.46KM. Of course that is inclusive of a 1 KM or so walk at the beginning but I guess a 2.4 isn't that bad? Anyway that Nike + gadget is so cool :D

Let's hope I can keep this up!!

Perhaps I should try to blog about it. I have an online friend who blogs about her weight management plans. She says it helps her to keep on track.

2010-06-06T17:19:00.002+08:00

Budget Cut!~!

Urgh. So from this month, my monthly available budget has dropped from miserable to almost non existent. I've paid up for my Semester 1 modules at UniSim. Although I have paid for the fees in one lump sum, I will be breaking it up into monthly 'installments' for ease of accounting in my monthly budget. If not I think I will end up overspending by the end of the year.

Originally I had intended to split it into 6 payments by semester, July to December but I decided that for the first semester I will give myself a 1 one month bonus! So the first payment gets split into 7 installments. Still comes up to about $350 a month.... Sigh.

Hopefully my mum's shop gets settled so I can reduce the monthly allowance I give her. That'll make it a bit easier as well.

I also cancelled two Ace insurance policies (small ones) but ended up buying an accident policy for my mum from AIA. Insurance is really a significant part of my monthly budget :(

If I get to go for the Adv Dip in Nursing in Oct, then I will skip the Jan to June semester at UniSim, thus giving myself a few more months to scrimp up some money.... or else, if worse comes to worse, I will just have to take less modules.

Although it will be tough on the pocket, this will be good (I really hope so). I think it is better to pick up a skillset that is different from what I already have. I have languished long enough. Time to up the pace just a little bit. It seems that some of the most popular questions at my workplace these days include "Are you going to do further studies?" (This is due to the new manpower structure that now allows us to be paid for qualifications higher than Diploma. However, I doubt I will get higher pay because my degree is irrelevant) and "Have you thought about leaving?"

Regardless of whether I am leaving or not, I think it is important to upgrade ourselves!! I've just been way to lazy (and broke) so far.

I am currently fairly upset at NYP PDC's handling of Adv Dip enrolment. They will only offer a place to you 3 weeks before the course starts. Now that's not the worst part. The worst part is that they do not even have a firm date for course start. I understand that the course may not run if there is not enough capacity but at least having a date on which it will start IF there is enough capacity will facilitate planning of schedules right? It's an eight month full time course, how the heck would I be able to plan my leave if I don't even know when it is supposed to start? This is also one of the reasons why I decided to just go ahead and start my degree course. I've had enough of the uncertainty from NYP PDC. I got a life to live. Somewhat.

Also, the person handling enquiries was very insistent on our sending in the MOE subsidy form. I explained that my company would be paying the full fees and it does not make sense for me to apply for the subsidy (especially since the subsidy is in my name and this means that I will not be able to utilise the subsidy for any other courses I should choose to pay for myself) since I will be signing a contract with my company for the full sum.

Grrr. I can't believe that NYP is getting sooooooooo upsetting. I hope it's only the PDC.

Oh well, back to look at important money matters. Expected expenditures would include my degree course, 2B course (yay!) and Hokkaido next July. I think Hokkaido would require a minimum of $3000. For this year, I want to do at least a short weekend trip. Maybe Hong Kong or Macau? :D Must make it cheap cheap.

p.s. Hmm I wonder if I can now call myself an undergrad? :Þ

2010-05-10T00:02:00.002+08:00

Placidity.

Somedays I really wonder whether I am truly that useless at my workplace in terms of contributions or is it just that some other people are better at showmanship. I know I'm not one of those go-getters.

I don't really care about the annual ranking.

I take what I am given because I think that I probably don't deserve better.

Yet sometimes, I wonder if there are people who got more with less?

I'm sure there are. It's all about showmanship anyway.

Heck what do you expect when your boss doesn't even read your feedback report before interviewing you.

2010-05-09T23:06:00.000+08:00

Wallet Alert.

I seriously need to go easy on the wallet. I'm never gonna save any money at the rate that I am going.

Today, I planned to do ONE hair treatment. However, I agreed to do TWO. Sigh. There goes $199. Sheesh. I don't even take that much care of my hair at home... so it's gonna be money not well spent :(

I seriously need to cut expenses. What with a 5% net pay cut. An upcoming degree (I hope). Class 2B. Maybe a class 2B bike. Some other big commitments that I may need to commit to.

Anyway it's seriously unhealthy to live as it is now. I don't have spare cash. I hardly save any money. I'd be glad if I don't go into the red. I wonder how much money everyone else sets aside for parents and family expenses. That part seems to take up a huge chunk of my pay... but I can't exactly stop that. Although the amount might be a little bit on the high side, I can only tail it down when other alternatives are available.

I hope everything goes well.

At least for this year I will be paying a lot less income tax!

2010-05-02T21:04:00.002+08:00

The 2B story

Well, on my previous post I guess it might have made the 2B story seem pretty simple and straight forward. Let me clarify this, my mum is totally not in favour of me getting Class 2B.

Back when I first needed sureties to sign my contract, my mum found 2 sureties for me and told me :"You cannot go and learn motorcycle." At that time, you can't really do anything but to agree. Over time, I just figured I didn't want to learn how to ride a motorcycle anyway.

Recently though, the thought came back again. Here's an excerpt of a conversation I had with my mum a couple of months ago.

****
Me: My encik ask me to jio him for Class 2B leh..

Mum: Oh... what is Class 2B?

Me: Motorcycle

Mum: WHAT!!! Your encik needs to be slapped!!

Me: No lah, I also think if one has Class 3, should have Class 2 B. Better mah.

Mum: ....... Ok. But cannot buy bike.

Me: No guarantee.

Mum show one darn pissed face, I ran away.
****

So that was an obvious objection right there.

At the time of posting my previous post, this other conversation had taken place

****
I was looking at travel times and routes from my workplace to SIM (cos applying for a course there).

Me: If I get into the course, travelling is going to kill me, Will take me about one and a half hour at least but at least better than my colleague, he takes about 2 hours.

Mum: Can't you request to leave early?

Me: Yes but there is no bus out until 1700, so I'm stuck anyway. No money to buy car, that's why need to take 2B.

This is where I think my mum kinda relented OR she forgot what 2B is .

Mum: If I strike lottery, I'll buy you a car.

Me: Yeah but till then, I think take 2B better, or else always late and hungry.

****

So yeah, she is not in agreement... more like she likely forgot what 2B is.. or she just decided she didn't have a better suggestion.

2010-04-28T16:26:00.004+08:00

IM 2 x 2

I have just bought tickets for 2 movies this weekend. It's Ip Man 2 and Iron Man 2. Cute isn't it? IM 2 x 2.

After the movies, I will be attending 'Fantasy comes Alive!' at NUS Cultural Centre. I better check out the driving directions.... can't be having my friend getting lost on the way there!!

On another note, my mum didn't scream bloody blue murder today when I mentioned getting a Class 2B licence lol. I wonder if it's cos she has grudgingly accepted the fact that it's cheaper and I might really need it if I get accepted to SIM, or she forgot what Class 2B is.....

Oh well! Let's not spoil the party shall we??

2010-04-09T23:32:00.000+08:00

Typical Girl's Day Out.

Took half day off work today and went to catch Clash of the Titans with a couple of friends. The movie wasn't too bad but I'd have to say that there were detractions from what I thought I remembered in the original movie.

After the movie, went for a couple of rounds of Daytona USA, the original version. Ok so this part isn't what you think is a typical day out.

Next we wandered around a bit and I suggested going to Skinfood to help a friend buy a lip gloss that she needs. So we dropped in, I picked up the lip gloss (Tomato Jelly Lip Tint #3 - $20) and ended up getting a Egg white moisturising hair pack for myself ($28.10). I went to pay and the bill was $48.10.

Next my friend decided to buy the Pomegranate shampoo and conditioner at $39.90 each. So her bill was $79.80. The salesperson informed us that if we had paid together, we would have been entitled to am immediate 5% discount. However if we spent a further $22.10, we would be eligible for the VIP card.

So, girl being girls, we decided to go for it. I then picked up a Peach Sake Toner for $33.

Luckily I have a bonus this month or else my wallet is so dead.

2010-04-03T01:34:00.003+08:00

Moving on.

Stagnation is easy. You just stay where you are, do what you do. Years down the road when you look back at why you never got anywhere worth going, you can just tell yourself "Oh because I was busy with *insert any random reason*"

"I couldn't afford it"

"I simply didn't have time"

"*Random incident/task* was more important"

Change is hard but change is important. Heck, let's make an extreme example. If I wanted to change my single status, I'd probably have to get out of the house more in the first place. I'm too lazy though.

However today we are not discussing this topic :D After years of thinking, second guessing and telling myself otherwise, I have finally applied for a place in UniSIM's B.A in Translation and Interpretation. Dropped the supporting documents off in the mail today (well technically yesterday, Friday). I have no clue whether I will be accepted but at least I have finally made a decision and acted on it.

I remember back in November I was telling myself that I had decided to embark on this course in July 2010 and nothing, absolutely nothing, could change my mind. Then someone offered me an opportunity to pursue an Adv Dip. I then decided to postpone my degree plans for the Adv Dip.

There's been some hiccups with the Adv Dip application though. So to make a long story short, I will have to wait for the Oct intake to see if they open up a course. If they do, I will have to wait and see if they accept me. If I waited till then and they did not offer me a place, I can only apply for the Jan 2011 intake for the degree course. 6 months wasted for almost nothing. If I do get into the Adv Dip, I will have to go for the July 2011 intake for the degree. 1 year postponement. I'm not getting any younger, unless any of you would like to tell me where the fountain of youth is.

So anyway, I have now decided that I will apply for the July 2010 intake. If I get in, I will probably be able to clear 3 modules in the 1st Sem. If I get accepted to the Adv Dip, I can choose whether to take a break for the degree till July 2011, or continue with just 2 modules. Might be doable.

So now, what's left is to wait for the offer in May. I hope I get in and I can survive lol.

Also hope everything else turns out fine for me. Been having lotsa thoughts in my mind. Most of it inane, but affective.

In other news. I've already cleared IPPT on the 1st of April :D I've never taken IPPT so early in the WY before!!

2010-04-03T01:20:00.002+08:00

To the Special Someone

I read this topic in a forum today. I thought it was really cool, especially since it was not a homey, lovey, thoughtful forum. It was a guy dominated forum in fact.

Anyway since I thought it was so cool, I shall do a post in the spirit of the topic here.

To the Special Someone,

Where are you?

Regards
Silverelf.

Hahaha!!

2010-03-10T18:41:00.002+08:00

And The Little Wallet Went Wee Wee Wee All The Way Home.

Today was the very first day of The Body Shop Warehouse Sales at Suntec. It's the only sale I ever remember aiming for and getting all excited about.

So I ended up in Suntec today. I realised how lucky I was to decide to come on the very first day as well so I could avoid the IT Show crowd. Phew!

I went in and I looked at almost every item they had, except the makeup section because that was WAYYYYY too crowded for me to even sneak a peek. The most amazing thing were the people buying the body butters. There were people buying up to 30 of those things at a shot I tell you. The sales has stuff that currently weren't available at the retail shops. So you certainly could pick up a good deal if you were a discerning TBS shopper. Or just plain wallet murderer.

Anyway I picked up the following items at the Sale:
Cassis Rose Body Mist, $9.90 : 01
Peach Body Butter, $12.90: 01
Tea Tree Skincare Gift Bag, $16.90 (curently selling at retail for $29.90 I think): 02
Aqua Lily Gift Box, $24.90: 03 (I love this range, Original Price $49.90.)

If you thought that was bad..... You see, I hadn't even gotten the Tea Tree Facial Washers that I'm using currently. There is a promotion ending today that says that if you buy a lotion, you can buy up to 3 of the washes at $5 each. However, this promo was not available at the warehouse sales nor was the skin clearing lotion I was looking for available.

Therefore I proceeded to the Citilink Mall outlet of The Body Shop and... to make a long story short... ended up buying the following:

Tea Tree Skin Clearing Lotion, $26.90: 02
Tea Tree Skin Clearing Foaming Cleanser, $5 : 01
Tea Tree Skin Clearing Facial Wash, $5 : 05
Cocoa Butter Lipcare Stick, $8.41 (LYB Star Loyalty price) : 01

So.. yes. Yesterday was a bloodbath for my wallet. It is still in ICU.

2010-02-24T22:45:00.001+08:00

A Bunch of Happiness, a Tinge of Sadness.

A happy day it is today, quite a few people I would like to thank and all but they won't even see me ever again. Unless I pull a stunt or something. That's also why I feel sad.

I guess that's why memories are beautiful, because they are memories.

2010-02-05T22:42:00.000+08:00

First in queue, Second at finish line.

I had been planning to start a part time degree by July this year. I had decided that nothing could ever possibly change my mind about this and along comes an offer for me to take an Advanced Diploma.

After various considerations, I decided on a specialty. The only thing left was the question of whether the course has an April intake. After checking with NYP, the answer I received was that they cannot be sure that there was an April intake. This is in part due to the fact that the course will only commence if there is sufficient demand.

Somehow, someone at my workplace received information that my course will only start in October. I said I did not mind letting someone go ahead of me in April, since there is no April course for me.

However, yesterday, I found out that there is indeed an April intake for the course I wanted. The course will only commence once they have received sufficient applicants, so it is technically still not a confirmed course. However this will also hold true for all advanced diploma course, including the one my colleague my colleague is now going for in April. It is unlikely her course will not commence since there is a demand for that specialty.

So now, I am now bounced to the October intake because somewhere, somehow, someone said that there is no course for me in April. NYP did not even say that there will be no course. They have only said that they can only confirm commencement after 28th of February when registration closes.

I feel upset now because someone decided that there is no course for me in April and asked someone else to go in April. Now, they have committed to that someone else going and so I have to go in October. This pushes all my plans back by a year. All because someone said there was no April course.

They don't even seem to think that I might be upset at all. Explaining to me the need to stagger people going for a full time course is all well and good. I understand that very well. However, I think the problem to address now is... why is someone else promised the April course when mine wasn't a confirmed no go?

It's times like this when one needs someone to whine at. Unfortunately, I can only whine on the blog.

2010-02-04T23:36:00.000+08:00

Silverelf Kindness Day

Today was kinda weird. I found out that the Advanced Diploma course I wanted to go for does have an April intake but I probably can't go for it anyway cos they asked someone else to take my slot already.

Then when going out for a walk in the evening, I came across 2 people who needed help and I did. I wonder why. Hmmmm.

First, it was a lady trying to go down a bridge. She was trying to lug a stroller with her down and looked like she had great difficulty doing so. I offered to help her carry it down and she said that she was sick. I noticed that the husband was carrying the child.

Next, I came across this old man, who seemed blind or severely vision impaired, standing on the other side of this street I was going to cross. I was not sure if he needed help, but I decided to ask him if he wanted to cross the road. He did. So I helped him cross the road.

This second deed made me chuckle a bit... cos of the cliche line. Let's go do a good deed, help an old person cross the road. I don't know about you, but I find it weird that I came across two people to help in the same evening.

2010-01-12T16:49:00.002+08:00

End of Holidays

Well, I had a good run in December. Being on leave and everything. Wanted to use the leave period to chiong lessons but then I calculated that it would be too late so I started chiong before the whole long leave period.... So in the end I got a lot of free time during leave.

Having too much time on my hands also means giving me too much time to be emo lol. December was pretty emo. Think of stuff, emo. Listening to music, emo. Spend money LAGI EMO. Went on The Body Shop spree lol. In December alone, my The Body Shop stamp card got filled up. Yep. You read that right.

Now I have enough stuff for the next two years probably lol. I'm currently in love with the Aqua Lily series. I have the 'toilet water' (eau de toilette), the body mist and I even bought 2 Aqua Lily gift sets just for myself. I haven't even bought any new year clothes yet so... um... that more money to spend soon.

I also have an upcoming expenditure at Kinokuniya. I ordered all the available english versions of Trinity Blood from them. Once they come in I will be picking them up. They will cost me about $150 or so I think.

Early Jan, one of my cousins got married and my mum had been asking whether I was going. She obviously wanted me to go so I went. As I sat at teh table, I was wondering how they managed unsure cases cos I figured mine was a "maybe I won't show" case. Well, I soon got the answer. They only planned for my parents. One of us would have to move to another table later because there was another couple who would be at our table.

I decided to make things easy for them and went home instead. Next time my mum goes to some wedding dinner I sure ain't going.... so embarassing.

On another note, I didn't know how outdated I was until I arrived at the wedding dinner and 95% of the women there were dressed in black outfits. Looking at this, I'm kinda glad I'm actually single so I won't have to worry about people turning up in black at my wedding. Then again, the overwhelming number of people in black made me wonder if it was a theme of the night.

My aunt looked for my mum 2 days later and gave her 3 cans of bird's nest and abalone for me hahahah! My mum planned to give 2 each back. I don't really care... just don't drag me to someplace where I am not invited.

Further evidence of me being outdated... Mac's has released their New Year menu and the Prosperity burger is only in beef? Eh.... What about us non beef eaters? Cannot celebrate new year? We are unworthy......... Looks like Mac's is telling me not to eat at their place. I sent in an email to ask them about the non beef options. I wonder when they will get back to me on that? If ever?

2009-12-07T23:42:00.000+08:00

'Officially' Free.

Finally, I am 'Officially' free. Well, JLPT was yesterday. Not that I really spent all that time studying, oh no. I'm a born slacker and hardly anything's gonna change that. Especially when I don't deal well with learning languages straight from books. ESPECIALLY when there are so many boring rules to remember. It's like Maths all over!!!!

I have a friend who gets livid when I say I can't learn languages by studying the grammar. It just doesn't go into my head.

I took JLPT 3. I think I will be lucky to get 40% for the test. It was indeed that bad. I thought that my single greatest weakness would be the Grammar paper. JLPT (at least for levels 3 & 4) has 3 papers. Vocabulary, Listening Comprehension and Grammar.

When I finally got myself to do a couple past year papers, I realised that Listening Comprehension for level 4 was already quite tough for me. When I tried the Level 3 papers, it was downright depressing. Then I started to realise that I simply do not have the vocabulary for the level 3 paper. Although I could mug, but it was difficult to do so in the week leading up to JLPT since it was quite depressing.

Anyways, now the next thing is to hope I passed my JCS exam. Hopefully I can move on to the next module although the better thing would be to redo my current module. Results outthis Wednesday!!

After JLPT last night, I met up with a friend and we went to Holland V. It was a night of constant eating I tell you. she didn't want Lebanese food so we ended up with Al Dente (which we could have eaten at Esplanade!!!). After that, we went to Haagen Dazs. Following that, we went to this place called Essential Brews (or Essential & Brews, I'm not sure which one is correct). We had 'Dragonwell' tea there. Yup, it's the Chinese Tea, 龙井.

Today, I brought my mum to Paulaner's for lunch. Had Pork Schnitzel and Pork Knuckles. That was severely overkill. We couldn't finish the pork knuckles. Paulaner's doesn't seem to be that nice anyway now. The meal was $68+ after a 15% AMEX discount.

Now the kicker of the day is not the 15%. It is not the pork knuckle that we could not finish. It is.... guess how many Body Shops we passed by??

