Adventures in the East

No Dive... Boo Hoo

2008-10-28T06:06:00.000-07:00

Gawd! Was I pissed when I wrote my last blog? Sounded like it. It was full of soppy shit.

Anyways, so I'm back to being in a bit of a mood due to nitrogen withdawal symptoms. My planned dives in Miri did not happen due to bad weather. SIGH!

As my mum drove across the border to Miri on that fateful Saturday morning, it started drizzling and she said 'U sure u can dive in this weather? It's raining'. And I said 'Mum, you can't do anything but dive when it's raining'.... how wrong was I? 10 mins later, my phone beep with a text message 'Today's dives are cancelled due to bad weather'

Okay... sent a text to my sister and ask her to book me into a day spa. Might as well make use of the time to get myself properly relaxed and ready for the next day's dives. All dopily sleepy coming out of the treatment room my phone beeped again with a text 'Tomorrow's dives will also be cancelled due to bad weather'

F**K IT!

There goes another long weekend wasted. Worse still, my mates on the BM saw a manta ray. And the others on the WM saw a list of fishes you might hope to see in a lifetime in one sodding dive trip!

So now I'm desperately trying to squeeze in another dive trip before the monsoon hits the east side good and proper. I'm keeping my fingers desperately crossed. I NEED to get in one more trip before Australia.... *twitch*

Another Dive Trip.... Woohoo!

2008-10-23T09:51:00.000-07:00

Just been out with a couple of dive buddies I met over the last couple of trips and met a few other divers. Must say, being a diver must've been one of the most sociable thing I've ever done in my life. Why?

Well... firstly, diving involves being (for the most of it) in warm waters where you would imagine your best holiday would be. The sun, the sea... ok, the sand might not be there but you could encounter it about 18 to 30 metres under water.

Secondly, for the hardcore divers, a liveaboard is the place to be in. Almost like being on unchatered waters, if you're lucky enough to be with a well-organised operation, more often than not you'll be the first boat at the dive site. Diving in water with anything more than 15m visibility and nothing but fishes and corals around you has to be the best feeling in the world. (Ok, maybe just for divers).

Thirdly, with all those perfect ingredients of sea and weather mixed into one boat and whole bunch of people who love nothing but to jump into a great big world of blueness with amazing creatures who breathe in a medium which we would drown in.... the bliss of being underwater....

.... what more can you ask for?

A get together of like minded people. The perfect place to get away from it all, your job, your friends (if necessary) and be amongst perfect strangers both breathing above and underwater....

For me, this is what LIFE is about....

I can't wait til I go on my next dive adventure.

*WHALE SHARKS..... MANTA RAYS....* ok, even nemo would be good enough ;)

It's been so long.....

2008-10-19T07:42:00.000-07:00

..... since I last blogged. Life has taken over and I have better things to do than to write countless blogs.... Well, to be honest, a blog becomes boring when it's just words and no pics. Getting pics uploaded here is the most cumbersome thing ever. I have to upload each photo at a time and a great diving trip could take all night to blog. Much easier uploading pics to facebook.

Anyways, since last August, I have been on two dive trips and got my Advanced Open Water certificate. It all kicked off with our MBS Sept dive trip to Aur, again. That was my third time to Aur in 3 months. I'm not sure whether it's the variety of fish available that never fails to amaze me, or the fact that I'm still a relatively new diver that any place is just a good. I'd probably dive in my bathtub if I had one! LOL!

Here's me doing my safety stop and looking perma-shocked... and the one below of me getting a well-deserved snooze after our last dive. I've received quite a few pics of me sleeping. Obviously it's of great fascination to many. (Hope I wasn't snoring, teeheehee)

Then I went diving in Phuket and Phi Phi with the boys during the Hari Raya public holiday. Organising the trip was relatively easy as there were a quite a few dive centres to choose from online. The best bit about the holiday, other than the diving, was our hotel on Patong Beach which fronted the beach. At SGD$35 (GBP15) per night, it was a steal.

I was determined to dive everyday so I had 4 days of brilliant dives. I saw three leopard sharks and a graceful eagle ray flying along whilst I was doing my safety stop. Here's a pic of Sharkey.

It's a shame I didn't have an underwater camera with me as there were loads of interesting stuff in Phuket that I had not seen before. My favourite has to be the yellow boxfish. They are just so cute, far cuter than Nemo. And I saw a teeny baby one about an inch square just swimming along the crevice on Koh Doc Mai.

I did my Advanced Open Water course during the overnight trip to Phi Phi and I was stressing a bit with 5 chapters to read through whilst I was in Phuket. It turned out to be pretty easy and I had a great one to one during the whole course. During the final module underwater, my instructor's find strap broke so she had to buddy me up with someone else and she ended her dive. I think that warranted an automatic pass.

I think the funniest moment has to be when I got a bit confused over whether I should be doing the square navigation under water as I was told at the surface that we would do that the next day. When we got to the bottom, my instructor drew a square and an X on the sand and then pointed to me and drew the square again, I was wondering whether I should do it, did it half-confused and ended up doing a circle! Oh well, nevermind, I did it alright the next day.

I'm glad I booked my trip to Phuket again over the New Year's public holiday. I believe it's now nearly fully booked. I will be on the big Black Manta for this trip and we'll be sailing over to the Similan Islands for 5 days of solid diving. There would be nothing better than getting up early on my birthday, jumping into the water and be greeted by a whale shark or a graceful manta ray.

In the meantime, I'm off to Miri this weekend for little Emma's second birthday and 2-day dive off the coast of Miri. I've now bought myself an underwater camera housing with an arm and a leg. Although with my dad's connections, it only cost me an arm. Hopefully Miri being relatively quiet, it will have some pretty untouched reefs and I should have my very own underwater pictures to show. Feel a bit like a cheat posting up loads of underwater pics on facebook when I've not taken any of them!

Moody Rants

2008-08-28T07:48:00.000-07:00

I must've got up on the wrong side of the bed, or was pre-menstrual or both earlier this week. Despite having a brilliant time in KL meeting up with JL and a relaxing time catching up with my cousins in Brunei, I came back to work on Tuesday with a face like a slapped arse - whatever that means.

I got shortlisted for a scholarship to study in the States, so I went back to Brunei for the interview. It lasted all of 10 minutes, not exactly difficult questions. But had I read the little essay I wrote for the application form, I reckon that scholarship would've been mine. Having written it months ago, I completely forgotten what I had written. I even nearly forgot what course I was thinking of applying for. Needless to say the interview could've gone better, but I thought it went ok anyway.

Went straight into work from the airport to be greeted with stupid stupid news. Months ago there was talk of me looking after a complete section together with the facades. Then there was talk about me just looking after the facades. And now... I'll just have to carry on doing what I've been doing and there bringing someone else in from Macau to look after my section and I'll have to work with him. Have I just got short-changed for a promotion - twice?? Fact is, even my previous trainees could do my current job with their eyes closed. Hardly brain-flexing work.

So, I obviously didn't take that piece of news very well. And for the rest of the week I had to deal with complete imbeciles. I think I completely lost the plot and swore a great deal. Apologies to those who got caught in the line of fire and were told to get f**ked.

Today I feel much better. If I don't get the scholarship, there's always Vancouver possibly still waiting for me. I need to get out of this hell hole. If I don't start using those grey matter, I fear they will die of intelligence-starvation. I need to stop treating this like a paid holiday. I'm getting bored. (Not to mention sick of interacting with kiasu morons everyday)

August Dive Trip - With The Boys

2008-08-27T08:10:00.000-07:00

Again, no pics for this post. They're all available on facebook. Plus, I'm just too lazy to attach photos. They're a pain in the arse with trying to get the format right, etc.

Back on the White Manta to Aur again for my August dive trip. Although not on my own this time. Two of the guys from work came with me to do their open water course before we go on our September trip.

Same dive sites, although this time, I didn't have the luxury of having the instructor all to myself. Although, I must admit the White Manta's divemasters are pretty good. My divemaster, who happens to be an instructor as well, took pretty good care of me.

