after my usual blog-browsing, i realised something i have in common with some friends.
"slim down" "lose weight" "excercise"
all reminescent of one thing a girl cares a lot about - weight.

for me, it's being my wish to slim down ever since after primary 2 where i ballooned overnight. yeah i mean it in the literal sense.
and facing weight issues during primary 5 where one teacher even wrote in my report book that i needed to lose some weight shattered my confidence about my appearance.

despite my weight going on the downhill in recent years and the slight gain in confidence regarding weight not being everything, those terrorizing weight loss ads and the current trend of stick-thin girls being considered pretty, the inferiority complex still remains no matter how much i tell myself that i'm a fortunate girl with a complete family and a healthy body.
but no matter how hard the going, i'm a firm believer in losing weight the healthy way.

NO skipping meals
NO overexcercising
NO medication/pills/chemicals

just the plain old "eat less and excercise more".
it actually works, keeping it up is the tough thing. for about a month, i kept up a diet comprising healthy food and regular excercise.
haha of course since singapore is a haven for food lovers, and me being a fellow food lover, my healthy food regime has been discontinued.
i still go swimming every week. (at least once a week, 20 laps)
and i can tell you that it's a great feeling to excercise, rather it refreshes your body even after a very tired/stressful day.

so fellows, you can't attribute tiredness to your not excercising anymore.
don't give in to the "slacker" attitude.

ok actually i don't intend to blog about this at all.
ah i sure can nag a lot, given the right topic. :)

yesterday was a good day. :)

had the honour of viewing chin in her first photoshoot.
she was rather stiff and hilarious with her unnatural smile, but she certainly has the makings of a model. her figure is good. minus the stubborn baby fats, her face with the big eyes will be good too.
quoting adrian, "supermodel leh". lol.

then we rushed to great world to meet our beloved friend zhuang who we've been missing for exactly one year! along with eleanor and becky.
was exciting to go clubbing at zouk with them because it was their first time.
and especially we thought we would get to witness becky's dancing but alas, she remained immobile while everyone sashayed on the dance floor. talk about withstanding peer pressure. lol.

today the girl councillors went ginny's house to do id tags.
and janey's back from redang!
i bet i'll be hearing more of her exciting adventures very soon.
me and jane don't exactly click with the others. you know, they are nice people but we're not on the same frequency.
today went well though so i'm quite happy. :)
and our id tags are so pretty.
can't wait for union camp.

after an eyeful, time to get tortured with a wordy entry.

i'm a happy girl.

the reasons why i'm happy right now

#1: no more work
finally i'm liberated from work. woohoo~ not that it sucked entirely. i was actually starting to enjoy it during the later days but my inborn intolerance for data entry reached its limit. tada, so i'm a freebird once more.

#2: swimming
i'll just say that soaking in chlorinated water is a natural ailment anytime, anywhere.

#3: the air is cleared
real glad to clear the air. our friendship wasn't built on weak foundations :)

#4: 208 outing tomorrow
any time spent with my beloved friends will be good.
plus the fact that zhuang will be there! i haven't seen her for more than 1 year.

#5: more time with mummy and daddy
speaks for itself.

#6: because everyday deserves to be a happy day. :)

photos are up^^

(in chronological order)

no pics from the airport. they walked too fast and everything was chaotic.
i only managed to capture super blurry images.

waiting at lido

two poor souls, eating our only meal of the day, in the rain.


ser touching up my ugly placard with silver glitter.
i guess after that it looked much better!


picked the BEST pics out of the lot.

red carpet

bald edison retains his uber cuteness.


shawn looks better in person,
leaving ser with a pretty good impression.


i swear jielun's looking at my placard! *grins*


oooh how i love that grin. ><

after the event

my ugly placard makes its reappearance.


i'll only post this one or else ser will kill me. =P

friday was supposedly my last day of work.
but well i got asked to stay for a few more days.
(maybe because i'm efficient? or i'm good?)
i have to admit my work attitude is a far cry from my DBS days.
i'm more responsible now.

the past week has been really hectic.
and hectic in a good way. :)
so i really needed the weekend to take a break.