On the way to Paulaner's, we passed by The Body Shop at Citilink Mall. Then after the meal, we passed by The Body Shop at Marina Square. Then, Citilink's again. I wanted to bring my mum to the L'Occitane at Raffles City (as opposed to the one in Citilink Mall since there were no customers in that one) so we passed by The Body Shop in Raffles City.

After that, I wanted to go to Borders and Kinokuniya because I wanted to buy the Trinity Blood light novel series. Borders does not carry the title, so I went to Kino. Along the way... we were near Ion Orchard's The Body Shop. This one, we did not pass by so I will only count it as a 'near'. We then passed by Wisma's The Body Shop. And of course, The Body Shop in Ngee Ann City.

Kinokuniya carries the English, Chinese and Original Japanese versions of the Trinity Blood Novels. The Japanese novels (12 total) are fully published, but the English novel only has 3 each from "Reborn on the Mars" and "Rage against the Moon", making a total of 6 published and Kino only had 2 novels available. The Chinese version was incomplete too but I will not buy the Chinese version anyway. The only Chinese books I ever read were comics, translated from Japanese lol.

I will want to buy the original Japanese books, but for now, I cannot understand them. Therefore, I would like to get the English version to read. After getting Kino to try and bring in 6 books for me, it's time to go home.

Somewhere near my place...... we passed by... yet ANOTHER The Body Shop.

Total The Body Shop count for the day: 6 unique shops passed by. 1 'near'.

Since we're at it. Total L'Occitane shops count for the day: 3 passed by, 1 'near'.

We're definitely a stinky lot lol.

2009-11-12T22:42:00.002+08:00

All in the Comma.

I received an email from a colleague this morning. In it, he was announcing the date for a meeting. In that email, there was this line "please revert your attendance to me, if you are not attending, and state your reason."

I was going to attend the meeting so I figured I needn't reply to the email. Yes, it's probably good manners to reply anyhow but I'm rude ahahah!

Later on in the afternoon, I received an email in which he stated that we have already read the emails but must have been very busy because we have not yet replied to his email.

Although I was feeling like pointing out to him that he only requested for people who are not attending to tell him that they are not attending and their reasons for doing so.... I decided to just tell him a yes or no.

So, with a sentence like "please revert your attendance to me, if you are not attending, and state your reason." do you think he was asking for a reply if you are not attending or a reply either way?

Please leave out the common courtesy parts please lol. I'm uncommon. :D

2009-09-29T23:50:00.003+08:00

What one could do with $160

Well. I've been bitching quite a bit about my impending net pay cut next year due to my workplace offering a new HR scheme to us. Basically we will have to pay full CPF once we move over and there will not be any adjustments to the gross pay. This means that our net pay will decrease.

I calculated and it's gonna be about $160 less a month.

Now what could I do with $160 a month??

64 plates of chicken rice (at $2.50 each) a month.

40 days of transport ($2 per trip, 2 trips a day)

Buy a PSP in 2 months.

Holiday in Japan in 12 months.

Go for 3 buffets a month (estimate $50 per buffet)

Buy 2 new DS games a month. (estimate $70 a game)

Buy a new phone in 2 months. (estimate $300 budget)

Buy 17 Threadless.com tees (at $9 each) a month.

Pay for my Japanese language lessons which currently averages about $140 a month.

Pay for 2 hours of vocal training. (my friend is learning at $70 an hour)

Buy a new PC every year and have money left over.

Top up $68 and buy a Nikon D90 in a year. (based on RRP of $1988)

Top up $48 and buy Nikon D700 in two years. (based on RRP of $3888)

Ok, I think that's enough of delinquency. After all, when I mentioned this, people go "Oh but it;s still your money..... it still goes to you....CPF is good for you.... you can buy house with it.. it saves for your retirement.... 4% interest where else can you get?" So I think we should discuss something a little bit more constructive.

Seriously, they really did tell me 4%. However, I think they have forgotten that Ordinary account only attracts 2.5% atm, although an additional 1% for the first $20k in the ordinary account will be credited to the Special Account.

4% is currently applicable for the Special, Medisave and Retirement Accounts (SMRA). However from 2008, the SMRA interest rate has become a floating rate pegged to the 12 month average yield of the 10 year Singapore Government Securities plus 1%. For the first 3 years , as an interim measure, there is a floor rate of 4%. After 2010 , the floor rate will be 2.5%. This means that the SMRA interest can drop to 2.5% interest. Same as ordinary account.

Next, I really don't see myself buying a home anytime soon. Anyway I don't think I can afford a home in these trying times. Half a million for a HDB?? You must be frigging crazy.

So what am I to do with the extra money in CPF? Invest? You can no longer invest the first 20k in each of your accounts. I have already invested what I can from my CPF but that's money I can't use now. I would love to have a little more 'now can use if I want' money.

While I agree that putting money into CPF to attract the minimum 2.5% interest is actually a good idea, I would personally like to aim for an investment goal of 5-10% growth. Of course, investment is no sure thing and you can certainly end up being worse off, but then that would have been a choice that I made and I would (probably) have had no one else to blame but myself. Besides that, it would be cash I can readily use on hand.

Or, if I were so inclined, I could use the $160 to buy an savings policy which gives me higher than bank interest rate and gives me a small amount of sum assured in case of contingencies.

At the end of the day, I know that this policy will not change and I will take up this new HR scheme anyway.... I just don't quite like the way that instead of addressing my query and telling me "well that's too bad but we really cannot do anything about it", they decided to go be a nanny and say "CPF is good for you. Shut it."

It even went so far as someone saying "If you are really that hard up that this amount of change in your take home pay constitutes a major financial issue, then you have a problem with your finances."

Yeah I would agree, but that would be MY problem wouldn't it? I certainly do not need other people to start creating financial problems for me when I can do that perfectly fine myself lol.

2009-09-20T01:15:00.002+08:00

New British Council Teaching Awards Requirements!

So I had been interested in getting a Teaching Award from the British Council Singapore.

I even made a nice chart back in June to figure out how much each individual award would potentially cost me and try to plan out the most cost / time effective way to get each award. You can get an award once you get 50 credits in the modules required for the award within 18 months.

For 2010, there are new changes. In fact, the Teaching Award for Adults went up about $700. I'm not sure if I made a mistake in the original chart made in June, because there is an optional course "How to Teach English: Kindergarten" in the Adults list... Oh well, you can see the list made in June here: June's List

Now for the updated list.

The dark blue ones are core modules that must be attended in order to get the award. The light blue ones are optional ones. You can choose to attend any light blue ones in order to make up the 50 credits. I have not included the number of credits each module gives you, but you can work it out through the course fees. $500 = 10 credits, so you need to attend $2500 worth of modules to get an award.

You could also just choose to attend every course and get all the awards.

Please pardon the slight colour mess ups, I can't get the colour to turn out right after it's uploaded to google docs.

2009-09-17T19:24:00.003+08:00

Crazy Crazy Internet

Aw.. internet's been driving me crazy recently in more ways than one.

First I tried to upgrade my PC's hardware and it ended up quite a sorry situation. Fortunately, it now works. *prays hard*

Initially, my PC wouldn't even boot up. I brought it to a shop and they got it to boot up but when I brought it home, it would either BSOD, or act like it shut down. I just couldn't figure out what went wrong.

A friend insisted that it was a BIOS issue, so I decided to change the HDD while I was at it since I was unable to boot up the PC long enough to back up the data on my original HDDs. After I got another shop to install the HDD and OS for me (the initial shop I went too tried to charge me double the price for HDD, plus he was this naggy uncle who hates AMD), the problem still persisted!! I was totally devastated...... it worked fine at the shop, why not at home?

I brought the PC back to the shop and it worked fine there. The shop suggested changing mouse, or power supply cables. Another friend on mine suggested that it was a power supply problem and suggested I get an UPS. Why so many problems..?? I just want a functioning PC!

This time, after I got it back, it worked fine for a day and started acting up the next...... from then till now... it was ... er.... kinda ok. I hope it stays this way. I want to play FFXI!

Also, I have been having problems with facebook and blogger. Blogger would give me this really messed up dashboard and I would be unable to post blogs (I hardly post blogs nowadays anyway, I plurk a lot more.) and facebook would just totally quit on me. Apparently there's some facebook issue but when I access it on different PCs, sometimes it works on other PCs but just not on mine.

I haven't been playing Mafia Wars, Farmville, Barn Buddy and Restaurant City for quite some time now lol. If you play these games and you are on my facebook, do look out for me yeah?

Finally today, it seems like Blogger has decided to give me a break and let me post. Actually I am still typing this out so as of now I am hoping that it posts. However, you are reading this, so it obviously got posted.

Been pretty busy these few months. Not even had time to catch up with friends (not that I'm one to always catch up with friends anyway). National Day's over, it was fun but I didn't get my actual day tickets ( *angry!* ), someone took 2 of my team's funpacks and refused to be contacted so I think he is playing punk, and we haven't heard about additional offs to be given.... oh well.... At least it's over.

Also stopped standing in for my colleague at her workplace. Another guy took over. It was like crazy trying to run that place.... in the midst of the H1N1 craze and incoming audits in someplace I was new at, it was absolutely bat shit crazy. Kept running late for my Japanese classes and I actually missed quite a few of them. Now I'm quite sian about attending classes because it's a little harder to understand things now too.

Not all's been nasty stuff though. Last Sunday, I performed with the JCS Choir at the 39th Japanese Cultural Festival. I guess that finally puts a little credit to a post I did last year or so which listed what I wished I could do. Singing in a performance was in there somewhere I think. Although it's not quite what I wanted, it was definitely an exhilarating opportunity for me. In fact, it felt good to be in the group! You have immunity lol!

I guess we did well enough on Sunday. It was a concert with several performing groups and we sang five songs. The following are versions of the songs that we did on Sunday. These versions are the same as (or very close to) the version we did. Quality excepted lah... These people probably did better than us lol.

少年时代 Shounen Jidai

千の風になって Sen no Kaze ni Natte
Not quite how we sang it, but it's the closest I can find.

This is the original

手紙 Tegami: The Japanese Association's Ladies Choir who was performing at the same concert actually did this song as well, but they did it a tad more classically. My friend says that she preferred our rendition of Tegami. Yay!!!

This is the original

遠い日の歌 Tooi Hi no Uta

春に Haru ni

I especially like Tegami and Sen no Kaze ni Natte. Well, Haru ni too, but the first two feels so meaningful to me. Unfortunately Tegami is quite difficult to sing!

I also asked one of my choir friend about her voice lessons. She told me about the price and it's $70 an hour..... WHOOOOOOO! OUCH.

That's at least $280 a month... and maybe it is more expensive!!!!

2009-08-04T22:47:00.002+08:00

Blogger Problem

I was trying to blog the previous post when I realised that there was a curious issue. I had first noticed it when trying to view my friend's blog. The top little line on top that usually has your username and dashboard options were not viewable.

However when I went to another friend's blog, it was ok. So I figured it wasn't really a problem. However, on my blog it happened again.

Ok, I can deal with some aesthetic issues. As long as I can blog, I don't mind. After all, I hadn't blogged for a long time so it might have had something to do with my inactivity. Who knows?

Anyway, I logged in to blog and.... I realised that I could not see any of the formatting options!

NooOoOoOoooOOOO!

So I was about to give up on posting (as I simply was not gonna post an unformatted blog) when I came across this thread on blogger.

Seems like it's a Singnet problem!! What the heck....... Anyway, I skimmed through it and there were a few rather techie solutions like adjusting proxy settings. I was rather reluctant to do that.... when I came across a solution that says "press CTRL and F5 to refresh the page without caching".

I gave it a try and... it works!! So now I can format my post.... but that line on top of my blog page is still showing gibberish.

So once again..

PRESS CTRL+F5 !!

2009-08-04T22:31:00.002+08:00

Improving Taxi Ridership

Recently, there had been a couple of articles on the taxi companies having campaigns to encourage people to take taxis more often. This seems rather odd to me since they had raised fares dramatically back in 2007. One would naturally assume that with increased fares, there would be lesser people willing to take taxis. Now they are spending money on campaigns to encourage taxi ridership?

I think that it is worth encouraging people to take taxis, because I am assuming that people who are likely to take taxis are the ones who are likely to buy cars. Assuming that these people found that taking taxis are no longer economical as compared to buying their own car, they would rather go buy their own car. This means that there would be one more car on the road.

A taxi is different, assuming that 20% (rough estimate based on the 80/20 rule) of the people who take taxis are likely to buy their own car and further assuming that a taxi has 10 passengers a day... then we have 2 people per taxi who would otherwise have bought a car.

So how do we encourage people to take taxis? Lucky Draws? Loyalty points? Lower fares? I think that lowering fares is the most direct way to do it. In fact, if we use the 80/20 rule again... assuming that fares are reduced substantially, we would possibly see a 20% reduction in the number of private vehicles on the road.

However, I would not know if this result is desired in the big picture of the people who plan such things.

Also, if taxi fares were to be reduced, it goes without saying that taxi rental for the taxi drivers should be reduced as well.

I say, cut the campaigns and cut the fares.

2009-06-23T00:21:00.002+08:00

British Council Teaching Award

I had been thinking of getting some certification in teaching English for a long time. Right now I'm also contemplating whether I should really take up the B.A. in Translation and Interpretation offered by SIM. My main concern is that my Chinese grades were never that good. I can read and speak but writing sucks.

I wanted to get a CELTA, but I wasn't sure if I could tough it out and the course schedule doesn't fit my schedule. So I wrote in and British Council suggested that I try the Teaching Awards. It's modular so you can just pick whichever modules you like and go for the relevant awards.

I decided to make a chart so that I can see the module spread a little bit more easily.

Since I have already made it, I shall share it with you... if you are so inclined to click on the link.

Silverelf's British Council (Singapore) Teaching Awards Chart

Gonna cost a pretty penny and take up quite some time too!! I currently have Japanese to deal with so I don't think I will take up the Teaching Awards anytime soon.

2009-05-31T18:44:00.002+08:00

Blue

I tried blogging about my trip to Chaozhou but it was rather eventful. The post would disappear and stuff and by the third time, I just plain gave up.

Well, the trip was quite cool. I didn't really go to many pretty places or stuff, but I rather enjoyed it. I stayed at my relative's place and I'm telling you, everything was taken care of. I felt so spoiled. The weather was cool (my parents kept saying it'd be hot). We had tea (chinese tea, in case you were thinking otherwise) EVERYWHERE. In case you don't know, us Teochews are like addicted to tea. Tea flows in our blood.

Except that I have a friend who is the combination of the greatest tea drinkers in the East and the West and she is allergic to Tea. Hmmm.

Never figured that I had so many relatives. It's almost scary, because I am not used to having many relatives. I don't even mix with any relatives here in Singapore.

I kinda skipped out on the DORSCON orange period. I was overseas for the duration of that. When I came back it was Yellow. H1N1 has almost everyone in a mess, but I guess we won't really know if teh current SARS procedures are effective against H1N1. Do we really think that we can keep H1N1 out? H1N1 will happen to us and it already did.

Yesterday I went to the airport and someone mentioned that I should be careful, in case I get H1N1 from the airport. I should think that the greatest chance of getting H1N1 will be from the MRT which is packed like sardines almost the whole day, and not the airport which is relative airy (not a pun).

Work wise, getting pissed. Ask me in person or over MSN if you wanna know. Would love to blog about it but it goes against what I advise people. Maybe it'll work out tomorrow. And I'll stop being pissed.

Getting emo! Anyway I have exams for the next three days and I'm supposd to be studying for it.... but uhm..... I hadn't. lol. Typical.

2009-05-01T12:56:00.007+08:00

Sniff Sniff Sniffles.

Wow the week has been rather happening, unfortunately most of it has to do with work so I can't tell you about it or else I have to kill you! Nah, actually what happened at work is exciting for me but probably too boring for you.

Not sure if it's a great time for me to go on overseas leave, since this Mexican / North American / 2009 H1N1 / whatever name they are going to call it flu is now happening and as of now it is DORSCON ORANGE. I get to siam the crazy routine because of the flu but I must emphasise that obviously I didn't anticipate this and plan it! If I could I would sit at home and plan for money to drop into my lap.

Just the other day I was thinking, wow, we're doing real ops now leh (and we're paid less than the 'front line combatants', what the heck). My colleague also had the same sentiment "Feels like we're going to war!". Well, I wouldn't presume to know the feeling of going to war but I kind of agree with what he is saying.

According to news reports, Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) and digital thermometers have been flying off the shelves and the thermometers were (as of yesterday) out of stock. It's good that people are worried but then some little measures that we can take for ourselves will reduce transmission risks greatly.

1) Wash hands after going to the washroom. WITH SOAP.

2) Stay at home if you are having flu: This is a little hard to do and I am guilty of it as well. Workaholics flout this all the time because they want to keep up their productivity, but in fact they are reducing overall productivity if they infect other people.

My classmate went to class while sick yesterday and I was sitting beside her. I hope I won't get sick before tomorrow man.... I'm flying off in the morning.

3) This one is pretty much impossible to do in Singapore. Wear a mask if you are are having flu. No need for me to explain why it's difficult. People will give you the evil eye.

4) When you need to wear a mask, wear it PROPERLY.

This plurk has some photos of how NOT to wear a mask gathered from newsites.

5) Don't spit on the floor

6) There is no evidence to prove that this current flu can be transmitted through eating pork. Rumour mongering is a terrorist tactic and causes people to pay attention to areas other than the ones they should be concerned with. Like personal hygiene.

Oh and if anyone of you wants to get a flu vaccination, do go ahead but be reminded that a vaccination is no replacement for proper personal hygiene! The flu vaccination doesn't vaccinate you against the current Mexican / North American / 2009 H1N1 flu though.

Wash your hands after visiting the washroom, repeat ad nauseum.

2009-03-26T21:40:00.005+08:00

Robert Ludlum: The Prometheus Deception

Just finished reading this book, finally. I used to read voraciously when I was in school. Nowadays with the distractions of technology, I'd be lucky to start reading a book even. In the past year though, I've tried to read more books.

One of my current preferred series of books are written by Robert Ludlum. He writes spy thrillers and is the author of The Bourne Identity. Incidentally, I have not read all of his Bourne books yet.

I think Robert Ludlum uses italics a little too liberally but his books are a pretty good read. Thus far I think I have read about 6-7 of his books. I still have about 15 more to go!

The Prometheus Deception is a pretty convoluted story. It writes about deception within deception and it can get so confusing you start forgetting who the 'good' guys and the 'bad' guys are. It is about a covert agent who gets retired and then one day he is told that the covert agency whom he has been working for was actually set up by an enemy nation. It's also the longest Robert Ludlum book I've read thus far.

The following is an excerpt of the text on the back of the book:

For years Nick Bryson was the top field in the Directorate, an ultra secret US intelligence agency, until a disastrous operation forced him to retire under a new identity. But now the CIA tell him that the Directorate was not what it seemed - and that, with the Cold War over, it seems to be preparing for a world-threatening new coup...

Rating (Max 10):

2009-03-21T23:31:00.001+08:00

The Legend of Chun-Li

I went to watch this movie with my friend, I wasn't expecting too much so I wasn't disappointed.