The only significant thing this time round was I managed to experience a drift dive. Which is brilliant as long as the current isn't too strong. You just drift along and need no energy for any finning.

I also got caught in a bit of a current on another site. I could see everyone finning ahead of me and I was finning pretty damn hard and not going anywhere. Luckily the divemaster turned round and saw that I was stuck, came and pull me out of the current. On our way up, we were caught in another current and were hanging onto our dear lives on a rock. Ok, maybe a bit of an exaggeration, hanging onto our dear lives. But it was pretty strong for a novice like me.

D and M both got passed their open water, but not without a story or two to tell. The Triggerfish were back at it. I managed to see it from quite a distance. But when the boys were down at the bottom for their first dive and their instructor was still at the surface trying to get the last guy down, there was a Triggerfish laying waiting to attack. My divemaster managed to spot it and got the guys out of danger before the Triggerfish had a chance to pounce.

Relatively uneventful trip, but fun and relaxing nevertheless. I don't think I'll ever tire of diving. The only time when I feel that time has actually stopped without a care in the world. We're now planning our Phuket diving trip in October. The boys are pretty into diving as well now. I'm making sure I go on a trip at least once a month, and the guys are following suit.

Tokyo Trip

2008-08-27T07:20:00.000-07:00

It's been a long time since I last blogged. Life (or laziness) has finally caught up with me. Anyways, let's start with my Japan trip. Just over a month ago now. No pics in this blog. They can be viewed on my facebook.

Japan was a little gift from my sister for her annual birthday trip. I know, how does that work? I get a gift for someone else's birthday. Not only was it just a trip, it was a business class flight, in a 5-star hotel with spending money type gift! Thanks sis :D

I flew into KL to meet the rest of the gang at the Golden Lounge for the business class flyers *ahem* and our holiday begun with the comfiest seat on the plane. It was the best 7-hour flight I've ever been on. I got served a 3-course meal with the best Pinot Noir I've had and I get to recline my seat to a horizontal position for a snooze too.

We arrived at Narita airport in the evening and headed straight to the Imperial Hotel at Ginza where we were staying. We got to the hotel at 9pm and feeling pretty hungry. But all the restaurants in the hotel shut at 9.30pm! We eventually managed to find one which opens late. It was a 'western' restaurant. Although I wouldn't recommend eating there. The food was ok.

We then experienced our first earthquake on the first night!! I was asleep and about midnight, I felt these tremors. I thought, hmm... earthquake, keep calm. One of my colleagues worked in Japan for 2 years and said it happens all the time. And it wasn't like the building was crumbling down around me, and I was knackered (yes, I know, even after an extremely comfortable sleep on the plane). I was about to doze off when my sister got up, turned the lights on and went 'SIS, THERE'S AN EARTHQUAKE!!' All I could muster was a 'It happens all the time, go back to sleep' and so we did. But the building did creak, the bed did shake but we sustained no injuries. Apparently quite a number of people died at the epicentre.

The next morning I decided to get up pretty early for a swim in the hotel pool. It cost about SGD12 to use the hotel pool which I thought was a bit of a rip off seeing as I was a guest at the hotel. There were about a million rooms to go through before you actually got to the pool. First there was the locker room, then the changing room, the powder room, the toilets, the showers, the sauna, the bath (!!) before you get out of the ladies 'changing room' from the other end to get to the pool. Of course, before you get to the pool, there's the shower (MUST have a shower before jumping into the pool), then you get to a stepped pool of water which comes up to your thighs, just to make sure that your doubly-cleaned, before you walk to the pool to pick up a swimming cap before you jump in for a swim.

You'd think after all that, I would've had the best swimming experience ever. Well, it's the tiniest swimming pool I've ever seen. Probably only about 20m long, will fit about 4 people before it feels like a can of sardines and it's actually a prefab pool, i.e. a metal tin plonked into a hole in the floor and filled up with water. After the swim, I went into the sauna for a bit and thought better of jumping into the 'baths', inviting as they look. When I went back to the locker room to get my stuff and put my sandals on. The only other woman in the locker room looked at me in disgust and said 'Shoes are suppose to be worn outside'. She was Japanese. I wasn't sure whether I was more shocked about missing the sign which says 'No shoes' or the fact that she sounded very American.

We went to see the fireworks on the Sumida River on our second night. It lasted an hour and a half. The first fifteen minutes were pretty good. After that I thought it was never gonna end. But it was a great experience. Sushi and tempura dinner on the boat, fireworks in the night, plenty of beers and sake to go round.

On the third day I went shopping in Omote Sando. I got a the underground from Ginza to Omote Sando, a 15-20 minute ride. When I got to the underground at Ginza, although I had a map on me and knew exactly where I was going, I thought I'd ask the ticketman the question anyway. Don't want me getting lost in Tokyo underground. All he managed was to point me to the barriers. I f**king know I need to go through the barriers. So I gave up, found a ticket machine, got a day ticket and jumped on the train. Omote Sando is quite interesting. The main road is filled with Burberry, LV, Chanel and the likes. A bit like Knightsbridge. But off the main road there were plenty of quaint and quirky little shops selling all sorts of interesting stuff and clothes.

Fourth day, my last day, we were suppose to meet at the hotel lobby at 6.45am for a trip down the fish market and have extremely fresh sushi for breakfast. My little sis cannot stomach raw fish first thing in the morning. So she set the alarm for 5.30am to try and catch the first breakfast in the hotel at 6am. Unfortunately she turned the alarm off and we went back snoozing for five more minutes. Turned out to be an extra hour and a half. When I woke up and looked at the clock, I yelled 'Jo, it's 6.44!!!!!' I have never seen my sis jumped out of bed (literally) so quickly and proceeded to get changed right in front of me. I had to knock some sense into her and told her we weren't gonna get ready and get down to the hotel lobby in ONE MINUTE. She could actually take her time to get changed.

We got to the fish market. Packed, busy and all the teeny sushi restaurants had miles of queues. Poor sis also had to stomach raw fish as she didn't get any breakfast beforehand. We were then taken to Shibuya for a bit of shopping. We were in a extremely trendy tiny mall packed with teenage wear. It was probably heaven for little sis, except that my other sister's mother in law was with us too. Kinda kills the shopping mood a little. I then made the mistake of telling our guide that I wanted to buy a ninja outfit if I came across one. They took us to a supermarket type place which sold everything under the sun. Everything except for a ninja outfit. My sis' mother-in-law asked afterwards 'Did you manage to get your Ninja Turtle outfit'. Ninja Turtle!!! So much for the stealth if you have a shell on your back!

In the evening, my sisters and I sacrificed dinner and went shopping in Ginza, near our hotel. It was the sales in Tokyo, we couldn't miss it. I bought three pair of shoes (they all hurt!). Somehow the thought of possibly never being able to shop in the Tokyo sales again (not true) makes you just wanna over indulge a little. Not to mention the fact that we shopped in Printemps, which is not even a Japanese department store.

And that was my Tokyo trip. I'd definitely go back there again. Most definitely couple it with a dive trip in Okinawa. If given the opportunity, I'd even work in Japan for a couple of years. But learning Japanese is a must. I don't know how I managed to get back without speaking a single word of Japanese.

I Found Nemo!!!

2008-07-01T06:43:00.000-07:00

I went out on my second dive trip last weekend on board the White Manta. Much smaller and cheaper than the Black Manta. All on my own too. I was just keen to get back into the water to get my bouyancy right and enjoy the underwater scenery rather than stressing about doing skills on a course.

I'd rung the owner in advance to make sure he sorted someone out to look after me as I had just got certified and was going on board on m own. As the groups were pretty much sorted, I got the other dive instructor, C, all to myself so I pretty much got a one-to-one which was an added bonus.

I did a total of 6 dives, including one night dive. The visibility was amazing, about 15m and the marine life was brilliant. Loads of different fishes, corals, etc. Although half the time I didn't know what I was looking at. It was a tough job trying to memorise what you saw so that you could look it up later. I couldn't take any pics as I haven't got an underwater camera case just yet. But I've got pics of the fishes I saw from the internet.