saturday started off with UC's meet-the-freshies.
was initially really apprehensive and worried since our group was pretty dormant the whole time. but da jie's little skit introduction pulled it off prefectly and we even had some freshies requesting to join our group.
we really do rock, yeah? =P

after that i got really pissed off.
IMO they were only concerned about earning money.
nothing wrong with that if you had the decency to tell me that you guys are going to work late. don't make me wait there like a moron.
and think about it, it ain't fair to tell me to take leave to go out with you guys when you are free.
would you go home that day if i demand you to? i doubt so.
i dunno if i'm petty over it but i'm ashamed to say that i was hurt over such a foolish thing. that is not the way to treat a friend.

this is one of the many times i realise that the people who will always be there for me are my beloved parents.
i can count on them being there to welcome me home on a gloomy day, even when i've neglected them all this while.
and never once did they complain when i tell them i'm going out. never. even when i know that they do want to spend time with me.
so sorry, mummy and daddy.

sunday was thus dedicated to them.
and i've decided i shall neglect them no more.
they will always be the most important people in my life.

the initial d hotness.

caught the movie on 23 june, thursday. (i insisted there was to be no other day)
with a whole lot of people chin/jane/szeman/homo/leeloo/eleanor.
i didn't expect the turnout though i would have gone without them anyway.

much as i luurrve jielun, i wasn't particularly impressed with the movie.
and it wasn't that i had high expectations for the movie, just that some aspects of it didn't work for me.

the best parts were the racing scenes, though i thought the amount of freeze frames could be reduced drastically. it made the flow rather disjointed.

the mandarin dub bothered me a lot. i hate anne suzuki's dub, she sounds like she's 25 or something. same goes for edison and shawn yue.

i don't know why but the movie's pacing seemed rather slow at times, which i found hard to concentrate when i was already very worn out from work.

and the movie failed in the emotional aspects of the show.
the romantic love between takumi and mogi was shallow, the friendship between itsuki and takumi rather weak and the fatherly love of bunta forced.
i expected more from alan mak, who wrote such a great plotline for infernal affairs. he probably failed whereas andrew lau revived the movie with the andrenaline-pumping scenes. (even though the whole world knew takumi would win, duh)

the soundtrack comprised of very laid-back music, which is nice to suit takumi but definitely not apt for a number of exciting scenes. the movie's main theme "drifting" (written by dearie jielun) wasn't even played much until the ending credits. bah. that song suited the racing moments best! though i love it when "yi lu xiang bei" was played during the takumi-mogi moments. so sweeet~
jielun's reactions to the kiss, cheesecake, sexy swimsuit were hilarious. more hilarious than chapman to's spastic humour.

ok let's move on to the most talked about, jielun's acting.
erm, let's be fair here. (i'm trying my best to be a diplomatic jay fan)
i thought jielun's acting was just amateurish and given this being his debut, it is ok. nothing great like i heard from all the previews, cast and crew comments.
i thought that jielun was being himself entirely in the show, which doesn't count as acting. maybe because the character takumi is so much alike to jielun himself?
his crying scene wasn't very effective for me. (sorry but i even giggled because i thought he was so cute) i attribute that to the lack of chemistry between the 2 leads because not enough time was given to build up the relationship.

but his lead appearance did do some good for jielun.
for once my friends actually told me they think jielun is cute. (LOL)
and chin even said jielun seems to be cuter than edison!? (LMAO)
i'd say jielun is charasmatic, not cute lah. he's cute when he grins though.
for now, i'd say a movie's not the best place to see jielun in. go for the concert instead. you'd be more than wowed, honestly.

so for me the movie wasn't entirely great and deserving of the big hoo-ha.
i'd give it ***1/2 (out of 5).
but i still want to watch it again. the movie just grows on you.

since i've got nothing to do at work, yet again, so i shall blog about yesterday.