I can't say that it was a great movie or that you must watch it but I guess it's a movie that you might not think you wasted your money on.

Obviously the story doesn't make much sense if you think about continuity from the movie to the video games (I'm talking about characters who died in the movie) but I just take it as it is and don't think too much about it.

Chen Zhi Cai actually has a substantial role in this movie, I wonder how he landed it.

This movie is about Chun-Li's past before the time of the Street Fighter II video game. Chun-Li was my favourite character of that game so I definitely had to watch this movie. I am surprised that they chose Chun-Li to make a movie out of, but I guess out of all the characters, she was the one with the most intriguing backstory as alluded to during the end of game credit rolls.

There isn't much plot really, so I shan't even hint to any of it as it'll really spoil your show should you decide to watch it.

Rating (Max 10):

2009-03-17T14:45:00.002+08:00

Rats in the Pantry

Well, our building actually does have a rat problem, but so far my office is clear. I don't think that will last long though, since people keep eating in the office but that is ok if you don't eat stuff that has strong smells and throw the containers out of the office area afterwards. It's those that throw the containers in the office bins. Still, it is usually ok because the cleaning lady comes in the late morning after breakfast time and clears the bins. Just the other day though, someone from another branch had MacDonald's breakfast and dumped the bag in one of the office bins. I found the evidence the next day.... sheesh. Rat magnet!

Anyway, the "Rats" in my post title refer to another type of rats. We've gotten some money for some workplace improvement projects so I went out to buy some drink mixes. We've got Milo, tea, honey chrysanthemum, some kind of organic soy bean drink and Nescafe Premium 3-in-1 Gold coffee. It turns out that the coffee is really good stuff. we have people from other offices coming in and snitching our coffees and Milos. I don't really mind them, but it seems that they are consuming a fair amount of our drinks supply!

My office is really small so our consumption is low, therefore by comparison these 'rats' consume a lot of our supply lol.

Oh and try leaving Ferrero Rocher around, those will be gone. The whole tray.

2009-03-04T23:43:00.002+08:00

Job Satisfaction, Rewards and Recognition.

This topic seems to have popped up around me quite often recently. It seems to be one of the hotter HR issues, at least at my workplace.

When you think about this topic, what comes to your mind? Monetary rewards? Verbal praise? Awards like Staff of the Month?

I hadn't given it all that much serious thought till my friend brought this topic up again yesterday. Basically, her friend and herself stand on different sides of the fence on this issue. One feels that she doesn't get any praise for jobs well done but punished for mistakes whereas my friend feels that she does not require any praise to do her job well.

If I understand my friend correctly, her rationale is that she feels that she is being paid to do her job well and she enjoys her work therefore she does not require any praise or reward to encourage her to do her job well.

Her friend's gripe is about what I call the Negative Reinforcement System where you do not get rewarded for jobs well done but instead you are punished for mistakes. Perhaps most people would prefer a Positive Reinforcement System where good work is recognised or rewarded.

Perhaps some people would argue that we are all paid to do a job so we should do a good one at that. Some others may argue that I can just do a job but I need not do it well should I not have chosen to do so, as such my efforts should be recognised.

However, if you think about it really hard, you will come to realise that both these people actually want the same thing.

I was thinking today about how some people need rewards and praise while others seemingly do not. I came to the conclusion that the concept of 'Reward' needs to be redefined. Once it is redefined, it is then easy to see why the two of them actually want the same thing.

They don't want the same thing, you may be thinking.

That's where my amazing skill of throwning random smoke bombs comes in handy!

Now let's look at case 1: Person who needs praise or rewards for a job well done.

This is an obvious case of someone needing rewards or recognition of some kind. They have already said it up front, how ambiguous can it get? Some people would like monetary rewards and some may like praise. Praise may come in the form of a simple pat on the back, or a staff award.

Conclusion: Reward is a positive value.

Case 2: Person who does not need any reward and feels that they are paid to do their job well and should not need additional rewards just because they did a good job.

Now, you may think that such people are workaholics (and I do think so actually), or that they are just plain silly for working their lives away for the company.

Let's look into this just a little more. Put ourselves in the shoes of these people.

1) They feel that they are paid to do a good job.
Therefore, when they do a good job, they feel good about it. They feel that they have fulfilled their set goals. They have achieved something important to them. Key point: They feel good.

2) They enjoy their work.
If they truely and thoroughly enjoy their work, then the process itself is an enjoyment for them. Slackers like me will never understand this but as we Teochews always say 一样米养百样人。
Key point: They feel good.

Now, as you can see the key points for the 2 little scenarios that I set is the same. They feel good. So what do the people who want rewards feel when they get rewarded? They feel good. That feeling is a reward.

See what I mean about the fact that these 2 people actually wanting the same thing? It is merely that one expresses it in more tangible terms and the other expressed it in more intangible terms.

Since my brain was working overtime today, I got to thinking about something else as well. For the people who feel that since they are paid to do a job, they should not need additional rewards, to what extent will they consider something as part of their job? If something that is not in their job scope is given to them, will they still consider it as part of what they were paid for and do it well without expectation of additional rewards or recognition of any kind?

Hmmm.

2009-02-28T23:31:00.001+08:00

With Friends Like This.... No One Needs an Enemy.

I'm fully prepared for you to not get the point, my dear reader. I think that I have issues getting my point across anyway.

Now today has been a major exciting day. I was supposed to meet my friends at Plaza Singapura for dinner as a birthday celebration for a friend. I wanted to go to Kinokuniya to pick up some JLPT past year papers and drop by Borders as well.

So off I trooped. While at the MRT station, I was attempting to enter the faregate when I saw an impatient hand wanting to scan his card as well, unfortunately I reached the gate first. I believe that was what started making the person upset with me. After a while, said person caught up with me and stood infront of me on the escalator.

At this point in time I would like to point out that said person (he's a plump caucasian with a short blond mohawk) was standing on the right side of the escalator. I heard the train coming and seeing that the left side of the escalator next to him was clear and there was space for me to move around him. So I decided not to ask him to make way for me, but to move around him instead.

Unfortunately, this person must have been allergic to touch, because as I moved, I accidentally touched him. I'm not sure if he was upset by the touch or the fact that I got in front of him, but I heard a distinct "You stupid bitch" from him.

I decided to ignore him, but then he got more brazen and said "Twat".

Ain't nobody going to get away with calling me that kind of names, so I turned to him and said loudly "Excuse me."

He feigned ignorance.

I kept up. "Do you now that if you were not moving on the escalator, you're supposed to be on the left side of the escalator?"

More ignorance.

"I don't know who's the silly one."

He moved on into the cabin and I followed him right in. That's just because it was convenient, wasn't gonna pick a longer fight with him.

So now I'm on the train and I was bored so I decided to SMS a couple of friend, and delete msgs off my phone. One of my friends actually replied to the sms I sent very much later.

Friend: Doesn't that guy know that you can overtake on the escaltor or he doesn't have escalators in his country?

I: I think he's upset cos I got in front of him twice. Unfortunately, unlike him, I speak more then one language.

*Here I was referring to the fact that I speak English, Mandarin and Teochew. I was suspecting that the SAM (Stupid Ang Moh) thought that I couldn't understand what he was muttering behind me and decided to 'enjoy himself' further*

Friend: So you scolded him in Japanese.

*I was wondering why I would do that. You only do such stuff if you wanted to show off, cos there is ZERO reason to do it. Also, why would you want to scold someone in a language no one can understand.. unclusive of the person you are scolding?*

I:No, why would I want to scold him in a language no one else understands? Duh.

Friend: So English would have sufficed.

I never replied to her for that one.

Seriously, with friends like these, I don't need enemies. She really didn't get my point. I guess you don't as well but then I'm not SMSing you right now.

Sigh.

That's not all to the exciting day. I tried to get to get from Wisma to Borders, but that escalator leading out of Wisma led me into a human jam because it was raining hard so I had to take the escalator back down, and take the underground passage to Lucky Plaza and then to Tangs before going into the underground passgaes all the way to Wheelock Place. On my way back, I was going into the tunnel leading into the MRT station from Tangs when I started to feel this heat wave.

Then I saw it.

This huge human jam. The tunnel was just clogged with humans and it was as warm as a sauna. It was incredible. The jam was due to the renovation works in that tunnel. This Orchard Turn thinggy is causing jams all over the place. At Wisma, at Tangs, OMG.

I tried to join the crowd but decided it would take me too long to get through and it was crazily hot. I excited the tunnel and ended up just behind the busstop outside Tangs. Luckily I managed to get on a bus to PS very quickly.

For the dinner, we arranged for a cake surprise for our friend, the waiter actually came to us and asked "Would you like your ice cream cake now?"

My friend who verbally spoke with that exact waiter to tell him what to do with the cake surprise gave the I'm so gonna kill you look. Another friend said "想要扁人啊？"

I said "何止扁，想放火烧。。。"

The waiter realised his mistake and apologised. Shortly after, the cake came up and as he lit the candle I said "放火咯！"

There were four of us in total and the one who was having a birthday actually did not hear the slip the waiter made so she didn't know about the cake till it landed on the table.

We went to a Karaoke later, I thought we'd get kicked out by 2200hrs, but we didn't. Unfortunately we couldn't stay because on of my friends acquired a bad stomachache. I knew she'd want to take a taxi home, so we had to search for a taxi stand in Orchard during a freaking heavy rain.

We were very close to the MRT station but my friend would rather take the taxi. We ended up in Ngee Ann City with this humongous queue. We waited for over an hour to get a cab, I believe. Walk longer in the rain, wait longer and pay more to get home later....

Sian.

Lousy day........

2009-02-27T23:08:00.000+08:00

First Choir Practice

I've never been in a choir before, especially since you have to go through those nasty little things called auditions.

I went to audition last friday, it was a most nerve wracking experience. I think my brains weren't processing the notes right because the pianist would hit a key, I would try to sing it and she would hit a lower one. The room was cold and I was nervous so the effect was hugely amplified.

On Wednesday, I received an email informing us of the first practice date, time and venue so I guess I made it lol. The email also said that we would know our parts when we signed our attendance. I figured I'd probably be Alto (judging by the range the pianist was playing that day) and true enough, I'm in Alto.

First practice today, Alto is tricky because you have to make sure you're not following the Sopranos! The first song that I am learning is 春に. They had the old members sing it once for us and it was a really lovely song. I might consider buying a recorder to record the practices since it is hard to remember the melody after hearing it only a couple times. Especially since there are the Soprano, Alto and Tenor/Bass parts.

It all becomes a blur after a while. Choral music is hard....

2009-02-27T22:19:00.000+08:00

Japanese Language Test (Bunka)

So after some last minute mini revision (you guys all know how lazy I really am), I was left praying for a pass.

Maybe cos I'm getting old, learning languages is not as easy. Or maybe it's just cos I'm obnoxiously lazy. Or maybe it's cos at Bunka, they stuff you with the hard stuff right from the beginning. I hate verb conjugation!!

German was hard but I don't remember it being so hard. Maybe I just have a bad memory.

Anyway I managed to scrape through with a pass, so now all I need to do is wait for the school to release a schedule where I can take an Elementary 2 class. We've requested for a class with our current Sensei, so we hope they can fit that in.

The problem with Bunka is that the modules are not one after another. You can have breaks of a few weeks, or even more than a month in between modules.

Studying at both Bunka and JCS is quite tough, because they teach different things so you have to learn different things. It's quite unlike my friend's concept where she thinks I will have the advantage since I'm studying at 2 places.

First I have no clue what she means by advantage. Next it is too early for any advantage to show. Third, if the syllabus is rather different, you are essentially studying for differnt things instead of reinforcing what you learnt at one place, so you get less time to study for each topic (at this point please ignore the fact that I am a lazy bum, please imagine me studying). However, over the long term, it should work out.

For example, right now at Bunka I learn the 6 forms of verbs, so I understand why there are different forms of verbs. At JCS, they only teach us the 'masu' form so I wouldn't have realised that 'kikimasu' is actually the same verb as 'kitte'. Whereas at JCS they taught us alot of sentence structuring that Bunka has not yet taught.

Someday their paths will converge. Till then... suffer! Obviously in the eyes of my friend there is no advantage. I wonder what advantage she expects? That I can hold a conversation in Japanese already?

It's just horrible to have to mess with verb conjugation. My grammar has always sucked and I don't know why I picked all the languages that love funky stuff like conjugation.

2009-02-24T22:30:00.002+08:00

Changes in Expense Tracking

Back in December, when I booked driving lessons, I would clock down the total expenses at the time of expenditure. I haven't taken lessons for 2 months and I'm about to dump another sum of money into my student account. I realised that this will make my expenditure very high, which is of course correct because technically I did spend the money.

However, when I finish the course and if there is money left and I get a refund, it will make it look like I have a lot of savings as well. I'm considering treating this prepaid account as transparent like how I treat my Coffee Bean Card and only record the expenses on the day I take the lesson.

It should be more logical treating this student account this way then the Coffee Bean card because I can get a refund of unused funds, whereas I can't get a refund on the Coffee Bean card.

This entry is part of a series of entries that I shall be entering in my blog to get myself into a 'manage my personal finance mode'

2009-02-14T23:30:00.002+08:00

K.I.S.S

My current mentality for expense tracking and hopefully for my future financial planning, is to Keep It Simple, Stupid.

As I had previously mentioned, I prefer to keep my expense tracking simple. Now let me see if I can get a sample copy of my expense tracking sheet up for you....
Silverelf's Expense Tracker

Now, I have these main sections in the spreadsheet:

1) The monthly expense records
2) Fixed expenditure tab
3) Wishlist tab
4) A graph tab that shows how much I save each month. Actually more like how much I overspend each month. Let's be honest.

For the monthly expense records, I do not have a record of how much money I have in the bank because I was always horrible in accountancy and I know that I would just fail to make the numbers tally. So that information does not exist. I just track monthly expenditure vs income.

I also do not keep separate records for Cash, Credit Card etc expenditure. They go into one nice long table but I will record the payment mode in the cell appropriately named "Payment Mode". I do not actually do anything with that info though.

I also have a corner to show me how much money I have spent and how much I still have left that month. This will help give me an overview of how deep the shit that I am standing in is.

Every month, I will start a new sheet with my monthly pay in the income area. If I get a bonus , I will include them in as well. I've also included GST credits and stuff like that in the income area.

I try to update the tracking sheet daily, but often times I forget so I will try to remember what I spent and add in the amount. This means that my tracking is not 100% accurate but at least it should be about 90%. I find it important to follow through to the need of the month instead of gving up and starting the next month. Don't give yourself chances to slack off!

*P.S. I love February. Less days. Reach goalpost faster*

Next for the fixed expenditure tab, this is where I enter everything that recurs every month. It's good to have it like this for me because I can see what I HAVE to pay for every month. Of course it serves as a good way for the better disciplined to trim down on fixed expenses. The total I get from this page will be entered as the first expenditure entry on the monthly expenses tabs. *I don't know how to automate this*

Next is the wishlist tab. It's for things like that trip you want, that nice laptop etc etc. I put in stuff like that there and look at the total. It's not for calculation purposes, but more for a projection of how much money I need in the future. Erhmm.. or rather want.... cos these are not needs.

Finally we get to the Graph tab. This is where I manually input the amount of money left at the end of the month. Again, I haven't figured out how to automate this..... so.. it's done manually!to see a healthy positive trending on this graph.

And so that's how it is. Feel free to comment and suggest stuff to me.

This entry is part of a series of entries that I shall be entering in my blog to get myself into a 'manage my personal finance mode'

2009-02-12T23:08:00.002+08:00

Ears Need Cleaning

First off, I have to say that it is actually not a good idea to be 'digging your ears'. Ears have an automatic cleaning mechanism. That said, I apparently need to get my ears cleaned anyway.

So I'm taking lessons at Bunka on Thursdays. Today, my friend joined my class for a replacement lesson. She usually has classes on Tuesdays.

During the break, she happened to mention to me that there is an Elementary 2 class on the 26th of February (Thursday) that she can take, and then she proceeds to comment that I have lessons on Thursdays (which I agreed to because I really did have lessons on Thursdays). Following is what I recall of the conversation which is not word for word accurate because I did not record it.

Friend yaks about Elementary 2 schedule: "There is a class on the 26th of February that I can take because I have checked my degree class schedule"

(She is currently taking a part time degree, schedules for each term are released like a week or so before each term.)

Friend: " Oh you have classes on Thursdays right?"

(I agree to this comment because I DO have lessons on Thursdays. At Bunka. Note that this conversation was being held on a THURSDAY during a MY REGULAR CLASS)

Friend :"So you can't take the Thursday Elementary 2"

Me: "Why would I have problems attending Thursday classes?"
(I suspected that she might have meant 'Tuesday' or that I can't take that particular class because it starts before my Elementary 1 ends)

Friend:" You have lessons on Thursdays right?

Me:" Yes, today loh. I'm having lesson now what."

Friend: "What??? I mean your lesson at JCS. What was it, Monday/ Wednesday... Tuesday/Thursday.. aiyah so messy why didn't you answer me properly when I asked you???"
*Friend fumes*

I'm like ...............................................

What the heck did I just get scolded for.... She asked if I had lessons on Thursdays..... which should have been obvious cos she was attending a lesson on Thursday WITH ME.

好冤枉....

2009-02-10T00:31:00.002+08:00

Solidifying Travel Plans

As I had probably previously mentioned, this year looks set to a be a year where I take a few trips. The following are the ideas in the works, probability of it happening and other considerations.

Trip 1
Location: Teochew, Beijing
With: Parents
When: Maybe 1st week of May
Likelihood: 95%
Considerations: Work schedule for May. Approval of leave.

Trip 2
Location: Shanghai, Beijing
With: Friend
When: July
Likelihood: 35%
Considerations: Need to commit to trip, at the moment just remarks. Work schedule for July. Approval of leave.

Trip 3
Location: Macau, Hong Kong.
With: Friend
When: October
Likelihood: 95%
Considerations: Work schedule for Oct. Approval of leave. Friend wants to throw in Taiwan. I don't. Class schedule for Japanese lessons to be considered during planning of trip as well.

These are the current plans for the year. Have another friend who mentioned Japan next year but it was only a brief mention. We'll see.

2009-02-08T23:06:00.001+08:00

Personal Finances and Losing Weight.

Yesterday I was reading a few blog articles about Personal Finances. So far, the common theme is that everyone needs to manage their finances but there is no one sure way to do it. Some people work well with certain methods and others don't. However, the basic concepts remain the same regardless of what method you subscribe to. The main difference amongst the articles I read yesterday was that most advocated totally not using credit cards and some advised using credit cards.

This morning I was thinking and I realised that managing your personal finances is exactly the same as losing weight.

First let us look at the concepts of weight loss.

There are many ways to lose weight. I guess I need not list them all but the basic concepts remains the same. Eat less or exercise more. Preferably eat less AND exercise more.

Now let us look at managing personal finances. When you manage personal finances, what do you want? Hopefully accumulate some wealth right? So how do you save up money? Spend less, or earn more. Preferably spend less AND earn more.

See? They are EXACTLY the same!