Of course, the danger of not know what you're looking at is that you don't know whether the fish is aggressive or not. As my luck would have it, I was looking at this nice little fishy which turned out to be a nesting Titan Triggerfish and next thing I knew, the little fucker had it's fangs on my legs! I'm glad I bought a long wetsuit otherwise it would've had a chunk off my leg. What I didn't know was C had spotted the fish earlier, turned away from it and it was attacking the back of C's head!!

After that little incident every big-ish fish I saw, I tend to distant myself away from it. I saw this beautiful big angelfish and I found myself quickly swimming away when I got to it's sightline. Although what is a fish's sightline? They've got eyes on their sides, not the front like humans have.

Saw my first blue spotted ribbon tail ray. It was gliding along the bottom beautifully. On our way back, there was a school of dolphins swimming along some 30m away from out boat. I LOVE dolphins!! I think I'm definitely going to get a tattoo of dolphins on my lower back. It's gotta be done!!

Saw a cuttlefish. Ugly littl f**kers.

A giant baracuda. The one I saw was only about a metre long. And then I saw around a school of baracudas. It was beautiful!

Yellow snapper

Yellow mask angelfish

Yellow boxfish... hmm, I'm seeing a lot of yellow fishes

Scribbled filefish

Saw a pair of scorpion fish on the rocks

I found Nemo!! Well, more than one, they were so cute!

Grumpy old Napoleon Wrasse

Cute Moorish Idol

Map Pufferfish

Longfin Spadefish, aka Batfish

Checkboard snapper

Beautiful blue spotted ribbon tail ray

Funny little black spotted pufferfish. I was staring at it for ages hiding in the rocks

The cheeky little fucker who bit me, the Titan Triggerfish

My favourite, dolphins

Sargeant Major Scissortail

I wanna get back out there with the fishes. It was a bit sad on the way back. I've had such a superb weekend and for once, I thought I might actually just give up working in the construction industry and take up diving full time. There's a whole new world down there and you just float around enjoying the scenery. Plus, meeting all sorts of different people was always a bonus.

I've planned to go back out in the sea in a month's time. My mates were impressed with what I was telling them, particularly being bitten by a fish! I think I'm gonna be rounding up a troop of 5 or 6 in about 4 weeks. Titan Triggerfish, I ain't afraid of you. I'm gonna have my gang sort you out next time.... until you start biting.... yikes!

Update on 'Training' Programme

2008-06-21T05:55:00.000-07:00

So, it's been 3 weeks since I started on my intensive training programme and it has definitely paid off. OK, a little bit about the training programme...

Mondays are spent playing tennis and jumping into the pool for a quick 10+ laps depending on when I get to the swimming pool.

Tuesdays are spent swimming 30 laps with an hour of yoga for flexibility.

Wednesdays are spent swimming 40 laps.... or 2 hours of salsa, depending on what takes my mood.

Thursdays are spent playig tennis and jumping into pool just like Mondays.

Fridays are my favourite. The training involves copious amount of bicep curls with pints of beer or VRB's! ;p

Saturdays and Sundays involve another 40 laps in the pool each. Or diving, or more bicep curls .... depending on what sort of a weekend I'm planning.

The result of which is a good half a stone gone in 3 weeks!! Woo hoo!!

When I first started my dive course in the pool, they gave me an XL wetsuit. Well, it meant nothing to me as Asian sizes are always much much smaller than European sizes. But I keep being reminded that I am Asian and I keep reminding myself that I am a big-boned Asian. Let's face it, I have never worn anything with the tag S!!

When we went for our open water dive, they gave me an L wetsuit. Ok, an improvement. At least I know I am not an XL.

I had to get a new wetsuit for my next dive, so I went to a recommended shop on Friday. I enquired about the type of wet suits, etc and asked if I could try one out. The guy said that I would probably need an M. Can you believe it, a MEDIUM!! But he gave me the L to try as well.

After much tugging and pulling, well wetsuits are meant to be put on wet not dry, I managed to get myself in the Medium, pulled the zipper, it fits. I was asked to show the bloke once I've had it on. He took a quick look and said it fitted perfectly but I had to pull my sleeves up more as my shoulders were a bit wide. I could've kissed the bloke and jumped up and down for joy. I fit into a MEDIUM and I have wide shoulders!!! Gawd, all that swimming definitely paid off!!

So I'm looking forward to Monday when I have to go back to the shop to purchase my wetsuit with my instructor to get a discount. I'm gonna say to the bloke 'I'll have that one, in a MEDIUM please' He he he....

As they say, motivation is what gets you started, habit is what gets you going.

Obviously my motivation was rather materialistic, what with the bets with my sister and T. Plus having a bit of an OCD and always wanting to overdo things a little - that's my habit to keep me going.

Watch this space.... by mid-July I've gotta have 1.5 stone off what I was when I first got here, by end of Sept, I've gotta shave another stone off that. I am motivated by bets, and I am confident of winning them!!! After achieving all that, I wouldn't mind getting back to some martial arts training. I've always been a good little fighter, I'm sure all this training will get me back to top condition for the ring again. :)

Ill-Treated Expat

2008-06-21T05:28:00.000-07:00

It's like the saying 'You can take the girl out of the city but you can't take the city out of the girl. Except that in my case it's more like 'You can take the girl out of China but you can't take the Chinese out of the girl'.... okay it doesn't quite make sense. I don't even come from China.

Anyways, my point is, I feel rather cheated as an expat working out here. Having never been an expat before, getting the big salary, relocation expenses and the yearly ticket 'back' to the UK seemed like a good deal. Until I found out about the package my mate was offered for pretty much the same job, except on the construction rather than the commercial side.

I was put up in a hotel for 2 weeks when I first moved here and pretty much had to beg for an extra week when I couldn't move into my apartment. My mate gets 4 weeks in a hotel AND daily living expenses. Not to mention the the 2 weeks extra pay for 'settling allowance'. Where the hell was my settling allowance???

Back in the UK, my wage was a good 50% more than his for the jobs that we do. OK, my position was more senior than his. But now that he's moved here, and we're doing virtually the same jobs as we did in the UK and the pay gap has closed in too much for my own comfort.

I guess there is only one explanation for all this - he is a white male and I am a chinese female. No matter how 'expat' I am, the colour of my skin still gives me a slight disadvantage.

But then again, the definition of an expatriate is .... to banish (a person) from his or her native country. I guess I was never banished from my native country, I have actually come back closer to my native country.... and reaped the benefits he he he :)

A Month Full of Excitement

2008-06-15T07:29:00.000-07:00

It's June. I've been in Singapore nearly five months now. Time has certainly flown by. I don't miss London as much as I did when I first got here. Time heals, it's true. But I still miss the ease of getting a Starbucks Venti Latte in the morning. Nowadays, I have to settle for a Teh-C. For those who don't know, it's very strong tea drunk with evaporated milk and sugar. I used to love it when I was in Brunei. I still love it now.

So, things have moved on a little. I no longer moan about my job as much. I think I've now found my feet and my way. I discovered an area (facades) where my boss hardly pays any attention and have selfishly grabbed as many packages as I can. So much so that I've built my own little 'territory' by introducing one of my ex-colleagues to the company to do one of these facades packages. Plus, I think I've been ear-marked by my boss for a promotion. But how close I am to getting it, I don't know. So do watch this space.

Aside from that, now that most people know how I work, I've been giving it a bit of attitude at work as well. Mainly towards my boss, mainly because I don't actually care if he sacks me. None of the other girls dare do any backchatting. I do it all the time. My sister thinks I have too much attitude. But I think a bit of fire between the subordinate and the boss is required sometimes to take them off their own pedestal. Plus, I can afford to give it some. What's the worse that can happen? I'll go back to UK or even go to Vancouver and take up that job offer for a more challenging Project Manager's role.