21 june 2005 - a day etched in memory.

the wonderful day began when i met serene at 12 at changi airport T1.
jay's flight was stipulated to land at 1255 but was delayed. but then, belt 23 at the arrival hall was already jam-packed with a lot of crazy fans. and there was loads of jay fans, compared to edison and the really-very-poor-thing shawn.
due to the delay, everyone's spirits were raised to an all-high when the icon finally turned to "Landed" on the tv screen.

when they finally appeared after 30 minutes, there was so much scrambling me and ser failed to take a good picture. *sobs*
jay walked out first followed by anthony wong, shawn yue and edison. erm and i totally forget that kenny b also came until the stars left the airport.
they walked very fast so most fans ran out to the exit to the cars. i got lucky because i happened to run after the no. 1 car, which carries jay, and it stopped in front of me for a while. for that brief moment, i was alone there so i waved frantically and he waved back! so so happy :) (ser said he was grinning in the car, must be because he was amused with all the fans' reactions)

me and ser went down to lido to start queueing for good seats at 3pm. and what a bummer, it was raining at the wrong place at the wrong time. the rain came sporadically and both of us were bored to tears sitting down there on a small piece of cardboard. poor ser wore skirt so she was feeling so uncomfortable. some fans actually went as early as 6am to queue for seats! so you guys shouldn't call me a maniac ok, i'm already considered average compared to those really crazy ones.

at about 6pm, the crowd got bigger and bigger. suddenly they just went pushing towards the front and we were all squashed towards the barricade like canned sardines. totally no place to breathe and those people are really inconsiderate. i know those people behind cannot see the stage and they're desperate to but they have to spare a thought for people at the front. the front people most likely queued for a long time (except those irritants whose friends 'chop' seats) and if we keep getting pushed forward, we'll be pressed against the immobile barricade. and i was being very nice by not holding up my banner for almost the whole show but they kept scolding me when i did. i mean, you guys don't even bother about our safety so why should i heed your selfish request? and i spent so much effort making that placard, naturally i would want jay to see it!

well as you can see, i'm quite pissed off regarding the red carpet. my first time at such promo events so i'm not used to the crowd. maybe it's a blessing in disguise then to have jay not have so many promo activities in singapore.

anyway my view was pretty good because i was right smack beside the media box, facing the main stage, 4th row. one regret though was that my spot is near to the stage but not a good place for shaking hands with the stars! (jay came to the area near me and i was inches away from his hand!!! argh the angst is killing me!) should have gone a little further down the red carpet where the stars actually lingered longer and shook hands because when we first reached lido, those places were virtually empty!

i'm someone with too many regrets right? well back on topic, the stars arrived individually in the following order: Edison, Kenny B, Shawn, Anthony, Jay. One good thing though was that jay saw my banner! how do i know? because when he was being interviewed on stage, his gaze was straight towards my direction and i saw him staring at my placard. hahaha bet the words confused him.

so i tried means and ways to sneak up to the theatres but it was really heavily guarded.
well so i decided to go to conrad hotel to stalk out instead, with no much luck at lido.
chin/szeman/jane, my dearies, agreed to accompany me there to wait for the stars. so we cleverly sat down at the lobby lounge to eat (since i didn't have dinner) where the carpark door was in full view. i was starting to get paranoid when edison suddenly appeared. i was so appalled i ran towards them... haha i guess i kinda scared the people so the hotel personnel kept chasing me away. while waiting for jay, i asked some of the fans loitering in the hotel carpark and someone told me jay went to ZOUK! (tipped off from a friend who trailed him) LOL of all places, i never expected him to go there besides he once mentioned he's not into clubbing. LOL isn't he so happening?

the waiting paid off when a familiar figure clad in a biege flowery top and white pants appeared. a huge entourage of fans + crew were around him, along with shawn yue who was supporting him. HAHAHA i didn't know jay was actually tipsy at that point in time until a fan told me later.(jay must be a really bad drinker) i did observed that he looked rather glazed and unresponsive to the fans which is rather out of character. he even looked confused at one point in time. wahahaha. i really wanted to take a picture OR shake hands OR get autographs (i even prepared a marker and my fantasy album) but the hotel personnel chased me away again! RAH. what's even more infuriating was that when i went to pass a letter i wrote for jay to the reception, they went: "sorry, there's no one called Jay Chou staying here." i reallly feel like killing them. but well i still haven't gotten any one of my wishes yet but i will perservere!

yeah that is the full account of my jay-gazing yesterday.
will post the pictures later after ser sends them to me.
the red carpet was truly disastrous. i guess i'm really getting old for that sort of things.

and lastly i would like to extend my appreciation to:

thank you SERENE.
for being such a sweetie accompanying me the whole time even though it's not the kind of thing you like to do.
for helping me take photos. for not having any complains at all.

thank you CHIN, SZEMAN, JANE.
for obligingly waiting with me at conrad hotel till the wee hours.
for being so nice about the whole thing even though you guys were all deadbeat.