Some weight loss methods tell you to count calories, some tell you to exercise like crazy, some tell you to cut the carbs and some tell you to cut the fat. At the end of the day, they all mean that you should reduce your caloric intake one way or the other.

Some personal finance concepts tell you to pay yourself first, some tell you to make a budget and keep to it strictly, some tell you to cut up your credit cards and use cash only and some tell you to pay for everything with a credit card (but make sure you pay the balance in full every month) in order to help keep a expense record. At the end of the day, they all mean that you should spend less then what you earn.

Personally, I do not have a budget. I know that if I had one, I'd stray off it in a week. I'm just that ill disciplined. What I currently do now is to get into the habit of recording everything I spend money on. I don't even really control what I spend on. Hopefully, little by little I will get tired of seeing disgusting expenditure numbers and gradually my spending habits will change. I'm not sure if they have changed much but I know that I have managed to keep up the expense recording for about a year now. I only have about 6 months worth of records though, since an incident with my pc wiped the previous records.

I don't record how much I have in the bank, because I'm too lazy to tally it all up and one of the reasons I never managed to keep up expense recording with other available expense software is that they require too much information from me. Information like balance in account A, balance in account B etc etc. To me, it is simple. As long as I keep within my monthly pay, then it should not matter how much I have in my bank. If I want to know how much I have in my bank, I will just check my bank account. if I have too much information to tally, I know I will just say heck it and throw it aside.

If I forget to input something and I really can't remember how much it was, I either approximate it or forget it. It's not a good thing to do, but rather then fuss over it and get frustrated (thereby increasing the likelihood of me ditching the whole project), this is probably the better way.

I'm also pleased to say that I am an advocate of using credit card to pay whatever I can use it to pay. This is because I can see what I spent on at the end of the month. I can't do that with cash. Cash just... goes. Suddenly my wallet needs cash top ups (bail outs seems the hot term to use these days) and I just have to go to an ATM again. However, all credit card balances must be cleared every month. NO CARRYING OVER!

Hopefully, I will not only continue to keep up recording my expenses but will improve my personal finance situation.

This entry is part of a series of entries that I shall be entering in my blog to get myself into a 'manage my personal finance mode'

2009-01-26T08:34:00.000+08:00

New Year's Eve 乙丑年

First of all, we should just put the topic of spring cleaning aside.

I began the day with a round of prayers to ancestors. Luckily, everyone that we needed to pray to were all happily clustered together in Nee Soon Columbarium. My maternal grandfather is actually in Lim Chu Kang, but when my maternal grandmother passed away, they had his name inscribed on the tablet in Nee Soon Columbarium as well in preparation of when his grave will be exhumed. So we ended up just offering prayers to him there as well.

It's quite a gathering. My paternal grandfather, his parents, my maternal grandparents (and my uncle on my mum's side, if you hadn't heard the story) and my mum's maternal grandmother.

7 people, so although they were all in the same columbarium, it still took a while because they were in 3 spots in the same columbarium and we had to go round setting up 3 times.

After offering prayers to our ancestors, got back home and did my usual new year's eve clothes shopping.

Bought 2 pairs of jeans at $12.90 and 9.90 each. A microfibre shirt at $8.90. 3 Baleno polo shirts at $25 (the cutting is a lil off). A pair of islander slippers at $14.95. Not a bad haul for this year. All within $100.

Reunion dinner at home is usually steamboat and food we used for prayers that morning. This year we didn't have the steamboat but the food hanging around for us to eat was still alot. Dinner consisted of:

Braised duck
Soup with sotong ball, fishball,some vege and quail eggs.
Tofu fried with leek
Pork

Burp! The duck was yummy and I was happily whacking away at the eggs and sotong balls. We've never eaten outside for reunion dinner and especially after the fiasco where one guy who works in a hotel's kitchen called into a radio station and described how they handled festive meals.

One of the examples that stick in my mind was that they salvaged lobster shells from the bin and then fill it in with some meat to serve up. Anyway, I guess when people are really busy, things happen.

Ooooh what is a reunion dinner without an Ang Bao?

After dinner, my father actually wanted to go to Loyang Tua Pek Gong to watch the fireworks, but he fell asleep till about 0010hrs. In the end, we set off for Loyang Tua Pek Gong at about 0030hrs. It was really crowded but I think the crowd has already thinned out since it was past the fireworks.

Incidentally, I'd just like to point out that 初一 does not arrive at midnight. It had arrived at 2330hrs.

Chinese timekeeping states that the new day starts at 子时, which is actually 2300hrs. So you can actually say that a new day has started at 2300hrs. However, if you are obssessed with punctuality, you can further say that in Singapore, a new day arrives at 2330hrs because we had previously adjusted our clocks to match Malaysia's time.

Now you can be a little bit more smart ass too!

2009-01-24T21:01:00.002+08:00

Mani Pedi. Plan Fail.

So my friend had booked an appointment at this new mani pedi place. We turned up for the appointment and the first thing I noticed was that the basin for soaking feet didn't look exactly clean. It still had residue from the previous soaking in it. Although it was only the soaking salts (I hope so!), it proves that no rinsing was done to even minimally clean the basin.

Well, maybe they are too busy.

Turns out that there was only one person working the joint. She had to scoot out to the washroom before starting on us. My friend commented that since there was only one person there, she was daring to accept 2 bookings at once. I replied that it's to earn as much money as possible. I figured that with careful planning, they probably could pull off having only one person work on 2 customers at once.

You know, stuff like start soaking customer A's feet, then while it is soaking, start soaking customer's feet. That sort of thing.

As she started on my friend's feet, another customer walked in. I think she was in for a touch up as the nail tech got the colour album from me and passed it to the walk in. She worked on getting the colours off my friend's toenails till the walk in chose her colours. She then worked on the walk in and I was extremely bored, regretting that I had not brought my DS along.

I thought that she would do the work in stages or stuff like that but she didn't even let my feet soak while she worked on my friend's feet. She didn't even let my friend's feet soak before starting to work on hers so I figure this was some bad planning.

So I waited as she seemed to plan to complete my friend's pedicure at one shot. I started thinking about how long this was going to take since we were going to do both manicure and pedicure. This could take like 3 hours man.

40 mins on, I had to go to the toilet. I was bored and pissed, literally. After I got back, I told my friend that I didn't want to do the mani pedi anymore. It's one and a half days to New Year and I don't have the sort of luxury to squat around being bored while I have other stuff to do. As well, I like the experience of doing a mani pedi... and not a rush job that this one is looking to be. Feels more like an express mani pedi, rather than a classic mani pedi.

She needs to get her workflow sorted out. To people like me, it's not about getting colours on the nails.

2009-01-22T23:41:00.001+08:00

7 hours of Japanese a Week.

So, this is my second week of "7 hours of Japanese a Week". Due to work constraints I've had to take cab to classes twice this week. Monday and today.

My Japanese language classes take place on Monday, Wednesday and Thursdays. I've already learnt to appreciate Tuesday when I have no classes.

I'm currently learning japanese at 2 places. Monday and Wednesday, I am at JCS. Thursday I am at Bunka. Quite a few people have asked me about the differences at these two places so far, but I find that it is probably too early on to make a comparison.

Right now, the main difference is that at Bunka, they have taught the 6 forms of verbs, whereas JCS is more conventional by teaching greeting phrases and sentence structure such as "Noun 1 は Noun 2 です". The learning curve at Bunka is probably steeper in comparison.

I'm planning to take the JLPT 3 examinations at the end of this year. Next year, they will be changing to a new system where there is a new level inserted between the current JLPT 3 and JLPT 2. It has been said by many people that the gap between JLPT 3 and 2 is very wide, so this is probably to addres that.

The current structure is JLPT 4, 3 2, 1
The new structure is JLPT N5, N4, N3, N2, N1

JLPT N5 and N4 is the same as JLPT 4 and 3 respectively. N3 is the new level inserted between the current JLPT 3 and 2. JLPT N2 will be the same as the current JLPT 2. JLPT N1 will be slightly harder then JLPT 1.

I heard that JLPT 1 is so difficult, even Japanese can fail it. And they want to make it harder??

I'm considering going strating to JLPT N2 next year, effectively skipping N3 but essentially going the same route as the current system by going from JLPT 3 to 2. However, I'm concerned that it might be too difficult. Well, I guess we should worry about that next year. This year I should focus on JLPT 3.

In other news, yesterday in class, I overheard the two boys who were seated in front of me discussing a Taiwan trip. One of them brought out a Taiwan guide book and I believe they were trying to figure out the areas in Taiwan.

As you should know, Taiwan has areas called Taibei (台北） and Tainan (台南). So there they were looking at a listing for Northern Taiwan when one of them said "That's Taibei (台北） right?"

"No no, that's not Taibei (台北）. That's Tainan (台南)"

"You sure?"

"Yeah."

"Or maybe Taidong (台东)"

They flip a page and see Western Taiwan.

"Oh. That's Taidong (台东)."

I go -.-'

2009-01-12T01:10:00.003+08:00

Language Class Age Groups

I blogged about this somewhat previously. So far, my assumptions are looking correct.

When I first took the Beginner Korean language class at Lingo (I don't actually recommend it unless you just want to learn language casually) my friend mentioned how the class was rather mature. Actually she said "So many aunties?"

I told her it was correct, since most people would be learning Korean because of Korean Drama and specifically Bae Yong Jun, so this would usually be the '30+ group'. She didn't really believe my statement till the teacher asked us why we wanted to learn Korean.

Out of the 6 people that she felt belonged in the auntie group, all 6 were learning because of Korean drama. If only I can tell the 6 numbers in the next Toto draw.

I also later mentioned to another friend, who was on the quest to find a girlfriend, that he could try attending language classes to get to know girls. Top language of choice if you like a mature girl would be Korean. If you like girls who are 18-24, take Japanese.

At my second lesson in Bunka, one of the 2 guys in my class went around asking our ages. Well, I'm pretty sure I'm about the oldest in the class (I was about the youngest in the Korean class!) and we had like at least three 18 year olds, three to four 22-24 year olds and the guy who asked was 26 himself.

I really need to be able to forecast the Toto numbers!!! What good can come out of guessing age groups of language classes correctly..... Anyway, soon I shall see if my theory continues to hold true. Starting classes at JCS too!

2009-01-04T17:16:00.002+08:00

Vegetarian Angst

I recently came across this display in one of the National Library branches on why Humans should be vegetarians.

Now, I'm not saying vegeterianism is bad or anything, but I feel that sometimes, they try a little to hard to convince people that humans are natural vegetarians. So hard that sometimes they feel like a cult. By all means encourage people to go for a vegetarian diet, but let's be objective about the persuasion points eh?

I'd understand those who are vegetarian due to religious reasons for being pigheaded about their opinions, but those who claim to be vegetarian for scientific reasons are acting worse! It's a cult I tell you.

Just google the web and you'll find articles upon articles substantiating why humans are natural vegetarians. If you read those articles at face value, you certainly will believe them. If you look closer, they are certainly almost always written by a vegetarian.

If you find an article saying that humans are not natural vegetarians, then that article will likely have a critique written about it, in a not very pleasant manner too.

It's kinda scary you know.

I'm a self professed meatatarian. All my friends know that I am allergic to vegetables. Ok, I'm not really allergic to vegetables but might just as well be. I thought it'd be interesting to compare some of the claims that was being displayed in one of the national library branches and see how it stacks up. I feel that the library has a responsibility to ensure that displays are of undisputed facts, and not of subjective opinion. If the information presented is not indisputable, then they should not be displaying it because it is my opinion that people will naturally accept information displayed at libraries as truth, since libraries are meant to foster learning and instill knowledge.

This is a social responsibility of the library.

Anyway, like I mentioned, I thought it'd be interesting to look up some of their claims to see how they all stack up. Before I do, I must emphasise that I am NOT advocating anyone to NOT be vegetarian and be a meatatarian. I'm just doing this for the heck of it.

Today, I will list just one point I remember from the exhibition I saw:

Humans are vegetarian because our intestines are longer then carnivores and herbivores have longer intestines then carnivores.

I looked up the comparison of intestines online. First I found the following information:


Carnivore	3 to 6 times body length
Omnivore	4 to 6 times body length
Herbivore	10 to more than 12 times body length
Human	10 to 11 times body length

In fact, if you actually google, you will find a lot of comparison of the Human GI system, teeth and other facial characteristics against carnivores and herbivores.

Ok, so many articles says the human intestine is "10 to 11 times body length" and is comparable to herbivores. However, I noticed that all such articles were written on vegetarian websites. So I got to thinking, just how long is that in numbers?

A quick google gave the following answers:

"length of the entire human intestine can range from 7.5 to 8.5 meters (25 to 28 feet)"

"average length of the human intestine can be anywhere from 6 to 8.5 meters in length depending on size and age of the person it occupies."

"The small intestine is about 20 feet long . The large intestine also varies and can is usually about 5 feet long. Yikes!"

"The small intestine is about 22 feet (7 meters) long. The large intestine is about 5 feet long.

Source: World Book Encyclopedia, vol. 10, p. 352."

So, we have a range of 6 to 8.5 meters. Now what is human body length? From the top of the head to the bottom of the feet? For this I referred to a wikipedia entry (we're not writing a scientific thesis so it should matter if I use wikipedia does it?) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_height. Running down that list, it seems that 180 cm seems to be well at the upper end of human height averages.

So I shall use 180 cm. If you take 8.5 M as the length of the intestines and divide it by the height, you will see how many times longer then the body length the intestines are.

850/180= 4.72222222222222 (ok that's enough 2s)
~4.72 times longer.

Hmm. Not 10-11 times longer?

Maybe I used a wrong denominator. How about just the length of the torso? Average torso length is bloody difficult to find online. After much scrounging, I finally found a few figures including 23 inches (58.42 cm) to 26 inches (66.04 cm). Anybody who is able to provide more figures may do so.

Using 66.04 cm, we will then see that 850/66.04 = 12.87 times.

Hmmmm.

So as you can see, all this information can really be manipulated and presented in whatever way one wishes it to be. Whether the information is indisputably the truth, remains to be seen.

I'm still meatatarian. lol.

2008-12-31T00:49:00.002+08:00

The Final 24 hours of 2008

Well well. I meant to take part in Eye e City 2008, which is an event where you take photos of the last 24 hours of the year, but I was just to lazy to go down and register myself. Maybe I"ll go out and take photos tomorrow, maybe not. Not really feeling in the 'take photo' mood.

Some people take the New Year on with a big hoo and hah, not me. To me it's a holiday which comes with a half day the day before if it is not a weekend. Besides, my leave officially ends today, a little hard to feel ecstatic over it no?

I much prefer Chinese New Year, but these days, Chinese New Year is losing it's charm. 'Modern' people do everything they can to show how 'modern' they are by not following traditions and even going against tradition. Isn't it odd?

People wear black on Chinese New Year, more shops stay open, some just plainly don't celebrate Chinese New Year. Yet it is considered 'modern' to partake in Christmas and such events. Yeah well, I guess Christmas is indeed more 'modern' then Chinese New Year as it has a much shorter history and though no one can say certainly in which year it started, I think we can be sure it's less then 2008 years right now as opposed to the approximately 4600 years of the Chinese Calendar (which may not be taken to mean Chinese New Year has been celebrated for 4600 years, by the way).

I love when the shops are all closed for days... it really gives you the feel of Chinese New Year!! Nowadays really no kick. Oh well. I guess that comes when people feel 'modern'.

On the topic of the colour of clothes, a lot of people these days wear black to weddings and bright colours to funerals. Don't be so old fashioned they say. Which year is it already? they claim. Yet, these are the same people who usually wear a white wedding gown, to signify purity they say.

Did they know that before Queen Victoria got married in a white gown in 1840, a lady who wore a white gown at her wedding was telling people that she was poor and did not bring anything to the marriage? The white wedding gown was popularised after Queen Victoria's wedding, as such it is commonly known as the Victorian wedding gown. That's from 1840. 168 years ago and you tell me that white gowns are not 'old fashioned'.

Ah well, but it is after all the last 24 hours of the year, and I should not be griping so much.

Next year will be a busy one! Classes, classes! Hopefully, I will be able to clear JLPT 3 at the end of the year.

2008-12-29T23:31:00.000+08:00

Borders Bonanza

Borders is having a promotion where you get 30% off if you buy 3 books and 40% off if you buy 4 books or more. This applies to all full priced books and you get another 10% off the nett purchase price (which I guess means the price after discount) if you are a Preferred Member.

I always wonder about the term. If there is a preferred member, is there a non preferred member? Anyway the effective discount for this current promotion, if you are a Preferred Member, will be about 46%.

WOW.

Time to fill up the booklists!

I went down today and this is my haul:

Robert Ludlum: The Lazarus Vendetta
Michael Crichton: Disclosure
Michael Crichton: The Terminal Man
Michael Crichton: Prey
Michael Crichton: State of Fear
Michael Crichton: Case of Need
Teach Yourself : Korean (coursebook only)
Teach Yourself : Portuguese (with 2 audio CDs and 1 coursebook)
Langenscheidt Korean - English Dictionary

My total expenditure on books at Borders today stands at $132.81. The total without discount would have been $245.95. I'm so humongously pleased with my haul, even though it meant I spent a buttload of money today.

I might go down to Borders again to pick up a couple more Robert Ludlum books.

I pretty much have all Michael Crichton books, if not duplicates of a few that I have forgotten that I have. Once his next book is published next May, that'll be the last of his books. Wonder what book that is.

2008-12-27T03:58:00.002+08:00

Peranakan Wedding

Since my mum kept telling me about what she felt were inconsistencies in the show Little Nonya, I decided to google "Peranakan Wedding" and this was one of the first things I came across.

A video where the Peranakan Museum reenact a Peranakan Wedding.

If you notice, in this video the bride does NOT wear a Kebaya. This kinda makes sense since in those days, the bride was marrying into Chinese customs even if she was Malay.

Anyone who can provide more information on the Kebaya's role during weddings, please let me know.

2008-12-27T03:03:00.003+08:00

More Little Nonya Continuity Issues

I just can't keep myself from not watching this show. Maybe because I want to see what other surprises will be sprung on us next.

From the last time I commented on this show, so much has happened. I'll just pick some that I remember cos I missed some episodes and others were a blur.

1) The scene where Yueniang was pushed into the well.... the well is situated at the kitchen and that day they were having Tok Panjang. NOBODY needed to get water from the well? Then why did they need a well? Fine, maybe they really didn't need water from the well. NOBODY thought the stuff stacked on the well looked out of place and wanted to put them back where they belong? This is a house full of servants, remember? Not your home or my home where we lazy till we can't be bothered to pick up after ourselves.

2) The scene where Liu Yidao's mother died. So many years already the white blouse still fits her perfectly. Amazing leh. And pristine white.

*My mum keeps nagging to me that Peranakan ladies do not wear the Kebaya during weddings. She says that they wear the 风褂 (phoenix robes). Well, I have seen such photos but in the show they all wear Kebaya. Somemore got stories and reasons for the rites, rituals and what they wear. All the stories and reasons must come from some place right? Can't be fictional right?*

3) In those days, the trip from Singapore to Malacca seems very short. The characters freely appear in Singapore or Malacca. I think they must have had something even better than the North South Highway in those days!