So, this is a month full of excitement. Knowing that I'm ear-marked for a possible promotion. Knowing that I can finally give a bit of attitude at work and talk to most 'senior' people like equals rather than someone who works 'for' them.

On top of that, I've just been to the Grasshopper concert, which was my teenage dream come true. Gawd, I love them!

Then there's the dive trip at the end of the month. My second trip, really excited, really looking forward to it.

Then there's the fitness finally coming together. Doing loads of swimming, playing loads of tennis. I can finally see the biceps forming and finally feeling strong again.

And finally.... there's someone from the UK coming over to work with us. I introduced him to the company three months ago and I can't believe in two weeks' time he will physically be here. I'm excited. Not only does he bring me closer to my life in the UK, I finally have a drinking buddy who can possibly match me drink for drink.

So I'm thankful I'm well into June, the month of endless excitements!

Forever Grasshopper.... Indeed!

2008-06-15T06:30:00.001-07:00

This has been a concert nearly 20 years in waiting for me. Grasshopper, possibly the greatest boy band Hong Kong has ever produced for Asia, were the ONLY boy band whom I was completely and utterly smitten with through my teens. When I went to the UK, they kinda fell by the wayside but everytime I was back in Brunei and notice that there was a new Grasshopper album on sale, I would not think twice about buying it.

When I moved to Singapore and unpacked my boxes, I found one or two Grasshopper Greatest Hits album. And I thought, hmmm.... I'm in Asia... ok, they're really old, but you never know. So I googled them and found that they had staged a comeback with a concert in Singapore in 2007. I was pretty gutted. But a couple of months ago, whilst surfing the net to see what concerts are on in Singapore, I found out that Grasshopper were touring in Genting Highlands in Malaysia. I never hesitated, got myself a VIP ticket, no less, booked my flight and hotel and sat in excited anticipation until yesterday when I took the flight out and finally got to see Grasshopper LIVE!!!

Ok, these people aren't exactly young. They're in their 40's now. I feel old.... and probably the rest of the audience. I struggled to find anyone in theirearly 20's! And the age does show too. Their dance moves were still there, but it wasn't quite as crisp and punching as they were about 15 years ago. But I still loved them.

Opening act, as always, cool hip hop chinese dance music and loads of prancing about for the three in extremely flamboyant outfits:

Followed by mellow slow romantic love songs. I don't listen much to their slow tunes anymore, but preformed live, I was completely in love with them!

This is Remus Choy, one of the two brothers, the best looking of the bunch. But also the gay one. But he was never my favourite anyway (my gaydar must have been well refined from a very young age!!)

This is Edmund So. He was my least favourite. Nothing special about him really.

And.... presenting MY FAVOURITE of the bunch.... Calvin Choy. He's the eldest of the bunch, a bloke with 11 fingers - freak - but I still like (love) him!!

I managed to get right up to the barrier and saw them real close. I'd never been to a concert whereby I could make out the person's face without the help of a screen. The VIP ticket was definitely worth it. I realised even after all these years, I could still sing along to at least 75% of their songs. I have never been to a concert where I can sing along to more than 3 songs. Their fast little medley was the best. Everyone was on their feet dancing to the tunes.

Sad but true, I think I'm in love. I LOVE GRASSHOPPER!!!!

Perv!

2008-06-15T06:16:00.000-07:00

So, I've been doing LOADS of swimming lately in an effort to get much much fitter. Well... more like I've a bet with a mate to lose a stone in 6 weeks. Feeling much fitter and heathier, I was more than up for the challenge. Whoever wins gets a new swimsuit from the other. And I'm pretty confident I'll be the recipient of said swimsuit.

I try and fit a swim it whether it's 10 or 40 laps almost everyday with Fridays as rest days... for the drinking session obviously. OK, in a bid to be healthier, maybe I should stop drinking for a while. But there's gotta be a balance in life. This is mine.

Anyways, I was in a bit of a rush one day last week. My only free night and I wanted to do 40 laps in the pool. But I had to go to the doctor's to have my diving wounds looked at as they weren't the fastest at healing. On top of that, I had to try and get some dinner cooked before my sister complains to my parents that I hadn't been feeding her and she's wasting away. By the time I got everything done, I had about an hour before the pool shut so I figured I could probably get about 30 laps in.

So off I went, doing my laps up and down the pool. By about 8.40pm, the pool was quietening. There were about 6 people left in the pool. I was sharing a lane with this bloke and now there's more space, I thought I'd move onto the next lane.

Let's just describe this bloke for a minute. Who, or rather, what guy, in their right mind would wear a bright yellow swimming cap in the pool??? Not only that, he had white (white?) swimming trunks on. And he didn't appear to know how to swim in a straight line either.

I moved to the next lane to give myself more space and swam down the pool. When I swam back up, I saw Blokey swimming down in my lane. I was thinking 'You f**king d**khead, it's a 50m f**king pool with about 4 people and you have to swim in my f**king lane even though I had moved to give myself more space' I was mentally thinking all sorts of expletives. But as I got closer and tried to swim to the other lane, I noticed something rather odd.

Despite the white swimming trunks, there appear to be something else.... black.... and then I realised what it was. The dude's trunks must have been a bit big for him and they were flapping in the water. What I saw was a black mound of pubic hair!!!!! EEUGGGHHHHH....

So i just finished my lap and jumped off the pool.

What a f**king perv!

My First Dive Trip

2008-06-03T07:29:00.000-07:00

So, it had been 3 months in the planning and I had finally done it. I am a certified PADI diver although it didn't come without a bit of pain. Ok, maybe not 3 months. Couple of weeks before we were due to go out on the boat trip, I thought I was not going to be diving as I had run out of weekends to do the course before the trip and the instructor still hadn't told us when we were doing our pool and theory session. We ended up doing this in the week we were due out on the boat. Best way I guess, that way we would still remember what we had to do once in the sea.

It was a painful week as we had a book AND a DVD to get through on top of a busy week at work and the pool sessions and all other lifey stuffy. The theory bit was a murder. Life's too busy to be sitting down reading and learning from a book. The DVD was even worse, I kept falling asleep everytime I turn it on and it's a good 3-hr DVD!

So, after all our pool sessions over and done with, Friday came and we're all set to leave work on the dot at 5.30pm. There were about 15 of us. Needless to say the drinking spirits were on a high! As soon as we got on the boat we got our beers from our special cooler and got on the sun deck to lounge. It's a pretty big boat and suprisingly spacey for the number of people on the boat.

We set off at about 8pm after waiting for a few late-comers. Tsk tsk! Dinner was served and we were away. After dinner we were asked to check our equipment and make sure everything fits. Here's my equipment - and my beer!! :P

By about 9pm, we had already set up home next to our beer cooler and the party had begun. The vodkas and JD's all came out and everyone were on a high.

By about 11pm I was well and truly pissed. The pic says it all....

From here until my third dive, there were no pics on my camera. I had gone to bed about 2am on the first night, having drunk half a litre of vodka and a few beers. My first dive ever was at 10am the next day. I thought I would be alright. Boy, was I wrong! Hangovers are normally pretty mild for me. But put me on a boat, I was rotten as hell. I threw up rather comically before the first dive. Although it was comical at the time. My instructor was nagging me 'I told you not to drink so much' What is he, my dad?!?!

But the first dive went pretty well. We were in the Tioman Marine Park. Not a lot to see, sandy bottom and a fake wreck. We had to concentrate on doing our skills right. I was ok in the water. As soon as I surfaced I was feeling ill and seasick again. Needless to say I threw up before my second dive. All of my breakfast and lunch. Second dive was also all sorts of skills testing which went well. I was feeling fine by dinner but learnt my lesson and stayed off anything alcoholic!

Our third dive was a leisure dive as there was a mild current so we wouldn't have been able to stay still long enough to do any skills. We went to the dive site on a rubber dinghy and I must say, trying to get back on the rubber dinghy is no glamour school stuff. They literally yank you onto the boat and you fall flat on your face! But the water was beautiful and visibility was a good 10m. I should've read up on the fishes we might see. Saw a few things but didn't really know what I was looking at. My instructor shone his torch on a moray eel hiding in the rocks and I didn't even know I was looking at one!! I cut my legs on the corals pretty badly though, still learning to control the buoyancy and stuff.

