Another Birthday Celebration

Yesterday was R's birthday and it happened to be Good Friday. We managed to get together to hold a mini celebration for the birthday boy who turned 35.

It was pouring when I left the house to meet M to collect the cake before we drove to the restaurant. The weather was really terrible and we thought we may have to activate our contingency plan. Luckily the rain stopped after an hour.

We had dinner at Ka Soh. I was quite impressed with the food and I think I will certainly be going there again, probably in the very near future. After the "main courses" have been sereved, the waitress took out the cake, specially ordered by M and LJ.

The cake was a little too cute for the birthday boy.....

After finishing up the cake, we embarked on our exciting journey as planned. For the first time, 4 out of 5 of us stepped foot into the famous Night Safari! The entrance ticket was very very pricey, st S$32! Nevertheless, we still bought the ticket that included the tram right.

We were in time for the 8.30 pm show. The emcee warned us not to take photos using the flash and as expected, there were many who did not adhere to the rule. :(

The show was quite entertaining due to the jokes made by the emcee. The audience went a bit out of control when Maggie - the python, was found under one of the benches! Luckily we were seated far far away from Maggie!

After the show, we queued up for the tram ride. The ride took a good 45 mins and I must say it was well worth the money! We proceeded to walk on the trails and ended our excursion at 11 pm.

The Night Safari is very well designed. Certainly lives up to its name! I won't mind going there again!

Spick and Span

We haven't been doing much housework for ages and as a result, we have been living in a slum. I've hit my tolerance limit so at 9 am this morning, I started a "Save Our House" mass-cleaning exercise.

Status Report of "Save Our House" Exercise

Date: 4 April 2009
Time: 9 am - 12 noon
Participant: Me, Myself & I
Project details:
* Magic-cleaned, vacuumed, mopped the floor of living room, kitchen and 3 bedrooms
* Cleaned tv console and shoe cabinet top
* Washed the toilet cum bathroom

Though there is plenty of room for improvement (oops, I see the heap of rubbish in the study room from the corner of my eye...), I am quite happy with the state of our house now. I hope we can sustain this for at least 3 days...... With a destroyer in the house, keeping the house clean for 3 days will be a challenge! Ha!

Now, I can finally sit down, blog and drink my 玄米茶 (gift from Ban when he went to Japan last Aug)......

有种幸福的感觉！

"Lessons" from Work

I felt great when I stepped out of the office building on Thursday. I guess it's the effect of the sun ray - it's been at least 2 weeks since I last saw the evening sun on a weekday.

Work was a little overwhelming for the past 2 weeks. In fact, I think it was crazy! My boss tried to "comfort" me by telling me that no matter how difficult or tough the situation is, it will definitely come to an end one day. Ha! I agree that what he said is indeed very true but I certainly didn't find that statement very comforting......al least at that point of time. Anyway, I am glad the worst is over...... I hope so.

To be honest, this job is not as draining as the previous. It is not perfect but I find it more manageable than the previous. I certainly shouldn't be complaining and should count my blessings.

2 days ago, my boss said something to me and I thought it was pretty interesting. To cut the story short, he basically said that we are jugglers, our job is to catch all the balls but the truth is we will sometimes miss. The important thing is to know which balls are made of rubber and which are made of glass......

So this weekend, I will have to try my best to catch all the glass balls. If not, my life will be in danger!!!

SubUrban Run

I always think that paying to run is a rather silly thing to do but I gave in this time. We managed to sign up just minutes before the deadline of the online registration and hence, at 8 am today, we were one of those runners at the starting point in Seng Kang.

The sky was clear blue - pretty enough for photography but deadly hot for running! No trees, or rather no canopy, along the long straight road, making the weather even more unbearable. I tried to concentrate on my run by listening to Mayday and counting down to the distance clocked. At the 7-8 km, I told myself this is the first and last time I am doing this.

Glad that I managed to complete the 10 km without any stoppage. The distance on my ipod nano read 9.72 km. Under-estimation is better than over-estimation, I guess. This means that I don't have to re-calibrate!

After some rest, I may consider doing another run again... Am I mentally unsound???

5D4N Touch & Go China

I spent the last 5 working days of February 09 in China.

It's certainly not a trip to be envied. We covered 4 cities in 5 days and 4 nights, excluding the fifth night spent onboard a SQ flight. We had 2 night domestic flights and by the time we checked into the hotels and ready to sleep, it was 2 am. In short, this was my itinerary: Singapore-Shanghai-Hangzhou-Dalian-Beijing-Singapore! Amazingly packed, right?

China is never on my list of dream destinations. If not for this business trip, I have no idea when I will ever set foot on this gigantic piece of land again. Strangely, I seem to have an affinity with Beijing. The first time I flew, that was my destination. It was also the place where I first saw snow. My first business trip and the first time I travelled alone was to Beijing.

By the way, all my 3 times there, it was winter. I have never seen the place in another season.

View from my room (Beijing)

鳥巢

Anyway, the place has changed tremendously! Although I could only sightsee in the car while travelling, I can't help but be amazed by the level of development brought about by the Beijing Olympics. As I left for the airport, I thought to myself, "Perhaps I should come back to Beijing for holidays..." Ha ha!

As expected, I still don't like Shanghai. The feeling was the same as what I had some 14 -15 years ago! At Hangzhou, we managed to drive past a small stretch of 西湖. It was a wet day so there was a thin mist. Not too bad but again not my cup of tea. The lunch we had at 紫元食府 was however our best meal. I'm glad to have picked that place as the name reminded me of Taipei's 紅豆食府.

View from my room (Shanghai)

I was pleasantly surprised by Dalian's development. I really like the place! It's clean and very differently from the rest of the cities. It has a touch to European/Japanese influence, making it a little more elegant. If I remain in my current job, I may get to visit Dalian again next year. Haha! We shall see.

Shopping area near our hotel

On a side note, I realized that I did not utilize the inflight entertainment system at all! What a waste! Nevertheless, I was glad I asked for toys and was given a bag of 4 items. =)