love you all, my dearies.

can't wait to watch initial d. anticipating tomorrow. :)

i'm deadbeat, after struggling and finally completely my jay placard.
can't think coherently so i shall let the photos do the talking by themselves.

here's presenting my ugly placard:

didn't turn out as i planned. it looks kinda crappy and now the more i look at it, the words seem to not make sense... i don't feel like bringing it already. sighs.

pictures i promised earlier, from the steamboat night.

a precious and rare picture.


the right expression at the right time.



ate here today(friday noon).
was amazed to see such stores around
and i had fun sitting and eating with strangers. so cute~

that's all i can churn out with my limited energy.

JAY THE MAN is setting foot on this island in about 8 hours' time. *blabbers*
i better go get my beauty sleep so i can look presentable tomorrow.
wish me luck in my jay stalking mission. :)

IE web broswers suck big time.
i lost the entry that i meticulously typed out on friday because i fell flat asleep in front of my pc and when i woke up, the browser miraculously restarted. weird or what?
so i decided to boycott blogging for a while since it was so mean to me.

been a long while yeah?
during this long while, i've been working working working.
i dunno how to describe my situation at work really.
let me ask you instead. would you be happy or frustrated when you have nothing to do and just sit idly, waiting for the supervisor to come back so as to give instructions?
for me, i feel both. happy because i'm getting paid doing minimal work but frustrated because i feel like a worthless person while everyone else is so busy.
seriously i think they should terminate my service early to spare me from such agony.
imagine waking up early everyday to idly sit in the office. that is not my cup of tea.

had my lunch alone for the first time on friday. it wasn't that bad.
i was prepared actually, i even bought my i-weekly. the loneliness only surfaced when i entered a very crowded eatery and realise i have no one to help me 'chop' seats.
but all in all, i'm quite happy eating alone anyway. i can't picture myself eating with people from the office. in case you're wondering, yes i'm an anti-socialite and i just can't be bothered.

anyway the weekend was a blast, in comparison to bleak working weekdays.
208 met up for 3 days this week alone! yay. (i think it's a milestone in itself)

met up with chin/jun/homo/becky/szeman for steamboat on tuesday night.
the food (the one beside my house) wasn't especially worth a mention…
the highlight of the day was when szeman arrived with bags full of food.
sounds normal? it won't be if you knew that she 'stole' them from the office.
and seeing a thin frail girl, who is always in total risk of being blown away by the wind, sneakily carrying bags of food which comprises 15 cans of green tea, 1 large packet of kit kat, tupperwares containing sardine puffs, fried rice... we all either "LOL" or "gasp!".
then we took lots of crazy photos underneath my house. will post them later.

met up with becky/chin/szeman/busha/leeloo in marina square, center stage.
where chin was constantly flashing her weird (and goofy) smile... hee :)
we later interrogated becky at starbucks over her definition of a cute guy.
and becky sure is very cute when we broach that subject. she avoids it altogether or just keeps repeating "don't know". heehee our concurrent plan is to make her drunk and then...
let her spill her secrets out on her own! we're evil, ain't we? =p

then on saturday was blading with jun/homo/chin/szeman/busha.
haven't blade for such a long long time my skills are rusty. it's a miracle i didn't fall this time.
though i'm yet again reminded of the fact that my darling blades are 1 size too small and they don't fit my pretty feet. sighs.
we again took lots of random snapshots with our handy camera phones. only in this instance do i appreciate the pros of technology.
it was incredibly fun to blade with them. and one important reason being they're not very pro so i don't feel i'm a burden.
imagine blading with chin and jane the 2 pros... *horrified*

they all went back to their respective homes to bathe, leaving me being the stinkiest since they're all going to my house.
on the way i borrowed the chronicles of narnia: the lion, the witch and the wardrobe; prince caspian and bill bryson!
you guys recall the chronicles of narnia by C.S. Lewis? (if you haven't, you have not live your childhood to its fullest)
anyway there's gonna be a movie adaptation of the chronicles of narnia: L,W,W in december! i'm so gonna watch it.