Our last dive was the most fun although visibility was only about 1m and we had a few final skills to get through. At one point my dive buddy lost me and there I was in the middle of the ocean not being able to see beyond a metre and wondering what I should do. All I can think of was how to do the 3min safety sto without a watch on me if I had to ascend on my own. Luckily after about 5mins my instructor found me and we were away.

I thought I'd done pretty well to get the certificate considering I was feeling pretty rotten on the first day. OK, self-inflicted, I know. Thank god they didn't stop me from getting into the water and just got on with it.

So here I am, now officially a diver. Before this trip I had planned to doing some travelling once a month. Now I think I'll just do my travelling in the water. Diving is just so much fun and I felt very comfortable indeed in the water... probably until I see a shark one day. But for now, the next trip will have to be at the end of June. Don't think I can leave it for much longer than that. But I've heard that we may have enough people to charter the whole boat to ourselves in September. Now that's gonna be a trip not to be missed! I shall certainly have a fresh bottle of vodka on the boat with me!! ;p

Hair Raising Bangkok

2008-05-25T07:11:00.000-07:00

Bangkok Trip

It's be a while since I blogged, so I've got a bit to catch up on for the past month.

Firstly, I went to Bangkok for the first time for a long weekend back in early May. I think I've been to Bangkok and Pattaya with my parents before, when I was 10 or something. But I hardly remember anything about the trip other than falling off a swing and banging my head. Oh, and of course, my dad making me take a picture with a ladyboy which confused the hell out of me. Lady? Boy?

Anyways, this trip round, I went with my sis and stayed with my nephew, R, in Sathon, about a 10 minute taxi ride to Siam Square. When we first got there, the taxi ride to my R's was not too scary. The taxi driver couldn't really speak English, I had my R on the phone to give him directions in Thai but he point blank refused to talk on the phone. I just let it go cos I thought he knew where he was going. Then I realise he was getting lost when he kept going round the block about three times. I asked if he wanted to speak to my R then, and he said 'Phone, phone, phone' Stupid taxi driver, he could've said that earlier. We got to my R's, eventually, not before getting lost again. I just told the taxi driver to dop us where I could see a clear sign as a reference point. Reason why we got lost was he didn't go far enough down the road. So that was our first adventure.

Went out for a bit of dinner and R took us around the Phat Pong with it's night market and bars. They all look the same. Same girls (or boys?) dancing on the bar top. Just a different colour bikini for each bar I guess.

The next day we went to Siam Square. Too bright and too early, no shops were open! We were a bit keen. As we tried to figure out exactly where we were on the map, a Bangkok police pointed to where we were on the map and proceeded to tell us a bit more about the sights in Bangkok. He managed to get us on a tuk-tuk to the Lucky Buddha temple about 20 mins away and back to Pratunam market for about 20 baht (SGD1/GBP0.40.... yeah I know 40p!!). The tuk-tuk ride was rather interesting and scary. They weave in and out of the traffic real close. We were stuck in the traffic once and a car came just a little bit too close, albeit really slow, and bumped into us.

In our tuk-tuk

Look at that traffic - miles of it!

The city is so polluted, most of the tuk-tuk drivers have a mask on

This is our tuk-tuk

The Lucky Buddha Temple

As we were too early, we didn't go to Pratunam market as it doesn't get going til 1pm, we got the tuk tuk back to Siam Square, had our lunch and took a sky train to our 2pm spa appointment. The spa was great. 3.5 hrs of pure luxury and relaxation. We got a bit hungry towards the end when the put oatmeal facial stuff on our face. My stomach was rumbling and it was time to eat!!

Then we went towards the Chao Phraya river. I saw some touristy boat trip taking us to the Snake Farm, Crocodile Farm and the floating market. I thought it'd be a good way to see a few things at once. Except that when we got on the boat it was about 5.30pm and it gets dark around 6pm. Not only did we not see much, all the places were shut! Conned!! But for 800 baht (SGD40/GBP15) for the two of us on a boat on our own. It weren't too bad to spend an hour. Getting a taxi back to R's was interesting. We tried to get on a tuk-tuk again but the driver was gonna charge us 200baht. It costs less than 100baht in a taxi. So we jumped into a taxi instead. Another hair raising ride. I don't think it's possible not to have a hair raising ride in any form of transport in Bangkok. Other than the skytrain I suppose.

Our little boat

Loads of pretty boats in the river

Random street stalls. They're everywhere.

Next day, our last day, we were off to Chatuchak market bright and early. It's a huge market with all sorts of bargain on wholesale price. I'd say the stuff are the same in about 4-5 of the stalls but basic T-shirt, work clothes and slippers are dirt cheap. Two hours of that and the hot sun, we've had enough. Back to R's, pack and get ready for the night flight back to Singapore. But not before yet another scary ride in the taxi to the airport. I guess the taxi drivers know exactly what they're doing as everyone drives like a lunatic. I was told never to tell a taxi driver that getting to the airport was 'urgent' - you'd be shitting your pants if you did!

Chatuchak market, cramped with LOADS of stalls

I Hate My Job

2008-05-06T08:56:00.000-07:00

Oh no.... here I go again. Moaning about my job. Truth of the matter is, there is absolutely nothing wrong or boring about my job. It's the environment I am in. This is going to sound very similar to my earlier posts about what I miss about London.

1. I miss my old boss. Rather than bitch and moan about my present boss and get fired (although that won't be a bad thing), I'll just talk about my old boss a little. The guy who has made me into what I am today and has supported me in every career decision I have made. I don't think I can find another boss like that. I want my old job back.... but, let's get my priorities right. Get the travelling over and done with first.

2. Sharing of information through normal office banter. People in the same team don't really talk or share information. We're all doing our own little bit, we don't really talk to one another and if questions are asked about out team's work, we can't actually answer beyond what we do. In my last job, we all knew what each other was doing and what was actually going on in the job. God knows how we're gonna build this god damn thing.

3. Gossips!!! God I miss the usual harmless gossips and rumours about fellow colleagues. There's hardly anything here. As if everyone's a bit of an angel or a saint. I guess alcohol has a lot to answer for the rumours milling about in my old work place. This has got to be healthier right? (Not for my sanity!)

4. Drinks, drinks, drinks. Ok, I've gotta first clarify that I am NOT an alcoholic. I never needed a drink everyday after work to wind down when I was in London, and I certainly do not need it right now. But what I crave most is the social scene lingering around a couple of beers after work on a Thursday or a Friday. Doesn't seem to happen much here. Or am I being an outcast again? Belonging neither to the expats or the locals group. Hmmm....

5. Stimulation of the mind. What I am doing is always the same thing over and over again for each package and I will end up with about 15 packages to look after. Worse than that, people keep changing their minds and I have to do the same thing about 20 times. Imagine doing the same thing 20 x 15 = 300 times!!! Whilst the stuff out here is on a much bigger scale and I'm learning stuff I've never done before, there isn't really the opportunity the expand beyond your job description. Oh well... at least I really know what I want to do now (not this job!)

Have I moaned enough yet? At least I know I am not the only person who's doing all this moaning. There is actually a bunch of us who think the same about work. But we're all on the same boat. With the money out here and the opportunities to explore Asia, we've all gotta remind ourselves - PAID HOLIDAY!!!

Expat Wives

2008-04-23T07:51:00.000-07:00

Disclaimer - This is my own personal opinion and probably does not reflect what is the real situation.

Working in a company where there is a large number of expats and being able to blend in quite easily (only because I drink like a fish), it was interesting to meet the different expat wives. I think they generally fall into four categories - the divas, the bitches, the schemers and the run-of-the-mills.