4) This is something I'd like to see them explain. Remember that the photo of Juxiang that Yousuke coloured in Japan? It was supposedly sent to Yueniang by his sister. Now... if Yousuke died in the war leaving nothing behind for Yueniang, how would Yueniang have gotten in touch with her relatives in Japan? Maybe you think Yousuke's sister has Yousuke's address since he was writing all the letters. True. However, that was the address of the photo studio in Singapore where Yueniang no longer lives.

Maybe she'll go and buy that place for keepsakes or something and the photo happened to arrive there after she did that?

5) This is more of my own curiousity. How old is Tao Jie in present time, really? 90 years old maybe? I'm estimating based on Yueniang's age. Yueniang was born around the time of the Japanese invasion of Singapore, so we can put that at around 1937-1942 (her father went back to Japan before the Japanese invaded Singapore). I think 1940 - 1942 is more plausible.

Before Yueniang was born, Tao Jie was already working in the Huang Family as a servant and had taken vows of celibacy. So I think she is at least 16-18 years old at that time. 1940 - 16 = 1922. 84 years old! Or thereabouts.

Next is something which makes me want to go faceplam. The stupid girl, keep changing her mind like she's selling roti prata. Don't want to marry Chen Xi when she found out who he was. Then tell him to ask fro her hand in marriage or abscond with her. Then when he does and people let her escape the house, she changes her mind and runs all the way back. After getting married to Liu Yidao, she changes her bloody mind AGAIN and says she doesn't want to be married to Liu Yidao. W T H.

Oh and this leads to continuity point 6.

6) I know in this show, the white blouse is very important. Need to keep till death. Still.. if you were to run from a home to a railway station and then back, don't you think you would at least be.... you know... sweaty? Unless your home is next to or AT the railway station, but we're talking about rich people, will they stay next to railway stations? I think it's at least a 2 KM run for her to the station and back loh. Hair is still ever so tidy and pretty, blouse is still so white and dry.... and she was running through vegetation to boot.

Watching this show really made me think that Nonya have nothing better to do then to fight over men with sewing and cooking. Oh yes, my mum insists that's not true either.

2008-12-26T23:42:00.000+08:00

Japanese gifts for Chinese New Year.

Yesterday, I came across a promotional pamphlet Fraser's Centrepoint Malls. As part of their Chinese New Year promotional efforts, they were giving out Furoshiki (Japanese wrapping cloths). I wonder how many people had a thought flash past their mind like I did, that it is so ironic.

Why? 15th February 1942. The date ring a bell? That was the 1st day of Chinese New year in 1942. That was also the day the British surrendered Singapore to the Japanese.

I'm not saying we must all hate them and boycott them. I just thought it an interesting combination. Furoshiki for Chinese New Year lol.

I like Japanese stuff pretty much like the average joe on the street. The one thing I don't like is their military. Oh yeah they do have a military force in case you hadn't noticed.

2008-12-15T23:56:00.002+08:00

Excitement! EXCITEMENT!!

Today I received information that the Final Fantasy Distant Worlds Concert will be playing in Singapore next year!!

This is so amazing! When I attended the Play! Concert last year, I wrote down in the comments that I hoped for more video game related and specifically Final Fantasy related concerts.. but I didn't expect my dream to actually come true! Well, in the comments I actually wrote down Voices Concert, but Distant Worlds is just as wonderful because it's still Final Fantasy!

Attached is a program I took from the website:

2-hour concert program produced by Nobuo Uematsu and AWR Music Productions, LLC (not in performance order, subject to change):

FINAL FANTASY series: Main Theme, Swing de Chocobo

FINAL FANTASY I-III: Medley

FINAL FANTASY IV: Theme of Love

FINAL FANTASY V: Dear Friends

FINAL FANTASY VI: Opera "Maria and Draco"

FINAL FANTASY VII: One-Winged Angel, Opening - Bombing Mission, Aerith's Theme

FINAL FANTASY VIII: Liberi Fatali, Fisherman's Horizon, Love Grows, Don't be Afraid

FINAL FANTASY IX: Vamo' alla Flamenco

FINAL FANTASY X: To Zanarkand

FINAL FANTASY XI: Memoro de la Stono - Distant Worlds

I wonder if they will playing Distant Worlds in instrumental version only, or will they get someone to sing the voiced version? If they get someone to sing... and this person will most likely have better english then the original singer... I wonder what the effect will be like? To listen to the original version, just look at the music playlist above this post and choose "Distant Worlds".

I just know I will love all the music. Anything written by Nobuo Uematsu is holy stuff. One Winged Angel, Liberi Fatali are very strong powerful pieces of music. Theme of Love, Love Grows, Aerith's Theme, Dear Friends are nice sweet music.. I just don't think I can pick a favourite right now. It will depend on the execution of the orchestra that day.

I am thinking about the encore piece... what will it be?? Will it be One Winged Angel: AC Version? Oh man, wouldn't it be cool if the Black Mages popped along?? Mad guitar riffs during One Winged Angel: AC Version + The Black Mages will be OMG wonderful even though I don't think it's gonna happen. Can still dream right?

Oh I just can't wait for it!! This is humongously exciting! If anyone of you does not understand why this is so exciting to me, buzz off!

2008-12-06T23:58:00.000+08:00

Increase Passenger Capacity on MRT!

Took a train today and guess what? They did increase passenger capacity, by ripping out seats in one section of the cabin. In each cabin, there will be one section (as defined by the area in between two doors) that has no seats at all.

Very spacious cabin!

Sure got place to stand.

Maybe City Hall MRT station will upgrade from squashed rotten sardines to just squashed sardines?

2008-12-06T23:55:00.000+08:00

First Driving Lesson!

My very first confirmed lesson is actually on the 5th of January, then I managed to get earlier slots on the 26th of Dec, but last night I managed to snatch a slot for today. I did not want the 8am slot cos that's too early for me.....

Anyways, I thought I'd go and apply for a PDL before the first lesson, but turns out that it was very crowded... waiting time is too long. My lesson would have started before my turn was up and then by the time my lesson ended, the TP counter would be closed.

Anyway was waiting for my lesson to start when I met someone from my workplace. Chatted up a bit and then went off to start my first lesson. Scary leh. Don't know what to expect. Stand at the car and wait?? I noticed people waiting in the front passenger seats of the cars so I followed suit. When the flood of instructors came pouring in, it was time to play "Guess who's my instructor". I'd have to say he's very patient hahaha! I guess he has no choice.

Basically today I learnt to change gear, accelerate, go round the circuit round and round and round. Didn't expect to go round the circuit, but I guess you can't be sitting in the lot all day right? The first turn was freaking hairy.

The instructor was a lil funny too. When I asked how long he had been teaching, he said 2nd day. I was wondering whetehr I had heard wrongly when he said he was joking and it was his second year. He said that he saw my face like half dead when he said second day, I told him that I was wondering if I had heard wrongly. Anyways even if it was his second day also ok mah, me = first day, lagi worse right?

Now I know why my father says the instructor for the first lesson will be suffering from severe carquake. What clutch biting point when moving off, car shake shake shake. Father knows best. Hahahahah!

Next confirmed lesson is 26th Dec. Gonna camp for last minute cancellations!

2008-12-05T23:34:00.000+08:00

Little Nonya Continuity Issues

I have been watching this show because I was curious about the Peranakan-Japanese romance during WWII. So far, I would say that the show is watchable but there are serious continuity issues in there.

Well, first let me address issues brought up by my mum. My mother constantly reminds me and nags about how peranakan female children do not wear the Kebaya. Instead they wear Chinese style clothing. They only wear the Kebaya after they grow up.

I have to admit that I have not watched every single episode, so if there was some continuity explanation that I have missed out, do let me know. Else, onwards!

1) Senior Yueniang said that the photo of Juxiang holding a pot of Longan tea was coloured by her father while he was in Japan. It was said that he coloured it slowly, little by little. So how long did he spend there? Later on, it was said that when Yousuke returned to Japan to visit his father, his father had already passed away and he was arrested and put to military service. From there he became a deserter and made his way down to Singapore. So.. he tuanged at home in Japan for quite some time colouring the photo before he was arrested?

2) Little Yueniang's language. When Yueniang was born, her father was not in Singapore. Her mother is deaf and mute, so how did she learn to address her mother as Nya Nya and not some other form of address? Or maybe she learnt it from Teochews / Hokkiens living in the area?

3) When Charlie Zhang saw Yousuke impersonating as an officer, he must have seen Juxiang as well. Why was he no longer interested in the fact that Juxiang appeared in front of him and had to mobilise a platoon to track down Yousuke before being able to confirm that impersonator was indeed Yousuke? Wasn't Juxiang a huge clue there?

4) Yousuke's body. Why did the Kempeitai keep his body? Little Yueniang demanded the body from the Kempeitai, got the body and even had 2 Japanese soldiers help her move and bury her parents.

5) This has got to be the one thing I simply cannot understand. The rest of the stuff listed above I can ignore due to dramatic licence. How did Yueniang know where to find her grandmother who was in Malacca? Her mother was deaf and mute as well as illiterate. She can't speak, she can't write. She mimed the address to Yueniang??

I don't think too much when I watch shows, but this one is really begging for questions to be asked.

Oh yes, my mum also keeps reminding me about how some people who have no clue what Peranakan culture is keep claiming that they are Peranakan. Seriously people go get a clue before trying to say you're not Chinese, but a Peranakan.

2008-12-02T23:28:00.001+08:00

Learning to Drive

So, I finally decided to just get it over and done with. I don't really want or need a driving licence. I just thought I'd get it.

Maybe someone will be nice enough to give me a car after I get a licence hahahah!

I wonder how long it will take me to get the licence and how much it will cost me....

Earliest available lesson slots are in January but I'll be camping the website for trysell slots!

2008-11-26T01:42:00.005+08:00

Thoughts on the MRT...

So a couple of days ago, I was reading this thread on SPUG that was talking about the local public transport and fare hikes. I was reminded of that thread today while on the MRT and decided to give it a bit more thought since I was doing nothing much except staring at someone else' hair anyway.

Essentially, the discussion got to a point where we were discussing about how to increase the efficiency of MRT by carrying more passengers per train, clearing more passengers per hour etc etc.

The following are some of the suggestions tossed out, and my opinion on the viability of each opinion.

1) Utilise foldable seats such that seating capacity may be increased during off peak hours, and standing capacity may be increased during peak hours.

A good idea that would probably take quite some time to fly. Singaporeans would probably pull down the seats and sit on them during peak hours anyway. Come on, touch your heart and you know what the answer will be, don't you?

2) Increase number of cars per train to carry more passengers.

Basically anything that increases capacity can't be a bad idea. Just that our stations will need major modifications.

3) Increase frequency of trains.

Now surely this is the perfect answer for everyone? More trains equate increased passenger capacity. Additionally, if the train were to travel faster, we'd all get to where we wanted to go faster!

Now, someone raised a valid concern. Frequency of trains can only be increased to a certain level. Beyond that, it is just not possible. However, I am not able to provide you with the answer. Although some people have suggested that 1.5 - 2 mins should be easily achievable. We'll leave that question to the experts shall we?

Anyway, the concern was that, sometimes you get stuck on a train that can't pull into a station because the preceding train is still in the station. Now we're all on a train, true, but we're still not getting anywhere faster. Personally, I don't mind waiting on a train but yes, I do understand what they mean. However, I feel that in order to increase frequency of trains, increasing the travelling speed of the train is not the only factor that will contribute to the 'waiting time'.

First, I think that if there were more trains per hour, then if the number of people filling the train platform remains constant, we will have a smaller crowd waiting to board each train. This will translate to a lesser delay while the trains wait for passengers to board and alight and the trains should technically be able to move off faster.

Next we will touch on the issue that got me to thinking more about this subject. Letting people alight first.

Now, why in the world would that even matter, one might wonder. See, it's simple. The faster you let people get off, the faster you can get on. The faster you get on the train, the faster the train can move off. The faster the train can move off, the faster the next train can come in. The faster the next train can come in, the higher the possibility that you can actually get on a train without having your face stuck to the door till the next station. Wonderful solution ain't it?

How do we let people get off trains faster? First, you do NOT attempt to board the train when people are trying to alight. The idea here is to keep the doorway clear for them so that they can bugger their way out of the train faster, to make space for YOU! So that YOU can board the train! Without your face stuck to the door no less! Yay!

Next, to further ensure those irritating people alighting get out of your way faster, you should keep away from the exodus path. This means that you should let them have an area to spill out onto the train platform. I shall use some simple symbols to try and describe what I mean.

The crowd around and gawk situation.
This is where people will crowd around the train doors and gawk at the alighting passengers, being very reluctant to let them leave. It will look something like this:

........Door
Crowd\..../Crowd
.......Crowd

This usually tends to cause the alighting people to slow down and bask in your attention. Also means that you get on the train slower. So train leaves station slower. Next train comes slower. Everyone is stuck on the platform staring at each other.

The get outta their way situation.
This is where people actually make way for the alighting passengers. That's right, admire them from afar and wish them godspeed in getting outta your way.

..........Door
Crowd/.......\Crowd

This usually translates to a smoother flow of people you don't want to share space with off the train. If they are not on the train, guess what happens? YOU get space on the train. Yay! They get off faster, you get on faster, train moves off faster, next train comes in faster. We're all happier cos more people get on trains every hour.

Makes sense any?

Unfortunately, this solution has one horrible weakness.

We're in Singapore.

Darn.

Back to the drawing boards!

2008-11-22T23:50:00.000+08:00

Ding Dong and alot Going On!

Well not a lot going on really but seeing as it's stuff from the past 2 weeks.....

First, SIA update! Some guy who apparently can make a decision called me up and talked to me. Yadda yadda. Anyway to make a long story short, explained stuff, apologised, and gave me mileage for the return trip made to Japan. A approximate estimation of value on the mileage given (based on a redemption for a Hong Kong airfare) would be about say.... SGD150.

Oh my friend got mileage too. They credited it to her Miles & More account though it was only 5000 miles (I got over 6000). They initially mentioned that they might not be able to credit her Miles & More account if Lufthansa did not agree to it, but in the end did manage to pull it off.

Starting Japanese language lessons next year too. All along I had benn pretty decided on taking lessons at JCS, but these couple of days, I wonder if I should try Bunka. Since enrolling at JCS is an extremely challenging task with opportunities being presented once a year (twice if you want to take the Intensive Elementary module), I decided that I will go ahead and enrol at JCS but also take up a course at Bunka.

According to what I hear, some people do this as well. Take classes at both JCS and Bunka. JCS is supposed to be very good for sticking to JLPT syllabus, whereas Bunka is supposed to have this funky approach to teach Japanese, where they will go right into grammar or something. Bunka claims to be able to teach people Japanese in a shorter time frame.

Since I have no experience in either places, I guess I will give them both a try!

Oh, I was supposed to take Japanese lessons with this friend of mine. Turns out that her degree schedule does not allow her t take the intensive course, so she will have to take the regular course and pick weekend classes. I really don't like to choose weekend classes, so I think we'll be taking classes separately. This is the friend who wanted to learn Korean and Japanese at the same time and Spanish too if possible. With her degree schedule.... not possible till second half of the year.

I'm going to skip JLPT 4 and try for JLPT 3 by the end of 2009. The JLPT test system is going to undergo a review and they are adding a new level between the current JLPT 3 and JLPT 2 by Dec 2010. I hear the new level 1 exam is also going to be a bit tougher then the curent one. I guess this is to address the current gap between JLPT 3 and JLPT 2..... I wonder if I can skip further levels lol. First target: Skip JLPT 4!

Went to a friend's wedding tonight as well. Met up with some orchestra friends that I met back in poly. Oh wow, it's been many years now. Hopefully we get a gathering going so that we an all meet up and have a bash, just like the old days (with a bit more white hair, fats and stuff lol).

Wondering if I should pick up driving too? With Japanese taking 7 hours a week...... hmm.

2008-11-06T22:27:00.001+08:00

SIA Fiasco Continued.

I called up the SIA Reservations desk to ask them to refer my case to the appropriate personnel while specifying that I was not interested to speak to the Customer Affairs Department since they never seem to read my email, reply accordingly, pick up phones and such. In fact, it really feels like the Customer Affairs Department is primarily run by a grand total of two staff. One who mans the phone and who goes on 8 hour tea breaks, the other who handles the email account and seems like she is on 16 week maternity leave.

The reservation desk person who picked up my call probably transferred me to the supervisor on duty. Poor girl. She started to ask me what my issue was, so I asked her if she would like me to start from the very begginning. I did and then she started to justify actions taken on SIA's part.

I started to explain the cause, which was the part where I was promised points which I was later brushed off by Krisflyer. At this point in time she started to interrupt and say that she understood and stuff and started to justify why the points cannot be issued to me. So I got ticked and told her "Since you say you understand, can you please tell me what my issue now is?"

She started to explain about the points when I interrupted her saying "I have already got the points, so that is not my issue right now"

Sigh. What kind of customer service is this really? Interrupting customers seems to be the norm.

Anyway, she said that she would refer the case to the Customer Affairs Department, but since the managers were not around (come on if they were ever around, I think I would have gotten a reply years ago) they can only call me back tomorrow morning. I told her to get me the name of the person who would call me back, but she was unable to do so since no one was around. She was on the phone with the person who has been handling (or trying to handle) my email correspondence and it turned out that it was so coincidental that she was suffering from email problems and was unable to read my latest email sent last night.

I'm such a lucky gal you know.

We'll see tomorrow!

2008-11-03T23:39:00.000+08:00

Back in Singapore!

Wakey wakey in the morning to move our booty to Narita Airport!

Last night wasn't a great night. We had ourselves (2 Singaporeans), A Japanese girl, a Belgian girl, a Taiwanese girl and a girl who came in so late, I didn't get a chance to speak to her so she will be unknown girl.

So my friend and I were enjoying a rather empty dorm till the evening when the Japanese girl came in. She's nice and friendly and we started chatting. The Belgian girl came in later and we all were happily chatting away.

Next came the Taiwanese girl. Somehow, she gave me some bad vibes. Anyway she was mostly off in her corner typing away on her laptop MSNing her friends. My friend later told me that she didn't like this girl as well.

Anyway, we were all chatting and stuff, the four of us, the only part where I remember the Taiwanese girl chiming in was when the Japanese girl asked us why we seemed to speak English rather well and this is where she butted in by saying that English is our official language.

Oh ho ho ho ho. So how come SELENA and that engrish teacher were so happily slamming us leh?? Huh? Trying to slam us that even though English is our official language, it's still so lousy in Singapore is it??

Anyway, I just had to show her up and said that we have four official languages in Singapore.

After like 3 hours of chatting, we decided to starting getting to sleep. So we were all pretty much settled in when this girl decides to use the ensuite bathroom. All the time I've been in the room, I've not seen anyone use that bathroom. I've only used it once the first time I was in the room cos I didn't know there was a bathroom outside.

I don't use that bathroom because it is really small and the frigging door is super noisy. So I use the bathroom outside so as not to wake the room up.

She then decides to close the sliding door... which is also noisy.

She goes on with some more MSNing and then after sometime finally decides to make her bed up. More noise.