ok back to topic. so we watched kill bill volume 1+2 and the 1st 4 episodes of america's next top model (antm). and snacking on zillions of trash.
kill bill was rather a disappointment. yeah it was gruesome but i was rather awestruck by volume 1 because of the manga-like direction.
BUT as like all sequels, it failed to deliver. an example would be matrix trilogy.
i was so looking forward to the 2nd installment because the 1st promised good things. sama sama in the case of kill bill.
luckily i didn't spend the money to watch it in the theatres. the gruesome parts were rather hilarious especially the squirting blood. lol.

currently now in office, bored to tears. supervisor off to lunch and the guy who is supposed to assign work for me has nothing for me to do.
he even asked me to read the papers. ^^;;
my thoughts linger back at home... where my jay placards are waiting to be completed.
i'm rather paranoid that i wouldn't be able to finish them in time given my perfectionist nature of erasing and redrawing every stroke.

and speaking of which, THE MAN will be making his presence felt on the island tomorrow!
i can't wait...
will be blogging again later. till then.

i'm chlorine deprived. seriously.
it feels like something's missing from my system.
i guess i really do love swimming now. one day, if all the water in the world has dried up, i'll definitely turn neurotic first before dying.

stupid work's keeping me from my regular excercise regime.
even though i may complain it's uber boring all the time, i suspect trying to keep yourself alert throughout an extremely boring day burns even more energy than you can imagine. that's my theory.
either that or if you force yourself to do something you dislike, you burn more energy too. it's the mental energy i'm referring to, fyi.
that explains why i can remain hyper even after a day's worth of labour if i'm enjoying myself in the first place.

noticed that i complain about work all the time.
when i have no work, i complain. when i have work, i complain.
i'm truly what you call an unsatisfied person.
anyway all admin jobs suck. and i always end up getting stuck with them.
and shenton way is really terrifying. seeing everyone walking so fast makes you nervous. as if we don't have enough stress.

so admist the miserable time at work, i still managed to meet up with 208.
yipee~ i always love meeting up with them.
i can never be as at ease to anyone else but them.
which is sad because homo and busha is gonna leave for australia soon.
i will miss them so so much.


wahahaha i love that banner. nice?
(it's for a theme week in the jay forum)
coincidentally i'll be going to the zoo next monday and jay will be coming next tuesday. i can't wait for dearie jay to come.

6 days more to jay-mania.

ok i'm really incoherent. in bits and pieces.
i need my sleep.

first day @ work.
i'm damn bored here and it's so lonely.
i dread lunch time though my stomach's growling for help now.
luckily chin and sze man's eating with me today. the other days, i dunno how.

am kinda tired now.
got scared by an uber freaking huge cockroach yesterday.
why do cockroaches like to crawl into my room so much?
i consider myself lucky that i'm awake when it did. can't imagine the sleeping me (possibly with my mouth ajar) and the creepy crawler in the same room. yucks.
i hate cockroaches!

it's been a month since exams ended and holidays started.
so during the past month, i've been doing nothing except being a couch potato watching anime, swimming and basically just willing time away.
and yeah, i was frantically searching for things to do and there was NOTHING.

so come my china trip and coincidentally, the union camp pre-camp had to fall in that week. so yeah i had to be absent and feeling guilty about it.
after china, i was bored to death again. no jobs, no commitments to haunt me.

and when i clinched the "lucky draw coupon" job (for lack of a better name), jun had to call and tell me she's got a job for me.
an opportunity too good to pass up so i just accepted it first. leave the excuse for ditching the "lucky draw coupon" job for later. which turned out a blessing in disguise since that was such a huge scam.

so now i'm having problems with turning up for union camp activities with it clashing with my 3 week stint.
sighs when can i ever feel both busy and at peace?

life can be such a bugger.

there is no free lunch in this world.

something i learned the hard way. ok not very hard but still quite terrifying.
so here's how the story goes.

chin/szeman/cheryl/me went for a walk-in interview for a supposed "roadshow" that was advertised in the straits times, where the basic pay was $80 per day.
the office was at shaw house, company called Oriental Travel and there was a large number of prospective interviewees. we were starting to worry about clinching the job.
so when it was our turn, the lady janice just asked some questions and accepted us. she was very vague in what the job was about and how the company operates. all we were told was we had to get people to fill in lucky draw coupons.
briefing adjourned to the next day 3pm @ mccafe.