Let's talk about the husbands first. Typically, husbands of the divas and bitches are much, much older and are in their second (at least) third, fourth or even fifth marriage. They're either bald or balding, beer guts spilling everywhere and highly unattractive. Their sense of humour are typically dry-British (or am I just hanging around too many Brits?). I have nothing bad to say about their personality, it can either be good or bad, I'm trying to be indifferent and judge purely on a shallow point of view.

Husbands of the schemers may not be much older than their wives but they are equally as unattractive, balding and have beer guts spilling everywhere. Their sense of humour is almost non-existent, though. They're much much more serious. The run-of-the-mill husbands are just that. Normal people, not really balding, some are attrative, some aren't. Their personalities are just ... run-of-the-mill. I guess I would call them the 'normal' people.

Now the interesting bit. The wives. The divas and bitches are in their 30's, divas are obviously more attractive than the bitches. And they're both skinny, always in fashionable clothes and a designer handbag. They're generally nice people, on the outside. God only knows what they're thinking on the inside. The difference between the divas and the bitches is that the divas will tell you their life story whereas the bitches play their cards closer to their chests.

If they're generally nice people, why have I got such horrible names for them? Let's explain purely by observation. The divas have extreme temper tantrums, yell and sometimes physically (not hard I hope!) abuse their husbands. When the husbands are talking to them, they barely listen, and only hear what they want to, often cutting into the conversation with some comment totally unrelated to the subject in hand. They call their husbands all day long for silly things like 'I need to know whether my Prada shoes goes with my Gucci handbag' or trivial things along the lines of this. They drink wine to be sophisticated, but I doubt very much if they can tell the cheap ones from the drinkable ones.

The bitches ... now we're talking. I like these the best. They generally have their nose in the air, look down on most people, bitch and moan about the smallest thing and are extremely high maintenance. Champagne or expensive dry white wine is their tipple. Their bling is always slightly understated but you can never fail to notice it. They LOVE to swear. The word f**k is attached to everything they say. Why do I like them? They give me the best entertainment value. Especially when they start to bitch and moan.

The schemers come in all shapes and forms. The cleverest thing is their brain, although it's not all that clever when you can almost see through it if you're outside the relationship. But they act like they're the run of the mill wives when they're actually scheming a way of getting as much of their husband's wealth as possible. Drinks? I don't think they drink, for fear of letting the cat out of the bag I guess. Don't need to add anymore to this, I'm sure we all know what I'm talking about.

The run of the mills. They're fun and funky. They genuinely have a good time when there's a good time to be had. I guess they're just like the normal you's and me's (unless of course you have identified yourself to be one of the other three types). Not much more to say here. Does what it says on the tin, just normal people, genuine great laugh to be with. Beers, wine, shots, non-alcoholic drinks even, they drink whatever everyone else is drinking and whatever takes their fancy.

Not sure if I can be an expat wife. For me, there's too much stigma attached to that sort of status. Especially being Asian, having a Caucasian husband and living in Asia. If I was one, I'd be a right bitch ... minus the ugly balding husband, obviously.

To those who are reading this and is actually an expat wife, I offer my sincerest apologies for the crude description. Don't take it to heart, it's only my shallow opinion :)

Beautiful Cooking

2008-04-14T07:56:00.000-07:00

It's been quite a long time since I've cooked regular proper meals. It was always pointless trying to cook for one and wonder what to do with the leftovers. Or worse, actually cooking for one, and trying to get a variety of dishes.

Since moving to Singapore and living with my sister, at least cooking for two doesn't seem too much of a drag. I am no culinary masterchef, but I can actually cook from raw ingredients if I really want to. None of this sauce from the jar cheat malarky.

Made myself a spaghetti bolognese from scratch tonight. Never done it before and I'm quite proud of the result. The only 'fake' ingredient was the tomato paste. And I ain't talking about no pasta sauce either. Everything else was done from scratch.

I've taken a few pics of my culinary 'expertise'. Maybe I should have a proper dinner party sometime soon.

Candle lit dinner (with my sister, sigh!) during Singapore's Earth Hour a few weeks ago. Fried rice and coconut juice.

Fresh green salad with my own viniagrette (how do you spell it??), breaded chicken, nice healthy chinese vegetable clear soup and breaded scallops (I didn't make them!)

The good old English fry up!!

Attica Night

2008-04-10T07:10:00.000-07:00

These are a few pics of my first night out clubing with a few people from work. I swear there were a few more taken. Obviously censored by the photographer.

So... don't look all that drunk in these pics, considering I got home at 6am the next day...

(Oh, and ignore the time on the pics. Add at least 3 hours to what is shown!!)

Blissful Existence

2008-03-29T07:57:00.000-07:00

For too many years now my life in the UK has been one of frenzied work related existence. My daily ritual would consist of:

04.30 - Get out of bed
05.10 - 05.28 - Putting the foot down on the drive from Swanscombe to Falconwood
05.32 - Catch the first train from Falconwood to London
On "lazy" days, getting up at 05:00 and catching the 06.07 train
07:00 - 09:00 - Pounding the keyboard like mad
09:00 - 17:00 - Dealing with phonecalls, attending meetings and dealing with mindless disruptions throughout the day
17:00 - 19:00 - Catching up the day's emails and workload
20:30 - Getting home to a meal of packet noodles
22:00 - Catching Eastenders on BBC3
22:30 - 23:45 - Mindless surfing on the internet
00:00 - Bedtime

And the routine carries on through the week. How did I ever survive with 4 1/2 hrs sleep???

For once in my life I am now able to slow down, breathe and smell the coffee. Today is an example of such blissful existence

Although I had work today (Saturday), it was relatively easy and did not need much flexing of my braincells. Getting in at 17:15, I had an aerobics kick-boxing class at 17:30 with my sister. On to the supermarket for dinner tonight, by 20:00 we were at the table ready to eat dinner. And it's no microwave fast food either. Albeit not a very complicated dish, we made everything from scratch - with Basement Jaxx playing in the background for a bit of groovin'.

Singapore was doing an 'earth hour' thing today where you turn the lights for an hour from 20:00 - 21:00. Much like London's 'Lights Out London' last summer. My sister being the earth-freak insisted that we had to eat our dinner in the dark. Lucikly we had some candles so we can at least make out the outline of what we're eating. On the background, the sound of Norah Jones is playing on CD.

It has been too long since I was able to enjoy sitting around, not doing a lot and just listening to albums in their entirety. Normally, my dose of music would be on my iPod on the train with my 'flavour of the month' playing on repeat.

I was able to listen to my all time favourite Hong Kong band, Grasshopper, and it brings back memories of when life was much simpler without the stress of work.

Yes, my current job bores me to tears sometimes. Occasionally I actually run out of work to do and need try hard not to doze off at work. I miss my job in London terribly. I loved my job and getting up at 4.30am was never a problem.

But maybe being in Singapore isn't all that bad. I sound like a broken record reminding myself to treat this as a long term paid holiday. A proper break from it all. God knows we need it sometimes. A sign of old age? Or has this something to do with me having turned 30?

Well, having a relaxing break aside, sometimes I still need a good dose of partying. Thankfully a party is on the agenda next weekend. Otherwise I would die of boredom having a 'relaxing' break.....

Bored Shitless

2008-03-26T07:40:00.000-07:00

I couldn't get up for work today. The alarm went off for a good 45 mins before I heard it. Another day at work and for once in my entire life, I actually did not have much to do. Couple of things here and there but if I get them done, I'd have absolutely nothing to do tomorrow.

I'm not sure how I got myself into this position. When they interviewed me for the job, they said everyone is running around like a blue-arsed fly. Yes, everyone seems really busy and it's not like I haven't got anything to do, I've got quite a few packages I'm looking after. But I've really got to pace my work out and take it real slow.

Maybe everyone's really busy because they're inefficient? I was literally dozing off at my desk pretty much all day. Really need huge matchsticks to prop my eyelids.

My colleague J is thinking of leaving. She's had enough. I'm tempted to go too, there's nothing here to exercise my grey matter. But I've got to hang on till the bitter end.