Climbs up and down the bed, cos she was sleeping on the upper deck above me. Oh yeah, I forgot to mention that when she came in, she had asked which beds were available and we told her which two were available. Unfortunately, only 2 upper deck beds were available. She looked around and started pointing to the lower deck beds asking if those were taken. Just to let you readers know, the lower deck beds were all made up and we were all sitting at the respective beds. Kinda a huge clue to anyone that the beds were not available... even if one does not understand English and thus could not understand what we said when we told them which beds were available right?

Anyway, amongst the stuff she did, while she was using her laptop while sitting on the floor, she was comfortably leaning on her backpack which was leaning my gymbag full of food! Which was dangerously close to my Final Fantasy stuff!! Had she touched them she would be minced meat I tell you.

So, because of that I was already quite unhappy. Plus all the preparatory work she could have done (all the noisy stuff) when we were all chatting away, but she didn't... all these made me so mad I almost couldn't sleep. Grr, I only slept at 0300 hrs JPT and I needed to be awake by 0630hrs.

Oh the weather was actually quite cool and it's the kind where you snuggle into futons. I don't think the aircon was on, but she switched it on to 28 degrees. I didn't realise that actually, I was concerned that she made it colder. The Belgian girl noticed it and asked her whether she was really cold. The aircon was set to 25.

Later on, there was some really weird thumping sound which sounded like it came from the direction of the ensuite bathroom. It was seriously disturbing. Like someone pounding on the wall. Guess who was in the bathroom?? No prizes!

Somehow made it to 0300.... I tell you, if it were not for the other girls in the room, I would have made it a point that she will suffer!

The next morning over tea, the Japanese girl and us were discussing the late night antics. OMG. It was just exasperating.

After saying our goodbyes, it was time to head off to Narita. We didn't take the Narita Express, as the hostel staff advised us that the local train takes just about the same length of time to reach Narita and is much cheaper.

We got to Narita and we needed to get to the 4th floor for internation departures. I think my friend was cursing and swearing by then lol. Checkin was a little crowded, but I had done internet check in so halfway through the queue, I spotted a line for internet check in. My friend wanted to remain in the queue so we did for a while, then I pointed out to her that the internet check in line was empty whereas the line we were in was still a ways to go, so we scuttled over.

While checking in, we did what the air steward advised us to do on our way to Osaka, place our meal request with the check in staff. Since it was not 24 hours before the flight (I had wondered about whether there was sufficient time to prepare the food if we only told them at the airport, but we were only following SIA air steward instructions), they told us that they could not guarantee the meals but would do their best.

Our meal requests turned out fine, my friend ended up having to take Oriental Vegetarian because she requested for a non beef and non seafood meal. I asked for non beef only and I got a fish meal. My main course was Poached White Fish, entree was Smoked Salmon, there was a bun and butter to go with it and a cracker with yummy cheese to go with it. OOOh. Food's great. Once you can get it in your mouth that is.

So once we were airborne, we were rather bored since Krisworld was not available.... they had system problems with Krisworld. On an A380. New plane. WTH. It took about 20 mins before they had it settled. Krisworld is great, once they get it working.

The pilot didn't seem to know his crew well as during the introductions he couldn't name his chief steward (or was it stewardess, I have no clue since he was hemming and hawwing). I guess as long as he can fly the plane it's fine. I think the weather might have been a little bad, the initial take off part was so smooth I was pretty impressed, but then it started getting jerky. >.> Kinda like in a mini rodeo.

After hours of watching movies, we landed in Singapore and taxied to the aerobridge. Once the plane systems shut down, the whole plane was dark since the ground supply didn't cut in. I was happily seated in my chair and everyone else was standing around waiting. Come on guys, if the plane has no power, the doors are not gonna open!

The pilot was funny while trying to explain the loss of power, he also requested our understanding I think. I'm not sure really. He said "I understand that you bear with us while we get this sorted out."

I'm still trying to decipher that.

Back home.

Yay.

Now on to deal with SIA.

Oh, dinner was at T3 Dian Xiao Er. Weird people there wanted the 3 numbers on the back of my credit card and had me signo n the receipt. I was using VISA Paywave for goodness sake.

Weirdos. Never had to do that in other Dian Xiao Er restaurants and obviously the cashier could not answer why when questioned.

2008-11-02T23:38:00.002+08:00

SE Store

My friend threw away the map to SE Store last night....... She can't find a location WITH a map so I guess she figured might as well toss it. Anyway, managed to find SE Store. It was OMG!!! from the second I walked in.

First I saw slimes from Dragonquest, not interested... then I saw the chocobos! Then it all started.

All you guys need to know is that I made it to the SE Character Goods store, I saw Sephiroth. I bought stuff.

Hey, it's all for my birthday ok??

2008-11-01T21:27:00.002+08:00

Mt Fuji!

Got back from Fuji today. Went out to stay at one of the five lakes of Fuji last night. We were brought by my friend's boss' friend. Turns out that there's an agenda behind it.

She brought us to Fo Guang Shan (Ben Xi Branch) to stay. It's a nice view and not a bad place to stay because it used to be a training school so it pretty much had proper accomodations. The bath area even had a soaking pool, not really onsen but it's supposed to be water from the snow on Mt Fuji. So what's the agenda? The people there were really nice, but you can feel the constant propaganda barrage. I guess they just want to share their beliefs but the stay costs 5000 JPY a night though it includes dinner and breakfast (vegetarian by the way). It's not free lol.

The next day, which is this morning, 2 of our group of 5 woke up to watch the sunrise. I watched the sunrise with Zhou Gong. After breakfast, we packed and prepared to move on.

First stop of the day is at a flower and bird park kinda thing. Normally costs 1025 JPY but we got in for 800 JPY. Too expensive imho.

Then it was on to the 5th Station. Along the way, we had a few stops to take photos. Unfortunately, the sun was always shining directly at me, so I can only hope for reasonable results.

It's pretty cold up there so we took photos, visited the temple at 5th station, checked out the souvenir shop and then went on our way down.

Had lunch along the way and then we got back to Asakusa to check back into our hostel. This time our dorm room is an all girl's room. It's actually the same dorm room we stayed in before Hakone sans the guys. Feels so much cleaner now lol.

Tomorrow, SE Store!

2008-10-30T23:03:00.002+08:00

Harajuku and Shibuya

Finally, we're visiting a shrine in Tokyo itself. Today, we went to Meji Jinggu shrine which is in Harajuku. It's in a rather nice park which trees were donated from all over the country to build the park.

The shrine is free admission which is a good point for it. It's getting frigid these days so the walk in the park was pleasant but a little chilly.

After visting Meiji Jinngu, we walked down to Shibuya. It's basically a shopping area for the younger and trendier people. My friend and I hit up Tower Records and HMV... saw quite a few albums that I would like to have but decided to check them out in Singapore instead as each CD here costs an average of 2500 JPY.

The few albums include:

Bossa Disney Carioca (3059 JPY)

The Bothy Band 1975 (2510 JPY)

Disney's Jazz Album : Jumping and Jive (2548 JPY)

Celtic Woman (1590 JPY)

Sarah Brightman has a Christmas album out. Sounds cool.

Not sure if I should complete my FF music collection, I can always buy online slowly..instead of now at one shot.

Had Starbucks today, Chocolate Truffle, 450 JPY for a tall version.

In the evening, we went to the area asournd Tokyo JR Station. We found Takashimaya and had dinner at Ding Tai Fung. My dinner was a cool 1890 JPY... for crab meat fried rice, xiao long bao, almond dessert which I gave to my friend and some pickled vegetables which went to my friend as well.

I'm getting poorer! Could have saved on dinner cos I still had bread in the pack but my friend was hungry without food and settled for Ding Tai Fung. Oh well. Good food now and then is ok! She has like 6000 JPY left I think! We started with about the same amount of JPY.

My huge purchase is yet to come though! SE Character Goods store will bankrupt me ; ;

2008-10-29T23:40:00.002+08:00

Nikko

Woke up, washed up and was out to the metro station by about 0715. Today's destination is Nikko and we wanted to pick up the World Heritage pass for Nikko. This pass will include a round trip to Nikko from Asakusa station on the Tobu-Nikko line. The pass costs us 3600 JPY and includes rides on the bus for the World Heritage route. The pass also grants us admission to the 2 shrines and 1 temple of Nikko. The lady that sold us the pass was very friendly and helpful. She gave us instructions on where to go and where to visit. She also asked us where we were from and how we found out about the pass. I told her that I read about the pass on the internet, wikitravel.

The train leaves every hour to Nikko and takes about 2 hours to get to Nikko. Long ride. We had to make sure that we were on the first 2 cars, because the others would stop at Shimoimachi and go off to another location.

Arriving in Nikko, it was rather frigid. Once we got to the temple/shrine area though, it was quite ok. Nikko is really pretty in Autumn and there were lots of people in Nikko. It was kinda scary actually. We thought it'd be a good day to visit Nikko, seeing that it was a weekday, but I guess perhaps weekends are crazier.

We had lunch in a nice little place which had a tatami area and a french deco area. I had actually prepared bread but my friend was hungry and without lunch so we ate at the little cafe. I had ramen with a slice of pork in soy sauce soup base, while my friend had rice with pork cutlet and miso soup.

After the shrines and temple, we walked down to Shinkyo, which is a pretty little wooden bridge over a stream. From there we walked back to Tobu Nikko station and took the train back to Asakusa, this time, it was a 2 and a half hour ride.

Today was rather frigid. Tomorrow might be worse but I picked up some heat packs from a 100 yen shop!!

Dinner was bento that cost only 262 JPY! Had bento from this stall before and it was rather good for the price so we went back today for more.

Tomorrow, we will be visiting Meiji-Jinggu shrine, Shibuya and probably Tokyo Tower.

2008-10-28T19:58:00.003+08:00

Hakone

Just got back into Tokyo this afternoon after spending the night in Hakone. We set off yesterday morning to Shinjuku station where we transferred to the Odakyu line in order to get to Hakone. We purchased the two day Hakone Freepass for 5000 JPY. This pass covers the transport from Shinjuku to Hakone and all Hakone Tozan services which includes buses, trains, cable cars and the ropeway. It's a really useful pass.

We took the Odakyu Ltd Express train to Odawara where we transferred over to the Hakone Tozan line to Hakone Yumoto station to catch a bus to Motohakone. The fare for this trip alone would have cost about 2000 JPY if we had bought the tickets separately.

My friend had booked a hotel room at the Lakeside Inn Charlotte in Motohakone which is by Lake Ashi. After getting off the bus, we followed the instructions that were given online and found the hotel with little trouble. We were quite disappointed when we saw the external facade of the hotel. It had some algae on the outside wall. There was also a sign near the entrance that stated that cleaning was in progress and there was a number for us to call to get in or something. We decided to walk around a bit and went to sit along the lake to eat our lunch. After that, we approached the hotel by the other side and saw someone in the hotel, so we decided to try our luck getting in.

The guy let us in and advised us that the check in timing was at 1500hrs. He told us to leave our bags at the hotel in the meantime and introduced a route for us to explore Hakone while waiting for check in. We took up his suggestion since it was all covered by the Hakone Freepass that we had bought, and it was our intention to do that route as well.

First we went to take the Hakone Sightseeing cruise, it bring us across Lake Ashi on a pirate ship. I thought that was funny because of all the swordsmen movies in which most Japanese depiction was of them as pirates....

The cruise ended at Togendai, which was where we could board the Hakone Tozan Ropeway which will bring us around the mountains. We stopped at Owakudani and visited the areas where you can see hot springs. This is where they cook black eggs which are supposed to add 7 years of longevity for every egg consumed. The eggs are black because of the sulphuric acid present in the water and there is ALOT of hydrogen sulfide going around... That's right... the mountain farts. A lot.

The eggs cost us 500 JPY for 5. It's really piping hot when you get it. You can add some salt to the egg, the salt is provided in the pack. You can also have it without the salt and the egg yolk is rather nice without the salt anyway. from Owakudani Ropeway station, you have trails of people going up to this hut up in the mountain and buying eggs and eating eggs. Amidst hydrogen sulfide. It's rather amusing really.

After exploring the area and eating the eggs, we continued on our way by going the rest of the way along the ropeway. We then transferred to the Cablecar which brought us to Gora station.. here, we were actually recommended by the hotel manager to take the train to Kowakudani station before transferring to the bus but I got it wrong and took a bus instead. I only realised that we were 'supposed' to take a train when the driver said we needed to change buses at Kowakien. Anyway, we needed to make a transfer, so it wasn't a problem. It was just missing out on taking a train on the great medley of transportation we were going on that day, but we certainly weren't missing train rides...! We had just taken a 120 min train ride in the morning to Hakone!

By the time we got back to the hotel, it was time to check in. We got our bags, and went up to our room on the third floor, Rm 303 and we were simply amazed at the rooms. I have to tell you that the exterior of the hotel does so much disservice to the hotel itself. The rooms are very nicely done up. It smells nice, there is boiled water in the pot. Yukata, slippers and stuff are provided. The manager had asked us if we wanted to have dinner at the hotel but we had refused it since we had prepared our own simple dinner. the next morning during breakfast, we heard reviews on the dinner and they said the dinner was great.

We stayed in the room the whole evening, which is amazing actually seeing that we were in the room by 1800hrs! The only thing to do in Hakone after dark is to go to the Onsen and we didn't actually want to go to public onsen. My friend booked this hotel because she thought there was a onsen in the room... turns out that there isn't (Luckily I was semi prepared for that to happen).

The next morning, we woke up to breakfast which is a nicely done ham and cheese burger. I seemed to be the only person having tea at breakfast, they ran out of the regular tea and I ended up having Camomile tea, at breakfast!! The manager mentioned that he shouldn't serve this tea in the morning (because it's a 'sleepy' tea) but he didn't want to get cheap tea from 7-11, lol. It was really nice camomile tea. I think I should try camomile back in Singapore too.

Over breakfast we heard that Fuji was clear today so we went out to grab a look at Fuji. We didn't manage to see Fuji the day before, but we wanted to grab a look before we left hakone. We did see Fuji but Fuji was still a lil hidden behind clouds sometimes so you have to wait and grab a shot.

While taking shot of Fuji, there was another guy taking photos with a monopod. Photogs being photogs the world over, he came over and asked if we had managed to get any good shots. I told him that I certainly hoped that I got some good shots since it would mean that I would have to buy an air ticket to get another chance to take the photos!

After grabbing the photos, we went to take a look at the Hakone Jinja before going back to the room to pack up and check out.

For our return trip to Tokyo, we decided to take up the hotel manager's suggestion and take the Odakyu Romance Car back to Shinjuku. It was certainly more comfortable then the regular limited express since you have to pay a premium of 870 JPY while holding the Hakone Freepass but that meant that we wouldn't have to worry about lugging our luggage around with us on the train.

From Shinjuku, we went to Kuramae station where K's House is and checked back into K's House. this time we got a twin room for 3 nights and would have to change rooms to a 6 bed dormitory on Friday. After check in was completed, my friend told me that she had confirmed with her friend that we would go to Fuji tomorrow and stay the night at the foot of Fuji before going up the mountain the day after. I mentioned that if the date was flexible, why not go on a day where we would be staying in the dormitory. When I told her that the dormitory stay would start on friday, she said that her friend had initially suggested friday but she had declined as we were going to visit the Imperial Palace on friday.

To make a long story short, we decided to go to Fuji on friday and be back on saturday. We will go to SE Character Goods store on Sunday instead!

2008-10-26T22:11:00.002+08:00

Asakusa and Akihabara again!

My friend has a client who has a shop in Asakusa, therefore, our first stop for the day was at this client's shop. Unfortunately (actually it was fortunate because my friend didn't actually want to meet with the client in case the client started offering her too many stuff) the client was not in, so we went on our way through the rest of Asakusa. It's mostly souvenir shops centered about Sensoji temple but there's also a building for people to place horse racing bets. There are food eateries along the street near the building and most have a screen showing the lastest race results. There seems to also be a red light district somewhere in the area.

Following the recommendations of the hostel we are staying at, we went to look for this place which sells bentos at 250 JPY. I got one with fish and pork, but I didn't really like the pork enough to finish it. The fish was good. The pork was not bad, I just didn't like the taste totally. After buying the bento, we went back to the hostel to have our lunch.

After finishing lunch, we took a walk down to a street that was listed as 'wholesale street'. Since it was about 1600 hrs on a Sunday, the likelihood that the street was open for business was miniscule. Indeed, when we got there, the street was deserted. we then continued on our way to Akihabara which was nearby.

My friend initially wanted to get a PSP, but I managed to dissuade her. In the end she ended up buying Sim City DS 2... and is now using my DS to play Sim City.... darn, I regret dissuading her man..... Now I can't play with my DS.... /cry.

My friend looked high and low for Sim City DS 2, she was getting all ready to condemn Akihabara and in fact declared that if she could not find the game she would never come back to Akihabara ever again. After she finally found the game, we went to a German cafe to have a nice cup of tea for myself and a cup of coffee for her. We both had chocolate cake. She wanted to have strawberry cake but it was sold out, unfortunately.

After the cafe, we just took the metro back to our hostel. Nothing much exciting today either. We're going to Hakone tomorrow!

2008-10-25T22:32:00.002+08:00

Akihabara

The first weekend in Tokyo and the first place we hit up is none other than Akihabara! It's basically just lots and lots of Anime, Manga and electronics shopping.

First hitch for the day, we couldn't figure out how to transfer train lines. Turns out that since we were transferring to a non Tokyo Metro line, we had to do a transfer of train ticket. Fortunately, there were staff handy to help us out, a lady who's job is probably to seek out lost sheep amd guide them along on their way came along to help us when she noticed our trouble. There are lots of such people in Japan, so although the systems can be really confusing, there's usually help available.

We just walked alot through the shops, my friend is interested in getting a laptop from Tokyo and her budget is about 100, 000 JPY. we've actually seen a couple of laptops of decent specifications that almost match her budget. I wonder if she would finally pick up one of those. she did buy a Muji bag though.

I myself was tempted to buy laptop, but I don't have a use for it.

We had actually prepared lunch, but my friend couldn't find a place where she felt like having lunch. I think she was hoping for someplace to sit down to have lunch, but it's impossible in Akihabara. You should be glad to have standing space, let alone a nice decent place to sit down at. I saw a Mister Donut and we decided to try it. There was a donut that was quite nice, I think there's butter in it and icing on top.

As we walked, my friend saw this nice chinese restaurant named Xian and she wanted to have the Ma La Dao Xiao Mian so we went in. It was run by Chinese, so we could order stuff in mandarin. My friend had the set lunch while I order some dimsum. My friend's set lunch included the noodles, a dim sum and almond tofu. The food is actually quite good, the dim sum that I had were really tasty. When my friend's almond tofu was served, I was given a serving as well. Surprised, I told the waitress that I didn't order the almond tofu and she said that it was free! Aww... that's so sweet of them. Chinese rawks!

I actually don't like almond but since they were so nice, I finished up the dessert. It's actually pretty good, the almond taste was not too overpowering for me so I could finish it up.