it was during briefing that cheryl sensed something fishy. being the street-wise cheryl that is. in short, the lucky draw coupon we would be asking people to fill in have to fulfil 5 criteria before it is deemed qualified and 1 dollar falls into our pocket.
1) singaporean/PR (caucasians not accepted)
2) marital status: married/engaged
3) age: 28-63
4) combined household income: at least $4000
5) MUST own a major credit card

and there was 3 types we could choose from.
i. $2 for every qualified coupon
ii. $1 for every qualified coupon and $40 per show-up
iii. $1 for every qualified coupon, $40 per show-up, $200 bonus if weekly target achieved. (this one's for people who could commit >1 month)

and that's where the catch comes in. "SHOW-UP"
so every qualified coupon will be keyed in and a telemarketer will call EVERY qualified person that they will win an elegant diamond watch if they come down for a obligations-free online demonstration by Oriental Travel. and if they do show up, the telemarketer gets $40, we get $40 too. that confirms a show-up.

the most fishy part was about the company.
she explained that we're not employed by Oriental Travel but by JSM. upon probing by cheryl, she told us JSM means Jue Shi Marketing. and we're not allowed to divulge any information that speaks of Oriental Travel, the reason why we're conducting this lucky draw is because we want to collect information for a demographics survey. damn bull sia. who the hell will sponsor prizes like a car, 10K cash, holiday trips, countless diamond watches, digital cameras just for a survey? having worked in saffron before, their idea of an incentive is cold hard cash to the respondent, usually not more than $100. this was too good to be true.

another weird part was when cheryl asked the receptionist at Oriental Travel office, out of curiousity, how much are the tour packages, the rude malay woman said it's under membership. and how much is the membership? the woman just cut her off by saying please call to enquire. which is damn rude because that place was the freaking reception, where else to enquire then? we dismissed it as plain rudeness for thinking we're not rich enough. but when i asked janice if the lucky draw coupon was the avenue by which they obtain people for membership, she just said it was to get people to view the online demonstration.

and what's most ironic is that she prepared for us this FAQ which includes this question: "are you a timesharing company?" which we have to reply, "sir/mdm, what is timesharing?" "we're a market research company".
they're simply lying out of their teeth. and to think she got the guts to tell me and chin that every company has their way of earning money, quoting pantene shampoo with their exaggerated tv ads. oh well at least they pay money to lie through legal means.

there were so many loopholes to the whole thing.
i probably was blind not to see it. luckily cheryl embarked on an online search and came across this.
and hell, the first post was dated 2 years back. with the procedures, names, ncompanies all the same, no doubt can this be an online hoax. janice & co had to be the real counterfeit. i guess probably the victims would feel anguish towards the young innocent surveyors but they are also victims. i'm sure most of them went into this without even knowing it's all a scam. the 2 boys present on the briefing with us were so innocent, they absolutely had no questions or whatsoever.

so a word of advice to all my friends,
when looking for a job, be realistic.
and when approached by such fraud companies, be pragmatic.

why doesn't CASE or any governing body crack down on these companies?

my sleeping pattern's altered now.
crash at 12pm and wake at 9am.
i guess i've evolved into a chinaman now... they're amazing i tell you.
by 7am, the streets are bustling with bicycles. their version of motorbikes are bicycles mobilized with a environment-friendly motor. so most of them don't actually cycle, they just activate the motor. i saw some girls wearing dresses and heels on such motorbikes, really hippie i tell you.
can't blame them actually. the sun rises at 4am there and sets at 7pm. so compared to singapore who has the same timezone, china has a much longer daytime compared to nightime. so naturally they become early risers and sleepers.

i think i've gotten fat too. the negative consequence of a holiday.
we eat 3 full meals a day and besides the occassional sightseeing, we sleep in the bus like little pigs. of course we'll all grow fat. argh.
i gotta pimp my swimming regime a bit to accomodate my excess lipids.

another negative consequence is the disorientation.
even though there is no jetlag this time, after 8 days of busy intinery, i can't get used to the do-nothing life back here.
and i really miss xiao zhou's funny taglines and his exaggerated bahasa. and getting to spend time with my family everyday. sighs.

if only holidays were FOC... i wish.

note: this post needs unicode encoding

TADA i'm back!