I've just got to think - PAID HOLIDAY!

.... sigh .....

Description of Me

2008-03-25T08:06:00.000-07:00

Alas, I nearly died reading my youngest sister's latest blog describing her family. There's obviously the family photo, which I cannot find at the moment. And a brief description of each member of the family.

Her description of me:

Favourite Quote - I can't live like this

Hmm... I said that a lot when I first moved to Singapore. Not being able to unpack, living in hotels for 3 weeks and when I moved into my apartment, I still couldn't unpack as we didn't have any wardrobes. Not to mention I had to give up my room for over 2 weeks before I even had a chance to sleep in my room. I can't live like this - too damn right!

But I'm just about all settled in now. My wardrobe is bulging with clothes and I had to get a bookshelf for a shoe wardrobe. For once in my life, I can actually see every single pair of my shoe. This is heaven. Which brings me to the next description my sister had for me:

Fetish - Shoes

What is wrong with having a fetish for shoes? I've been very good actually. I only have about 30 pairs of shoes. (and about another 10 pairs of knee-highs packed away nicely in the store room!) But I've been very restrained. I saw an beautiful pair of stilettos in Nine West at half price and I managed to walk away from them... only because it was the last pair and they were half a size too small. This is an improvement. The old me would've just bought them, wear them once, cause my foot all sorts of pain and never wear them again. So, there!

My sister's final description of me:

Favourite Food - Durian

For all you 'ang moh' (Caucasians) who are reading this, you may not know what a duarian is. It's thorny fruit you can only find in Southeast Asia and looks a bit like this:

You need a very sharp butcher's knife to open the hard shell of a durian. And inside you'll find the creamiest fruit in the whole wide world. It's almost like custard. The smell puts a lot of people off. I can't really describe it as I love it but it's very strong.

I remember last year after I told my boss I had decided to work in another country in a year's time, he arranged for an 'emergency' lunch meeting. I chose a Malaysian restaurant and M, after consulting the reviews of the restaurant, suggested we try the durian ice cream. Luckily, for me, they hated it, so I finished it... ha ha ha...

So there you are. A rather accurate description of me, I would say. Then again, she is my sister after all.

Night Out On The Tiles

2008-03-23T09:09:00.001-07:00

Long weekends always spell trouble for the liver. This Easter was no different. I always very quick to welcome any invitations to go out clubbing. Especially when Singapore is still so new and there are so many bars to explore. Plus, the last time I was properly wasted, it was my house-warming PARTY 2 weeks ago!

The original plan was to head off for a few jars straight after work, dinner, then hit the club. As usual, the best laid plans always end up down the pan. Everyone was scurrying home first, etc before going out. So I just took the opportunity to get some party clobbers on.

Started off at the Highlander with a pair of 'ang moh' (Caucasians) duo band who did a mixture of Keane, Cold Play, U2 and the likes. Terrible, terrible singers. I love One Love and they managed to completely trashed it! Puh-lease!!!

We then headed off to Attica in Clarke Quay. No pics taken as I had forgotten my camera but L from work had taken a few pics so will post them next time. This is the very seat we managed to get. Smokers paradise outside in the cool heat (if there is such a thing) with a bar just a few paces away and music thumping away... boom boom boom...

I managed to fall flat on my arse (well, my knee more like). The steps around the bar are clear see-through steps. Where I thought there was one step, there was actually two. And it was only the start of the night. I must have looked like a right pillock. The only thing I cared about was the VRB in my hand. I managed to save half the glass. Phew! (But gained a great big bruise on my knee.. nasty!)

By 1am, most of the people, certainly all the girls, were gone, leaving me with a 21-year old, 26-year old and a 35-year old. Quite a combination! I don't know how I managed to last through the night. Certainly when there is a 30-year old around, the guys sure love to to chat like women! We went off for food sometime in the morning, carrying on chatting and I became the Agony Aunt. If they think my advice was worth it, good luck to them.... a 30-year old single woman who's still out partying all night long, who can no longer hold a relationship longer than a one-night stand!!

And what do I talk about? WORK! Gawd, I'm getting B-O-R-I-N-G!!

Sentosa Island

2008-03-13T07:24:00.000-07:00

Mum, dad and youngest sis came over to help us move into the new flat. So I took the opportunity to organise a 'family trip' to Sentosa Island one Sunday, except that mum and dad weren't keen. So it was just us three girls.

There was an animal show and people get to touch the snake at the end of it. Only little sis dared to go!

Aaahhhh..... warm sea water

Beautiful clear (ish) water

We went for a cycle around the beaches (Bum very sore the next day!!)

All sunscreened up for a hot hot day!

Self take of three sisters, missing the fourth :(

Oh..kay.... I'm not that scary!

Chingay Parade 2008

2008-03-12T08:26:00.000-07:00

This happened during the Chinese New Year period. But as I've only just gone back online, I'm trying doing a bit of a catch up.

Before anyone post any comments, the Chingay Parade is the yearly Chinese New Year street procession with huge floats and different performances. A bit like the Notting Hill Carnival. Unlike someone at work (obviously new to S'pore) who said 'Oh, is it that the GAY parade?' Hmm...

I bought tickets for the preview show which is essentially the day before, cheaper, but exactly the same. I was glad I had ticked this box for things to do in S'pore. The performances were pretty good.

Can't remember what this was but it's bright!

Birthday cake and great big candle?

An F1 car

Traditional Chinese Wedding Carriage (for the bride only!!)

These guys were near enough butt naked!! We were laughing loads at the obscenity of it all. My sis got pulled up by the radio DJ who was who was asking if the ladies enjoyed that.

A princess carriage

Darth Veda and his troops

Umm... can't remember what this was

Chinese lion dance

A big whale?

What I Miss About London

2008-03-12T07:41:00.001-07:00

I've been over here in Singapore for about 6 weeks now and I'm missing London. In no particular order, but then again, there must be an order according to my thought process??

1. Going out for a few drinks after work (and then sometimes getting rat-arsed!). People drink out here but not as much as the Brit. Just shows how much of a piss head I have become, especially if this is the top of the list!!

2. My super-mad super-busy job. Nowadays I occasionally, almost everyday actually, feel the need to prop my eyelids with matchsticks. Not just after lunch as it happens to most people, but in the middle of working on a 'riveting' spreadsheet. I also recently found out that the coffee at work I've been drinking is decaf. Go figure!

3. Going out on site. I work in the project site office. But I've not had the opportunity to go out to site as people here (especially the surveyors) try to stay indoors as much as possible. It's a wonder how they know what they're paying for!!

4. Nipping out to the shops. Not that I used to do it much in London, but it was comforting to know that if I ever needed anything, I can just nip out to the shops. Over here, I can't even get decent coffee let along nip out to the shops! Which brings me to....

5. My morning Venti Latte. Gawd I miss proper coffee! From leaving my flat to getting off the MRT station for work, I get nowhere near any coffee shops save for the canteen at work. I noticed a sign saying 'New drinks - Latte...' and all sorts of other 'western' drinks but I was told latte was 'sold out'. How is it sold out when they still sell coffees in other forms?

6. Eastenders. Gawd I miss the miserable life in Albert Square. But, thank god for cable TV, I get to watch loads of Hong Kong soap operas and practise my Cantonese at the same time.

7. My washer-dryer. Odd thing to miss but the rain hadn't really stopped the last few days and laundry takes forever to dry. You'd think that in a hot country it takes no time at all. Well, it's hot and humid, therefore nowhere for the moisture to go. It can take up to 3 days for my clothes to dry and it stinks of dampness and I have to wash it again and it's a never ending cycle. *sigh*

8. My old boss. My new boss can talk for England and repeats details about 20 times over. It's hard to just say 'Ok, I got the point the first time, let me go and just get on with the work' Although I sometimes hint in the dry English humour kinda way. Thank god he's English and understands the joke. I still maintain that my old boss is the best boss in the world, but I've still got my probation period to get through first.