After dinner, we continued walking. My friend has been looking for a phone for another friend of ours. This other friend wants her to buy a phone back to Singapore. I was telling my travelmate that I don't think she will be able to buy a phone back to Singapore due to the regulations around the purchasing of phones (I was told that one needs some registrations to buy a phone) , but she was quite sure it was ok..... until today when the store personnel told her that any phone purchase in Japan must be accompanied by a contract. So, it's a silver lining for her! She need not spend the money to buy the phone. The phones ain't cheap. The cheapest that we have found so far costs over $300.

Oh and while window shopping, I was given a free sample of Fuji film photo paper.. which I returned to the sales person cos i couldn't figure out what she was talking about so I didn't want to end up having to pay for the item... lol. Anyway I wouldn't have any use for it even if I had taken it.

Aw man, this trip to Japan does seem to feel a little long. Kyoto was really cool, but I'm not enjoying Tokyo so much.

Especially since 1 SGD is only around 60-62 yen right now...... everything is just so much more expensive, relatively.

I spent about $37 today... went to pop some capsules! Those thinggies that you drop coins into and then turn a dial to get a random capsule. Fun but pocket draining.

2008-10-24T18:30:00.002+08:00

Kyoto To Tokyo

Today we leave Kyoto for the bustling metroplitan city of Tokyo! That is not to says that Kyoto is a sleepy town, oh no it isn't. Kyoto is quite a nice place to be in.

Woke up, ate breakfast at the hostel's traveller cafe, Zen cafe. It's a buffet breakfast at 680 JPY. It's quite a good deal as you can stuff your face silly on 680 JPY. They have cornflakes, milk, bread, cheese, butter, scrambled eggs and mini sausages. I love their scrambled eggs, it is really smooth and has a nice strong egg yolk taste.

After breakfast, it was down to the yucky task of packing our bags.... eeeew. I hate that. Got ourselves packed and ready to check out by 10 mins to 1100hrs. We then started to hike to the station to buy the Shinkansen tickets for Tokyo. We managed to get tickets for the 1153hrs Nozomi 14 towards Tokyo. The ticket costs 13520 JPY (about 210 SGD) and the ride would take us about 2 hrs and 15 mins.

We almost missed our train because we went to platform 14, instead of going to the platform FOR Nozomi 14... cos we saw the number 14 on the ticket and there was a platform 14 right in front of us lol. Fortunately, we managed to get onto the platform just as the train pulled into the station....... so far we've been doing pretty well on the train systems, so today is the first major hiccup. Wonder what will await us in Tokyo, the famed capital of being lost in the train stations.

We got to Tokyo and proceeded to get to our hostel in Asakusa. Got a little lost trying to find the subway that we were supposed to transfer to... we managed to get to it after asking people, albeit taking a circuitous route.

We got to our hostel amidst the drizzle and checked into a 6 bed dormitory this time. It's certainly different from our twin room in Kyoto where we had the whole room to ourselves, TV and lots more space. The hosteling life is starting to kick in now. As there were 2 guys sleeping in the room, my friend wanted to boogie out of the room asap. We went shopping for groceries in the nearby supermarket and 100 yen shop. We walked round a little bit around Asakusa and went back to the hostel to fix up some dinner.

Not too sure exactly what we'll be doing for the rest of the trip but we're going to Akihabara tomorrow. Hope the weather improves.

Pray for my friend's wallet too.

2008-10-23T22:42:00.003+08:00

Soggy Day in Kyoto

Today's the day where we get to stay in Kyoto. We were supposed to go on some Kyoto walks. First stop of the day, Kyoto Old Imperial Palace. We can visit the gardens but we cannot enter the palace itself since we did not reserve a tour slot. One can try to see if there are empty slots on the spot but we had quite a few places planned.

The days started gloomy and drizzling. As we were leaving, my friend and I picked up and umbrella each from the hostel. Yesterday, we shared my umbrella which I had on standby. That's the darndest thing about being prepared for rain. I bring the umbrella. I share the umbrella and I get wet. >.> Not fair....

We walked towards the Old Imperial Palace which was a good 40 mins or so walk away. Along the way, we made a brief stop at the Honganji temple. I didn't really keep track of the time. It wasn't all that far, just that we walked slow. Our speed isn't as fast as one would expect because my friend's feet have been hurting since day 2.

We got to the Old Imperial Palace gardens and while we were touring one of the buildings which was open to public, my friend finally couldn't stand the toothache she's had for 2 days. We immediately took the subway (250 JPY) back to the hostel and asked for a recommendation for a dentist, as well as getting the hostel staff to help us write my friend's problem in Japanese so that we could show the dentist in case he doesn't speak English. My friend could mime, surely, but we figured a note would be better.

We got to the dentist and it looked pretty atas. My friend was seen fairly fast and the entire procedure took only about 15 mins. My friend was very impressed by the dentist's skill and I joked with her that she should come back here for her future dental appointments. The visit cost her 8800 JPY. Will have to check whether that is reimbursable by travel insurance.

My friend decided to go back to the Old Imperial Palace and continue from where we had left off. This time, we bought a One Day Kyoto Pass for the subway and buses. This allows us to take the Kyoto subway and designated buses.

We went back and completed touring the Old Imperial Palace gardens. It was rather dreary due to the weather. Didn't manage to get much photos either.

Next stop, Kinkakuji temple. We took a bus from the Old Imperial Palace gardens and got to the temple in good time. There is a gold coloured 3 storey structure in a pond just near the entrance and every one was busy taking photos of it in the rain. My friend and I took some photos and tried to make it to the next location.

We took a bus (and changed a bus along the way) in order to get to Arashiyama Tenryuji temple. As we got there, a bunch of children who were on the same bus as we were went running down the streets and my friend followed them. I asked her if she knew where the temple was, she said that she was following the children. Since I was unable to locate the temple in 30 secs, I followed her down the street. It's a nice area which is an absolute tourist trap. They even have people pulling rickshaws. These are young people and there was actually a lady pulling a rickshaw!

We crossed a nice bridge and got to a rather pretty area. Apparently in one of the parks in this area, there is a Zhou Enlai memorial. Unfortunately, we were not able to locate it as it was soon getting dark and we didn't want to be out in the rain and darkness.

I found a map and according to the map, the temple that we were looking was indeed at the bus stop where we had gotten off the bus so we had to walk all the way back again >.> . Anyway, it didn't really make much difference since the temple closed at 1700 hrs and we had gotten off the bus at about 1700 hrs anyway.

We then walked around the area abit. It's really nice if one doesn't mind it being touristy. As we had nothing much else to do in the area, we decided to head back to JR Kyoto station and see if the weather was fine enough to go up the Kyoto Tower. Before that we bought a couple of rice cracker snacks. I chose soy sauce flavour. For future reference, that is probably not the best choice.

The bus ride back took about 40 mins. The weather was still rather bad so we decided to just hike it back to the hostel instead of going up Kyoto Tower. Therefore, in the end, we never went up Kyoto Tower even though we walk past it every day.... oh well, maybe next time!

Tomorrow will be an easy day. Breakfast at the hostel's cafe, packing bags, checking out and then taking the Shinkansen to Tokyo!

The day of reckoning to our wallets is drawing near, Shibuya for me (SE Character Goods Store!), Akihabara for my friend!

Spent about SGD 220 on food, transport and other stuff so far. Including accommodation costs till date and the Kansai Area Pass makes it around SGD 550. My friend's expenditure stands at about SGD 850.

We still have Tokyo to survive!

2008-10-22T23:50:00.002+08:00

Hikone and Nagahama

Well, going to bed without a confirmed destination for today was kinda suspenseful, but I had some idea of where to go today. It was a matter of confirming with my friend when she woke up.

We agreed to go to Hikone to visit the Hikone Castle and then proceed to Nagahama to view the townscape of preserved buildings.

We grabbed an early train out to Hikone. The train ride cost us 1100 JPY and took about an hour. The town of Hikone looks like a super sleepy town. Not many people were about the town. We took a nice cool walk to Hikone Castle. The admission fee was 600 JPY and it includes a visit to the Gakyu-En Garden.

Hikone Castle is quite similar to Himeji Castle, except that it is much much smaller in size. Hikone Castle is about 3 stories high, whereas Himeji is about 6 stories high. Himeji is also much bigger in terms of floor space. The first floor of Hikone Castle is probably not bigger than 2 HDB 3 room flats worth of space. My estimation could be horribly wrong though, I'mnot know for accuracy in estimation. The stairs are really steep, as consistent with Himeji and makes me wonder why Japanese a few hundred years ago needed steps that were so high. Probably strategic or something.

After twirling aorund Hikone Castle, we went into Gakyu-En. It's a pretty nice little place with a pond in the middle covering about half the garden's area. Several bridges connect the side of the pond to a centralised area where they have a old style Japanese hut. They currently have some Matcha ceremonies there and you can join in for 500 JPY. My friend and I did not take up the offer though.

After leaving the garden, my friend wanted to go to Nagahama for lunch, so we proceeded to the train station. we bought tickets for Nagahama (230 JPY) and checked the train schedule boards. I thought it was odd that local trains did not go to where we were going, and only Special rapid service did. we figured that it was probably because the places along the track were further apart than before that point in the tracks.

We got on the special rapid service headed towards our destination, but did not realise that we were in a carriage which would stop at Maibara instead of continuing on to Nagahama. fortunately, the train staff noticed us and told us to get off and into carriages 1-4.

Our first major train booboo! Taking trains in Kyoto has been relatively easy so far... next week we challenge Tokyo! We might be horribly lost.

Anyway, we arrived at Nagahama and we were wondering what to do for lunch. I pointed out the ever present Mac's to my friend but my friend wanted to try her luck looking for other stuff. we spent the next hour (walking around in the rain half that time) looking for food. In the end, we ended up back in MacDonald's and by the time we were done, I'm not even sure if that was lunch or dinner. We finished eating at about 1630 and it was too late to do anymore exploring of the place. We went grocery shopping instead and took the train back to Kyoto. This ride cost us a goodly 1280 JPY. Ouch.

Dinner was back in the hostel. We ate microwaved rice which we bought in the supermarket, with some onigiri seasoning and sausages. Kinda yummy and fun actually. Finally feels like we are backpacking. lol.

P.S. We're not really backpacking... but .. yeah you get the idea.

Tomorrow will be walking around Kyoto!

2008-10-21T23:35:00.003+08:00

Nara

Woke up bright and early today. We're going off to Nara and it will take us quite some time to cover just a portion of the attractions.

My friend initially wanted to just pick up some food from Lawson's and get on our way, but as we were walking towards the train station, she decided to have a bento for breakfast instead. So we ended up sitting down for breakfast .......

We caught a regional rapid train to Nara which took about an hour to reach our destination. Once at the destionation, we went to pick up a map. They have a nice tourist information counter and they actually suggested a route for us to walk along. Basically most of the sights in Nara are in Nara Park. If you have no idea what kind of sights are in Nara, just think temples. And deer.

Along the way in the park, there were lots of deer roaming, as well as stalls selling deer biscuits for 150 JPY. There were tonnes of school children today. It might be some school excursion day or some school holiday or something. we have no clue but there were children crawling all over. The deer had a field day because alot of children bought the deer biscuits to feed them.

Our first stop within the park was Kofukuji Shrine. It has a 5 storied pagoda but we didn't go in to the pagoda. We think the ticket costs 1000 JPY.

Next up was Todaiji Shrine. It has the largest Buddha in Japan, apparently. Admission costs 500 JPY. We went in and took a fair number of pictures. we also saw children crawling through this hole at the base of one of the pillars. I have no clue what that is for but I guess it is grants something good for the children. They had a photographer take their photos as they passed through, probably that was one of the teachers who volunteered to do it.

My friend bought 300 JPY worth of souvenirs from that temple.

Next we went to Nigatsudo which was very pretty and had magnificent views of Nara. The surroundings were very well coiffed and it gave a very peaceful feeling to visitors.

Time for lunch! My friend was tired and hungry so we stopped by a restaurant. We had a simple lunch which of ramen and egg, which cost us 525 JPY. The restaurant was very nice though and run by an elderly couple. Tea was free flow.

After that we went to Kasuga shrine. This is a Shinto shrine and they have little shrines all over for various stuff that you would like to wish for, quite similar to Taoism where there's a different deity for every aspect of the universe (or pretty much so). As the japanese have a different style for offering prayers, it was basically monkey see monkey do for us lol. Kinda awkward but I guess it's the thought that counts!

Coming out of the Kasuga Shrine grounds, we took a walk to the Nara City Museum of Photography. It was a nice walk along the residential area and indeed it was a great opportunity to take a little peek into the everyday life of the locals. The houses were mostly pretty albeit small. According to my friend, her Japanese friend used to own a house (those small 3 storey type) somewhere in Osaka and it cost her the equivalent of about 80000 SGD.

Admission to the museum costs us 500 JPY. It was a nice little display of the photos taken by Irie Taikichi who has taken alot of photos around Nara. The current theme was about Buddhist statues. They also had video presentations on the photos taken by him. Nice stuff. Maybe someday I'll have a half decent portfolio.

It took us the better part of the day to get this far because we were walking rather slow. My friend's feet are killing her and it's only the 4th day of the trip! We have 13 more days to go, muahahahahahahaha!

Since she was tired, we started to walk back towards the train station. As we arrived there, we decided to have a KFC dinner. This was the only KFC that we have seen so far in Japan. We ordered a 4 piece chicken set which came with 2 pieces of chicken fillet. This cost us 1150 JPY. Drinks are separate and costs us 190 JPY each. My friend decided to add a pack of fries and that put her back by another 180 JPY. In total, the dinner cost the both of us 1710 JPY! very expensive KFC >.>

After dinner, we proceeded to the shop next door which sold pharmeceuticals. My friend bought a box of medicinal plasters (like Tokuhon, but she bought a cheaper brand) that cost her 498 JPY for 140 plasters. I think she will be able to use them all up this trip so no worries!

We also gallivanted over to a bookshop which had a section for video games... where I saw a second hand version of Final Fantasy IV JP!! OMG! It was going for 780 JPY and I was sp tempted to buy it just to own it. However, I don't like buuying second hand stuff so in the end I didn't buy it. I probably can't use it anyway. I wonder if one day I will regret it?

I also saw the Final Fantasy XI Premium collection!!! 11900 JPY! I so wanted to buy it.....I shall wait till I arrive at SE Character Goods Store before blowing my money away on FF stuff............ Was also tempted by the Final Fantasy Reminisce that I saw on sale.... grr. SE Character Goods Store here I come!!

After that we boogeyed our way back to Kyoto on the local train which stops at every stop. Took us well over and hour to reach Kyoto..... bleah.

Tomorrow... no plans yet!!

2008-10-20T22:58:00.002+08:00

Kobe and Osaka

Another not so early morning. Woke up at 0800 JPT, washed up, ate breakfast and got on the 0957 Special Rapid Service towards Himeji. Today, we didn't go all the way, we got off at Sannomiya station (Kobe) and took a walk towards the old foreign settlement.

We got a map at the station and that made it easy for us to navigate the place. We walked along the Flower Road and came upon this Flower Clock that has different designs as time goes by. Next we passed by the Kobe Earthquake Memorial. It's a pretty nice memorial, with a water feature and a pathway leading to a room with names underneath the water. You could see the water through the glass roof.

After that we continued on to find the Old Foreign settlement. Turns out that there isn't anything much left. Everything's been redeveloped and the only things left are a couple of museums. We then went on to Nankinmachi (Nanjing Street) which is the local Chinatown. We had lunch there, it was pretty good and one of the waitress was from China. We only discovered that after some finger pointing and stuff. She heard my friend and I speak mandarin and was like "Hey you speak mandarin!". So we managed to get our lunch, safely without beef.

After lunch, we went to Osaka. Nothing much here to do but to walk around in shopping centres. My friend and I ended up walking in the food sections alot lol. We bought a couple of pork buns and they were quite nice. The department store staff are really cordial, we were in Daimaru and everyone greeted you as you passed by. When they were leaving the area via staff exit, they would stop at the door, turn and bow before exiting.

We took the lift once and when the lift attendant came out to greet us with her left hand extended 45 degrees towards the floor, I thought she was trying to tell us to hang on or something, lol. I wonder what that gesture is for.

Walked around food stuff some more and then we decided to go back to Kyoto.

Back in Kyoto, we walked around the underground shopping area in near the JR, bought some discounted watermelon pieces (about 5 small slices) at about 350 JPY just to try what the expensive watermelon tastes like. My friend bought some grapes at about 250 JPY. We actually thought they were selling for 150 JPY each because of the sticker on it with 150 JPY on it. Turns out that it meant that there was a 150 JPY discount on the fruits lol. Oh well, the watermelon was rather nice. The blackcurrant looking grape tasted decidedly alcoholic. The green grape was nice and the red ones were sweet but the seeds were darn bitter. I accidentally bit on a seed and that got me awake real fast.

Bought some bread (red bean paste bun) for dinner and that's it for the day. Nothing much exciting.

My friend is amazing. She sleeps rather early, and then she falls asleep on the trains and then she gets sleepy while we're outside walking lol. It's only the 3rd day and tomorrow is going to be another challenging day!

Nara!

2008-10-19T21:40:00.003+08:00

Himeji

Today, we went to Himeji.

Woke up in the morning at about 0800 JPT. I'm a lazy bum in case you can't tell. Washed up and my friend wanted to have ramen breakfast at a place listed on a map provided. I have this thing going on with my friend. I make her read the map and find the places where we're supposed to go. She can't read maps, see. So anyway, we set off and she went in the wrong direction so we ended up eating at mac's.

She had a McGriddle and I ordered an Egg McMuffin. Turns out that they gave me a Sausage McMuffine, but I thought that I had just pointed to the wrong picture on the menu, the sausage patty is much nicer than singapore's. It has a lot less of the stinging taste. I think it could be pork. After some time, one of the crew came up with an Egg McMuffin and tried to explain to us that my order was filled wrongly and I was given the Sausage McMuffin instead of the Egg McMuffin by mistake. I tried to ask if I should top up money, she said no and gave me an Egg McMuffin!

Wow! Japanese MacDonald's is way cool!

I planned to have that McMuffin for dinner, but in the end I ended up having Dan Dan Men (Dan Dan Noodles) for dinner. So that McMuffin became supper.

With breakfast finished up, we walked to the JR Kyoto Station where we were to take the Special Rapid Service to Himeji. The ride took about 90 mins. It was quite crowded until Osaka where a whole bunch of people got off and then we managed to get seats.

At Himeji Station, my friend went to buy some food for lunch. She bought a pack of chocolate sandwiches. It was a straight walk northwards for about a kilometer to get to Himeji Castle (Himeji-Jo). Had my friend lead the way again and as we moved, I notices road signs telling us how far it was to the castle. At the second road sign, my friend noticed it too and this was when we were about 400m away from the castle. As we got nearer to the castle, I could see the castle in the distance. My friend got anxious because the latest road sign that she saw had every other location that were previously on the road signs, except Himeji Castle. I joked with her that the castle has disappeared...

We went on to Himeji Castle and boughht admission tickets to the castle. The tickets cost 600 JPY. I was a little disappointed because I did not notice the ticket vending machine that accepted 10000 JPY notes as I could have broken up my larger notes into smaller ones at the machine.