i wouldn't say i love 江南 a lot though it left me with many nice memories.
went to 杭州-苏州-南京-无锡-上海. i love 杭州 and 苏州 the best because it's accentuated with an old china atmosphere. 上海 is just another metropolitan city, somewhat like a much bigger singapore.

the experience aside, there were so many things to get used to.

toilet and the food
i tell u, singaporeans will be the first to die if we all were to move to a backward country. even the dirtiest toilet in singapore cannot hold a candle to the dirtiest in china. ok the first day freaked us out (esp gracey my cousin). after 5 hours of plane ride on garuda (with insomnia-induced sleep), we made our way to 杭州 from 上海. hungry, sleepy and grouchy from a full bladder, we stopped midway for lunch at the most horrible place ever. the guide explained that's the more backward area and we should drastically lower our expectations for the toilet and the food. and yeah so we should. the toilet was horrible - clogged with tons of shit, doorless, so pungent i was glad i ate before. the food looked weird. grace scared me by saying that some of the meat may be dog meat in disguise so i ended up not eating much. well both of us were lamenting on our predicament.
and yeah the guide (we call him 小周) told us there's grade for the toilets. A = ok, go even if u have to force your pee out. B = doorless but go if you're urgent. C = go unless you have no choice.
well things looked bleak the first day but it picked up later. but generally the toilets are still worse than singapore's. a word of advice: bring your own toilet roll, try not to look into the pothole, don't breathe while inside.

the insolent smokers
from what i observed, almost 8 out of 10 men in china smoke. everywhere i go, there'll be chain smoking. argh the situation gets worse in 上海. the reason for so much smoking is because the cigarettes are freaking cheap. the cheapest box cost you only 2 bucks in singapore, a far cry from the rates here isn't it?

high probability of mismatched couples
this is an observation from grace. she noticed that most couples often end up having a really ugly guy and a not bad girl. so we end up speculating whether 江南 is blatantly lacking in cute guys and supple with pretty girls. as the chinese saying goes, "江南出美女" so i presume god is fair when making men and women. afterall men in china is still the head (they're mostly MCPs) except the 上海 and 苏州 men, according to 小周. so girls, if you wanna marry to china, consider only the abovementioned.

fake products
having said that, the guides warned us that china is full of fake products. even fruits can be fake, can you believe that? i was especially worried about the fake bank notes. i dunno why they have to do this. isn't china's economy on the uprise? i don't understand why they have to capitalise on fake products.

filthy air
the air in 上海 was really dirty. the sky always looked a little hazy and by the end of the day, our noses will be full of noseshit. grace's slippers never fail to become dusty at the end of the day. the air in the other provinces were better. makes me appreciate singapore so much more.


yeah a lot of factors to tolerate but the experience was good.
the guides were really very good. and surprisingly, all of them were university graduates. 小周 in particular graduated with a law degree, decided to drop law and study tourism. and he speaks bahasa melayu, learned professional photography and technican knowlege and have been to many places around the world. i can safely say some of them are even more capable people than some of our local university graduates.
and i really admired the pride they have for their own province and also the wealth of knowledge about their country's history. at a supper session with 小周, he told us about the hard life of students in china and somehow i can more or less understand why the PRC scholars are so kiasu and hardworking. i don't dislike them that much anymore. but one thing bad about chinese men is that they're all very MCP. 小周 told us he can never accept the idea of equality in sex but no matter how firmly he denies, i can sense that he loves his wife. haha a man's ego at work. he also says that most couples in china tend to date for many years before they marry. i dunno if it applies anymore or only in certain areas, but i somehow like how the chinese stick to their tradtional roots whereas singapore has no unique identity.

xiaozhou's so scared of us haha. his bahasa is very funny, exaggerates on the Rs. like pasarrrr maram, tidoh grrrr. and his fave tagline is "come on, let'ch go. follow me."


the fellow on the left is our sg leader.
he used to be an ex TCS actor, anyone recognise him? damn funny guy.

see all pics here

actually what made this trip memorable for me was the people. the scenery itself wasn't a draw because i prefer natural scenery and the itinery was too rushed. but i would encourage people who dislike cheena things to actually give china a chance. saying "cheena is yucky" without giving them a chance is just plain shallow.

i ain't done but i'm sure you guys will die if i continue writing. i'll leave it to telling you all when we meet up.
i would love to visit china again, this time to the north because every province has very distinct differences.