9. The rights of the consumer. The number of times I've been pissed off in the shops for the ill-treatment and it just gets shrugged off. I wonder if it's just the hot weather or the inefficiencies here which pisses me off so much.

10. Civilisation at the tube station. At rush hour, people over here don't let you off the train before getting on. The push you as you're trying to get off. Which is a bit pointless cos if you don't let people off, how the hell will you get the space to get on the train???

I guess 10 is enough for now. But I keep reminding myself this - this ain't too bad, just treat it like a holiday, and a very well-paid one too. Just think of the light at the end of the tunnel, the end of the project, the opening ceremony, the champagne....

Funny CV's

2008-02-16T08:56:00.001-08:00

Work is quite mundane at the moment as we are in the procurement stages. This means checking through countless numbers of submissions and commenting on their contractual qualification.

As the development is massive, the work pacakges aren't exactly small value. Many of these people aren't from Singapore and this is where the fun part is.

I shouldn't really laugh, it is my own race and it's ability to write English that I am laughing at after all. But at least it gave me a good chuckle at work. As I can't post PDF files on blogger so I had to use my initiative and take pictures from my laptop.

But check these out for your amusement (names obviously have been concealed to protect the innocent!)

This bloke has 'groped' the decorating industry for 7 years!!

This person has been doing 'trivial things' with due diligence!!

This isn't all that funny. I still love doing design work, albeit management of the process. But I wish I was like this guy - highly appreciated by each party

The Singapore F1 Race

2008-02-16T08:14:00.001-08:00

Staying in a hotel certainly has it's merits. Not only do I get free use of the pool and gym, I get a free paper in the morning too. I hadn't read newspapers in London for god knows how long. Save for the occasional Metro chucked on the seat next to me in the tube, of course.

Whilst the it's free, I thought it'd be good to learn about Singapore and what it has to offer by reading the paper. Good job I did! This week I found out a day earlier that the Singapore F1 race tickets would be on sale with general admissions, no seating tickets, pretty affordable. (I had to put my GBP-SGD conversion rate hat on to make it look affordable!!)

Next day, in the office, as soon as the clock hits 9am, I hit the website to get the tickets. It was bound to be busy and I was convinced the tickets would sell within the first day. And I was right on the first bit. I could hear neighbouring co-workers dialing the hotline on loudspeaker and getting engaged tone whilst I simultaneously went on the website and rung the hotline in a desperate attempt to secure some tickets.

One person pretended to be calling colleagues by looking at the phone directory whilst dialling the number. Dude, there's no pretending needed, we're all doing the same thing, trying to get through!

It wasn't until 11am before the website magically let me through and purchase my tickets. I was the excited proud owner of 4 tickets to the race in September. The first night F1 race in history. Although some smart arse pointed out that Valencia would be the first to hold a night race in August (Thanks NH!!)

In the afternoon I could hear the yank in the next row yelling down the phone to someone on the hotline who never bothered ringing him back for him to purchase some tickets. I was quietly laughing to myself having secured some tickets.

After sending a round-robin email back to the UK, I realised 4 tickets might not be enough what with the hype over here, my dad and a couple of Brunei mates might want to come over and watch it too. I promptly went back online the next morning to get another 4 tickets.

So now I am the proud owner of 8 F1 tickets. If no one wants it, I'm sure ebay will assist in recouping the money and some!

Singapore Zoo

2008-02-16T07:44:00.000-08:00

We were desperate for more of the CNY celebration and I saw in the paper that Singapore Zoo had lion dance performances for CNY. So on the second day of CNY, sis CW and I trekked over to the zoo for some festive fun.

Stilt walkers at the entrance

As it's the year of the rat, the zoo had a display of the largest rodent on earth. These animals at the size of a big dog!!

Not forgetting my favourite baboons. Can you see their red arses? The little ones were quite naughty fighting amongst themselves and then hugging each other afterwards!

Then we spotted a colourful-arsed monkey. Can't remember what it's called. You can just about see it's bright blue bottom!

And a bat with its wings open during daytime. I didn't know bats had penises! This one opened its wing and started peeing a long stream of piss and pooed a few pieces too!!

Our festive lion dance show. We had prime position, right in front of the performance! We even managed to stroke the lion's back.

And finally, a festive photo. It's deemed to be very lucky if you manage to get this close to a 'live' lion during it's performance.

Chinese New Year 2008 - Year of the Rat

2008-02-16T07:13:00.000-08:00

So this is sis CW's year. She was born in the year of the Rat. We spent the first day of CNY having a nice lie-in, trekked over to VivoCity in our new clothes with me determined to watch the latest Stephen Chow's movie CJ7. Well, we had nowhere else to go with no family homes to visit in Singapore.

For those who don't know Stephen Chow, he is the greatest comedian (in my opinion) Hong Kong has ever produced. I have seen his bestseller Kung Fu Hustle about a million times and wouldn't mind watching it over and over again. His long awaited new movie was out on CNY and I just had to go and see it. Of course, whilst all the Chinese were doing family visits, the rest of the country were out and about enjoying the public holiday. Needless to say the movie was sold out and we had no choice but to get a quick bite to eat and back to my lonely hotel.

I thought of a brilliant title for my post 'My Lonely Existence' as we walked back from the MRT station to my hotel. It was so quiet even the escalator was shut down due to the lack of use. But then, what is there to blog about a lonely existence??

We went to watch the fireworks at Esplanade in the evening and had a brilliant hawker centre style seafood dinner. Check this out:

After dinner we walked towards the river for the fireworks show and I was quite mesmerised by the night view of Singapore from across the river. It reminds me of Manhattan. (I'm thinking of going to work in NYC for a couple of years after I'm done with Singapore!!)

The fireworks display was only 15mins long. But at least we had some sort of a CNY.

CNY Eve Dinner

2008-02-16T06:48:00.000-08:00

Well, my first ever CNY in Singapore. I was getting quite excited about it as it would be different. Unlike UK, no celebration whatsoever. Unlike Brunei, where it would've been a constant big family, eating affair. This year, it was just me, sis CW and her bf. Quiet, 'independant' CNY on our own...

Being the big sister, I tried to book a Chinese restaurant at the 11th hour to make sure we have a proper CNY eve meal. Managed to get something right in the middle of Chinatown. Rather proud of myself ... until we got there.

There was a mix up with the booking, they thought we were going the following night. I mean, who has dinner out on CNY night? Come on guys! We had no choice but to trek around Chinatown for another restaurant. Singapore, Chinese city, CNY Eve, the night of family reunion dinner. Finding a restaurant??? In Chinatown???? No chance!

We ended up in Chijmes, the second Chinese restaurant we stumbled upon. The first had queues which would equate to about 3 hrs wait! So we couldn't believe our luck finding a Shanghainese restaurant, which is virtually empty. Well, Shanghainese is Chinese right? WRONG! I guess it being empty was a bit of a no-brainer hint. Sat down, glanced quickly at the only two available set menus, we decided to treat ourselves and went for the more expensive menu.

The first course of yu sheng came. Ok, raw salmon and various other bits for a traditional starter. It wasn't too bad, but far too big for the 3 of us. Second starter came and it was... MARINADED DUCK'S TONGUE. We just stared at it. I mean look at this stuff:

It looked like an oversized dead grasshopper! Ok, it looked gross but maybe it might taste pretty good. So I put one of these in my mouth and it's hard to describe. I didn't taste gross but it was just very difficult to eat. All hard and sticky and yuck! I had to put it back down and we didn't touch any of it.

The next few courses weren't much better either, although more edible. Until we got to the broccoli and abolone dish. The only thing we could recognise and go aahhh, this is more like it! But dessert was a disappointing plate of fruits.

(That was a forced smile. I mean who would get excited over a plate of fruits??)

And so that ended our disappointing little adult 'independant' CNY eve dinner. SIGH!

My Site

2008-02-12T08:26:00.000-08:00

Hmm... the frustration of the other blogsite and it's stoopid image uploading facility! I have decided to return to blogspot under a different name.

But to all who have been re-directed, here's the night pix of my site.