Inside the Castle, was a lot of walking. It's quite large and can take easily 2-3 hours of walking if you walk the grounds outside the castle keep itself. The keep itself was 6 levels high and it was built on high ground with extremely convoluted pathways meant to make invaders go through the longest route possible, thereby exposing themselves to archers. The walls along the pathways were lined with little windows which the archers can shoot arrows out of but would protect the archers from enemy fire.

One thing about the place, the stone steps are very high and the doorways are rather low. This means that you have to stoop down to pass through some of the doorways. Taller caucasians would probably be doing the lambada to pass through some of the lower arches that arc over some of the stairways.

They also had an area named the Harakiri Maru. I wonder if anyone every did Harakiri there. I guess probably yes. My friend didn't want to go there, so I went over by myself. It's a courtyard about the size of a basketball court. At one of the sides, there was a little stone staged that was raised about 5 cm from the ground. There was also a well, which was supposedly for washing the severed head.

After we had explored the castle, we went passed by some chrysanthemum exhibition before heading off to a 100 Yen shop that we had seen on our way to the castle. My friend bought a couple of socks and then we went off to the manga section. I bet this was probably considered a smallish collection in Japan, but they had alot of manga! If you thought you could never get that manga cos it's been too long, think again! They probably still have it somewhere. Didn't buy anything at the manga section obviously because I can't understand them anyway lol.

We popped over to the games and music section. I saw the PSP-3000 that was released on the 16th of October and it costs about SGD 300. As comparison, the PSP-2000 is selling at about SGD 260.

Did more strolling all the way to Himeji station. My friend was very hungry so we went to find some food. There was an underground shopping are where they had some stalls selling food.My friend wanted to eat noodles. Since we don't speak Japanese, we used our fingers and pointed to the pictures on display lol. Crude but effective. My friend didn't have enough to eat so I gave her some of my noodles, since I still had a McMuffin. I didn't want to buy a dinner actually, but finally decided to buy some noodles. The noodles were pretty good. Dan Dan Men, I guess I could have tried to read it in mandarin and they might have understood me, instead of just pointing fingers.

I thought I was smart by choosing the simplest option with no other selection for them to ask me, so I was thrown off when they continued speaking. I was like, do I have to choose something?? They then asked if I spoke english and then told me the price in english, lol. I was all prepared with the cash in hand but I had no idea they were asking for it >.>

After finishing dinner, we initially wanted to go to Kobe, since my friend was saying that the night scenery in Kobe was nice, and I said that it was just nice to go for the night scenery. While on the train though, she changed her mind and we decided to go to Kobe tomorrow instead. So we headed on straight back to Kyoto on the train at 1757. We were lucky that both times today, we managed to get to the train platform just a few minutes before the special rapid service was due to arrive.

Once we reached Kyoto at about 1930hrs, my friend wanted to do a little shopping, so we went to the shops that were at the base of the Kyoto Tower. I spotted a Yukata on display and pointed it out to my friend, who was always saying that Yukatas are not available outside of summer. She tried on a couple of the Yukatas and bought one, at a cool 5250 JPY. Ouchies.

After that, it was back to our hostel to wash up and rest.... and plurk.. and blog... lol. My friend is so tired that she has already fallen asleep after putting her clothes to wash in the washing machine. I wonder what will happen to her clothes if I were not here with her....... We haven't even settled on the waking time tomorrow, so I guess we're waking up tomorrow at the same time as today...

Total monetary damage for me today: 1605 JPY (~ 25 SGD)

Total monetary damage for my friend today: 8253 JPY (~ 125 SGD)

Kobe tomorrow!

2008-10-18T21:47:00.003+08:00

Away We Go! Japan, Yokoso!

Finally, today is the day that we depart for Japan. I hadn't actually felt that much excitement over this trip because of the problems that I had been having with SIA. Didn't even start packing my bags till about 0100hrs this morning. Finally went to bed at about half past three.

Woke up at ten minutes to six and I was supposed to meet my friend at 0620hrs. She'd grab a cab and come my way and we'd both buzz off to the airport. i had already done internet check in the night before so we already had window seats waiting for us. After collecting the boarding passes, we went off to the Mac's at one end of Terminal 3. We had our breakfast and then proceeded to board the plane. getting through customs was easy as we could go through the automatic clearance lanes. However, things got a little hairy at the gate check.

We were supposed to board the plane at gate B1, we managed to find the gate but it was a combined gate check. There were 4 gates being served by a group of x ray machines instead of individual checks for each gate. Only 3 machines were manned at the time and I think there were passengers for 2 or 3 flights trying to get past the check. The queue was long. I figured that there were a couple of people bringing contraband items in their hand luggage (stuff like liquids over their allowed limit). I started to hope for them to call people on our flight out to get checked first, and then it finally happened! Phew. My friend and I scrambled out of the queue so fast. At least 10 other people were still stuck at various stages of the queue. so we were asked to go to the front of the queue and while there, we indeed witnessed a JP guy carrying a few bottles of chilli sauce in his hand luggage. The chilli sauce was promptly thrown away by the staff, to anguished cries from the owner.

Anyway, we managed to get through the gates and onto the plane. we had barely settled in when the plane was rolling off.

Krisworld was cool. Watched Hancock, Get Smart and was got started on Men in Black. had breakfast and lunch on the plane. They served us breakfast, which was a bun and a muffin. As I was watching the movie, they didn't clear my breakfast plate till lunch, when my friend got served her lunch and I got passed over. After a bit, we got the attention of the steward to clear my breakfast tray and he asked me if i would like to have lunch now. I said yes and he told me that they only had the beef shepherd's pie left. They had run out of the Japanese menu which had Soba with chicken. My friend was lucky, she managed to get a portion of the Japanese menu, but since I got passed over, I was left with beef. So I told them that it was fine, I'd just go hungry until Japan.

This was where I was offered Salmon instead. I agreed, saying that it was fine, as long as it didn't have beef. At this point, I suspected that i was getting a lunch from Business / First class. Once the tray landed in front of me, I read the label and yep! I had gotten a lunch from Business Class.

I was advised that for the return flight, I should make my dietary restrictions clearer as sometimes, they have a beef and only one non beef menu. Just in case they run out of the non beef option.

Well, I certainly never thought that not eating beef was considered an extremely special dietary requirement. Lots of people in Singapore don't eat beef. I wonder why they didn't take into account the possibilities of how many people don't eat beef when they were planning their rations. According to my friend, this was not the first time such a thing has happened on SIA. One of the other SIA flights she took, some people ended up eating instant noodles.

Oh well, the cheese that came with the lunch was super yummy though. President cheese. When I get back to SG, I think I shall buy some!

After we landed in Kansai International Airport, we cleared customs and immigration and then my friend went off to send a package to her client on delivery to Tokyo. Once that was taken care of, we passed by some public phones and a phone card vending machine. We thought that we would be able to roam in Japan, but that proved to be negative. I'm not sure what my problem is but I think hers is because her phone is not 3G.

We bought a couple of phone cards, 7000 JPY worth! I think we over did it... My friend bought 1000 JPY worth, after we made the phone calls home, I asked if she would like to buy another card as spare, since we used up about 600 JPY worth of call credits already. She agreed and said to buy the 5000 JPY card, which I did and then she decided to buy another 1000 JPY worth of call credits! You can do your own sum and figure out how much that costs in SGD.

Next we started to head for our hostel. Our hostel is in Kyoto and thus we had to make our way to Kyoto. We went to buy the Kansai Area Pass for 4 days which cost us 6000 JPY. The pass allows us to take the Kansai airport express to Kyoto and we will be able to use all local trains in a predetermined area till the 21st of October. Hopefully we shall be able to make full use of this pass.

Soon after the train that we boarded got underway, the sun was almost fully set. This was about 1750hrs JPT. For the rest of the ride, it felt like we were travelling in the late night like 2300 hrs.

The JP are really formal. The train manager would make a long greet announcement everytime he came out of his cabin to start his ticket inspections and everytime he was about to go back into his cabin after completing his inspections, he would unlock the door to his cabin, turn around and make a bow.

We reached JR Kyoto station at about 1900hrs. There were quite a number of people in the station. Our hostel was about 10 to 15 mins away and as we walked, I notice that there were a pair of people behind us who were probably headed to the same place as we were. I made a wrong turn briefly and ended up behind them. We definitely ended up in the same hostel. After checking in and sorting some stuff out, we went out to buy some stuff to eat. Where else would we go but to hit the 24 hour convenience stores! I bought a sausage roll which had noodles and eggs in it. Have to be careful! Some stuff carry beef even when they don't look like they could have beef in it.

The whole time that we were walking around looking for some bites, it felt like we were outside past midnight... and it was barely 2000hrs JPT! Well, we bought our stuff and headed back to our hostel.

So far, the combined expenditure in JPY for both of us combined have hit 800SGD. OUCH!

Tomorrow, Himeji!

2008-10-14T17:31:00.004+08:00

And My Reply.

So I was thinking about how to write the email to SIA in a manner that would be easy to understand. I fell asleep last night thinking about it.

This morning, I woke up and wrote the email so that I could send it in to them before they start their work day.

And this, is what I wrote.

Hi Ms Person who got stuck with this job,
I am glad that finally this issue is getting looked at. It was definitely getting very anxious for me because I am due to fly off this saturday. I will have to say that in no small part, I have been wondering if there was a purposeful delay in this matter so that I will have flown off before the matter was looked at. With the departure date only 4 days away it will be difficult for me to switch airlines since nobody answers phone calls and emails in order for me to make any kind of arrangements.

While I am glad that some headway has been made in this issue, there are still a few areas that I need clarification on. From the second time I spoke to to Krisflyer on the 5th of September, it was no longer a matter of whether I should get the miles.

Key Point 1: Why does SIA take months to rectify a fault on the website that should not exist?
This problem first arose because I was unable to use the online booking system to book an itinerary. As such, I was not able to benefit from the AMEX Krisflyer Online purchase promotion automatically. Taking into consideration that everything breaks down at some point in time, should SIA not seek to ensure that their website works with as little problems as possible? Should SIA not rectify a problem after it was highlighted via phone and email routes?

Please note that I was also unable to send feedback via the online portal and had to call the reservations desk and be put on hold for 32 minutes because that was the only number that I could find online.

Key Point 2: Getting the round about from Krisflyer
When I first called Krisflyer, I was told to call AMEX. That is fine, except tht AMEX was not the agency toc all, or so I have been led to believe. The second time I called Krisflyer, it was simply pointless. The whole conversation revolved around the following concepts:

1) I cannot help you
2) If we think of something, we will call you
3) Unable to explain why a product was misrepresented.

For point 2, I find it rather appalling. It seems evident that the person on the line was not able to handle the call and simply wanted to get me off the phone. Does it mean that if SIA was not able to think of anything, the case will be dropped? Well then if I were her, I would not bother to think of any solution at all since thinking of a solution would require me to contnue follow up action on the issue, whereas not thinking of a solution saves some brain juices and makes the case disappear.

When asked straight to the point if the case would be considered as dropped, the answer was "YES". I don't see how this is service recovery.

Key Point 3: Service Standards of SIA with regards to Customer Feedback
I wonder what are the performance indicators, if any, that SIA has with regards to Customer Feedback. I did not notice SIA on the list of SQC companies, so I am guessing that means SIA is not accountable under SQC. What other service quality framework does SIA operate under? Is there a target and limit for service standards with regards to customer feedback?

I first sent the email on the 14th of September, got a reply asking for my particulars on 16th September and from thereon, there was nary a peep from SIA. Is this within acceptable service standards in SIA?

When I finally decided that I had to call people up, I had to call up the reservations desk to get a number to call Customer Affairs Department. Why is this number so difficult to find online?

When I finally got the number, the phone call would never get through and I would have to leave messages. It was not till the end of the day that I could get someone to call me back and I was interrupted several times. Does SIA not employ enough people for the Customer Affairs Department? Does SIA simply not care about Customer Feedback?

These are the 3 key points that I have time to type at this time. If I have phrased myself correctly, I believe the message would have been "Whether or not I received the double points should never have been a point of contention if the website were working properly in the first place". Further, if along the way there were not so many examples that made a customer feel slighted, I wouldn't bother about typing long emails and getting all hyped up about it.

Regards
Silverelf

2008-10-13T23:24:00.000+08:00

Finally, Headway with SIA!

I hadn't received any form of estimation as to when I would get a resolution from SIA, and I'm flying off on Saturday, so I decided to call SIA up again today.

I called up the Customer Affair's Department at 1500hrs or thereabouts and left a message on their mailbox. Remember, they don't answer phonecalls!

I explained who I was and that I had not seen an email reply till this morning. I would appreciate an update by phone even if they had sent me an email during office hours as I would not be able to read the email.

I did not receive any phone calls but when I got home, I found that they had sent me an email at 1714hrs. *Hmmm I wonder if I hadn't called them up, would I get a response?*

Dear Ms Silverelf,

Thank you for your patience while my colleagues at KrisFlyer Membership
Services were looking into this matter.

I am glad to inform you that they have since credited 1,410 KrisFlyer miles

into your account.

Ms Silverelf, our sincere apologies once again for the initial inconvenience
caused.
We look forward to welcoming you onboard our flights soon.


Yours sincerely,

Person who got stuck doing this job
Manager Customer Services

I was quite surprised to get a reply, and when I read the reply I was even more surprised. I would never have figured that SIA would manage to resolve my whole list of issues with a few lines and 1410 Krisflyer miles. I wonder if they understood my original letter?

Please, kindly read what I sent to them and tell me what I can do to improve my writing in future to make myself more easily understood.

I am writing in because I feel that Singapore Airlines has a very good reputation and that as a Singaporean, I am obliged to assist SIA in maintaining standards or even bettering them in the ever more competitive standards of customer service and service recovery.

I will be flying to Japan with my friend on a long awaited trip. As we have been looking forward to this trip, we decided that we would try to make it as enjoyable as possible within our means. When it got to the decision on which airline to fly with and we were choosing between Cathay Pacific Airlines or Singapore Airlines, both of us agreed that we would greatly love to fly with Singapore Airlines, it being a home grown airline of internation repute and all. We were eager to experience the SIA flight.

I happen to hold an AMEX Krisflyer card and an ongoing promotion stated that if I were to book an airfare online, I would be entitled to double the points for the cost of the airfare. Unfortunately, I was unable to book the desired airfare online.

The airfare that I had requested for was an open jaw itinerary, with us flying into Kansai International Airport on the 18th of October and leaving from Narita on the 3rd of November. I had tried for the better part of a month and I could not get hold of such an itinerary on economy class. There was only one time that I could view said itinerary and that was just before my friend confirmed with me that we should fly SIA, as such I did not grab that opprtunity to book the airfare then and there.

Subsequently, I could never obtain the itinerary for economy class, but it would be ok if I had change the cabin class to economy.

Now, of course the first question that comes to mind would be, why would I be able to book on business class and NOT on economy class? Perhaps the seats were sold out? I then called the reservations line and they confirmed with me that seats were available on the flights that I had wanted, and in economy.

So the next question that came to my mind was, why was I consistently not able to view the economy seat offerings but only business class and above? Was it a website problem? If it is a website problem then should not a world class airline such as Singapore Airlines take it unto themselves to ensure a smooth internet experience for all classes of passengers in all sectors of travel?

I was also told that the problem only existed with respect to open jaw economy bookings with Japan. Although I find it hard to understand, I was willing to accept the explanation. After all, economy passengers do pay less to fly then do business, first or suite class and cannot expect too much for their convenience.

I was then offered a waiver of the booking fee if I booked through the phone and I explained to the service representative that I had hoped to book online since I would be entitled to get double points for the purchase. To this she replied that I could call up Krisflyer the next working day and get then to manually adjust the mileage.

With such an offer, I immediately agreed to book the airfare on the 26th of August 2008.

Unfortunately, I was too hasty in my decision. When I called Krisflyer, I was told that Krisflyer does not handle crediting of mileage and that I should speak directly to AMEX. I found this odd but gave them the benefit of the doubt. Afterall all an SIA staff told me to call Krisflyer and now another SIA staff told me to call AMEX.

I called up AMEX and after some checking on the AMEX side, they confirmed that such issues should be handled on the Krisflyer side.

Now, who am I to believe in such a situation? Should AMEX be responsible or should SIA? Out of three people that I have spoken to, 2 of them have said SIA.

Nevertheless, I dutifully called up Krisflyer again and this time, my call was answered by someone who was probably new at her work. In general, the whole twenty minutes that I was online, I was put on hold for at least 10 of those minutes and there were countless repeats of "I cannot help you". There was no attempt to explain why I had been misled to purchasing a product that I might otherwise not have purchased. When I asked the Krisflyer service rep what will happen to my case since she says "I cannot help you further at this time" She replied that if there was anything they could do, they would call me back.

Full stop.

This means, that there will be nothing that anyone can do and noone will call me back. I will just be another statistic on the call center logs. It has been well over a week since my last call to Krisflyer and so far, there has been no followup. No explanation of why such an unfortunate incident has come to pass. Indeed it is starting to feel like since I have paid the money, then it is too bad for me.

I may not be a big spender but I do not spend a thousand dollars for such treatment. Unfortunately, to small fries like me, a thousand dollars is a whole lot of money. The $300 we would have saved would have bought us 6 nights accomodation in Tokyo or probably quite a few good meals.

We felt that we would spend more to enjoy a great experience. Well, I can say that it's definitely an experience now.

I hope that SIA will not just toss this into the digital rubbish bin, but instead take a look and improve things. Lest someone catches the slack and run away with it.

I am sure that you do know, but for the record, at the time of my purchasing an SIA airfare to Japan, Cathay Pacific (which was the other airline that we had been considering) was offering a similar airfare at $300 less. Granted that we needed to do a transit in Hong Kong, but that also meant that for $300 lesser, we could go to Japan and Hong Kong as the fare granted as a stopover.

I had made a decision based on erroneous information being given to me and there is no explanation of any form. I find that it is also very misleading to publicise the 'fact' that customers could get double points for online purchases and then make them leap through hoops to get nowhere.

I would suggest that SIA put a notice on its website stating which online transactions cannot be carried out. SIA should advise AMEX Krisflyer users that the promotion is NOT all encompassing as we may have been led to believe. SIA should decide whether such disputes in future should be handled by Krisflyer or AMEX and communicate such intentions to their staff and to AMEX.

Good service and Service recovery does not mean giving your customers the stars, but it certainly means not making them feel like they were fleeced.

Oh and for the record, when I was submitting this feedback through the website, it kept showing me this :

Our website is experiencing difficulties at the moment and we are unable to process your request. We apologise for the inconvenience caused. Please try again later. If the problem persists, please contact your local Singapore Airlines Office for assistance.

Thank you for your patience.

Would be nice to get it fixed. I had to call up the reservation line and wait on hold for 32 mins to get the email address to send this.

Probably was too long for them to get through Iguess? I certainly did not mean to make it sound like the only problem was the crediting of mileage. Certainly if the website problem never happened, we would never have had to discuss manual crediting of mileage in the first place!

It is rather amazing how they 'resolved' everything in that email with that one reply about 1410 miles.

I'm going to write them another email, one that is shorter and hopefully easier to understand. I hope I succeed this time!