Cameron Highlands!

I made Jeffrey buy bigdeal.sg coupons cos I really wanted to go Cameron Highlands. Been there when I was in Sec 1 with school. Loved the cooling weather!

But Jeffrey had to go overseas for work! So last min. I asked a couple of friends, and all weren't free, except Shu hui! Thank goodness. If not I"ll have to go alone! I'll die on the bus without company! haha.

The bus ride there was soooooo comfortable. Think we got the super VIP bus! But the bus on our way back was horrible. The normal ones. No movie, no electronically adjustable seats etc. But we slept all the way!

View from our hotel. It's so green in Cameron Highlands! Literally. haha! Good for the eyes!

The houses there are very european in style. So pretty! Like cottages. But not pretty in my pictures. haha!

Shu hui and I having high tea. Yes Jeffrey was there too! He drove from KL! Thanks goodness. If he didn't drive, we've no way of travelling around there.
English tea! Butter cake and scones. Top it up with English breakfast tea!
Lovely view of tea plantation in Cameron Highlands.
Tea shop! It's everywhere in Cameron Highlands.

Their other speciality is Strawberry. The people there pronounced it as staw-berry. haha!
Jeffrey and I. I'm super tired. Must be the thin air. hahaha! Kidding.
Love the greenery once again!

It's a good place to slack. So breezy and cooling. Unlike the humid and hot weather in Singapore. But I won't know what to do if I stay there for long. Unless I grow tea, or stawberry there! hahaha!

FML day

1. Bf bought final destination tixs when I bought them ytd to watch with my friend on Monday. Thus, I've to watch it TWICE.

2. Stupid guy who sat in front of me had spiky hair. I couldn't see properly. Had to crane my neck.

3. Friend took my zoo card. I've no idea how I'm going to get it back.

4. Friend didn't even use my zoo card cos his gf didn't want to go. Now must go through all the trouble for nothing.

5. Tan Kin Lian so poor thing.

6. Chelsea might draw, again. Sian.

Stupid day.

Going budget

I love going budget. My way of life:

Digging for a good book in the lib, instead of buying off the shelf.

Taking bus, no matter how late it's, instead of paying for overpriced cab.

Watching soccer off live streaming, instead of paying for cable TV.

Stealing my sis's clothes to wear, instead of buying my own. ha!

Jogging around my home with scenic route and lots of fresh air, instead of going to smelly gym.

Taking good old budget airline, instead of expensive "serviced" airlines.

I find joy in saving money! (Not that I've a lot to begin with. and my pay is miserable. and I spend it all on travelling.)

But I'm not a miserable old fart sitting around lamenting about the lack of money. Love the excitement when I find good deals! Going budget, my way of life!

Mt Rinjani

ANYBODY WANNA GO MT RINJANI?????

See! It's so lovely! I wanna trek!

I should have joined ODEC in uni. Then I'll have lots of trekking friends. Now so sian. My trekking buddy, Xinyi, is overseas! But when she's back for good, we'll go for Mt Fuji and Great wall of china! But now, I'm all alone!!!!! So sian.

Calis ROM

A friend of mine thought I was getting married after seeing this pic:

haha obviously it's not my wedding. It's the ROM of my very good friend, Shiting! So weird to call her Calis. But she goes by that name now.

She looks soooo pretty in her cheongsam! I love it! Everyone looks good in cheongsam (like my dajie when she wore for her wedding).
Everything went well for the wedding! But Shiting was so panicky before that. So funny. But it's perfectly normal to be nervous for the bride! And she loves the songs that I got for her!!!

And the funniest thing was, she added the liverpool song. hahaha! I told her already but she seems to like that song. Anyway got meaning too. She'll never walk alone anymore! She got her husband! (So weird to call her bf husband now).

Happy marriage!!!

Favorite music at the moment?

YOU'LL NEVER WALK ALONE!!!

I'm addicted to the song!!!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a9sFd3Ennhs

But no, I'm still not a Liverpool fan. But great match!!!!! It's always fun to watch sports. Why do Malaysia always get the good deal??? Not fair. haha! Malaysian team played not too shabbily! But they'll die when they play against Chelsea on Thur! haha.

I need more fun stuff in my life. Today, I almost dozed off at work. The feeling is so unbearable!!! Yikes. Pure torture. Wasted 1 day of my life.

Okay enough of depressing stuff. Time to sleep, while playing Liverpool's song! So soothing!!!!!

You'll never walk alone!!!

WHEEEEEE! I'm going to watch an EPL team play!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

As everyone knows, I'm into Chelsea. But too bad Chelsea is playing on a weekday. Arsenal too. 2 of my fav teams. :( But it's okay! Cos there's liverpool! An enemy of an enemy is a friend!!!! :)))))

Going KL tomorrow!!! Why don't the teams come to Singapore? Stadium too small? Singapore team too lousy? HIGHLY LIKELY! hahhaa.

I'm damn energetic now!!! Gotta wake up at 520am though. hahaha. I'm just so excited!!!

Bye freedom

I've recently changed dept and I was feeling very sore about it. I miss my old dept so much! I miss my prof, colleagues, even the screaming of the mean secretary! I miss my freedom and most of all, I miss the meaningfulness of my job.

As a research coordinator, I talked to patients. I miss interactions!!!!

Currently, I'm confined to an even smaller room. No more freedom to roam about. But I guess it's time I embark on a serious job. My previous role was pure fun. I remember at my first day at work, my prof said that he wish I'll have fun in my dept. Indeed, I had sooooooo much fun. But at my new dept, the new boss said, he wants me to adapt as soon as possible. So I can start on my new role. See the stark difference?!

No more fun! No more random holidays. I travelled a lot because of the freedom of my job. Bye freedom.

Boring Singapore

Today I ate, shopped, ate and shopped. Why is Singapore so boring?! I wanna take up something new!

1. Cello? I tried. Too ex!!!

2. Guitar? Not worth going for class if can self learn. But no motivation.

3. Kayaking? I want. But dunno how to go about doing it.

What else can I do??? I need to have more fun!!!

忍

That's working life is all about. Today was one of the most horrible scoldings I got from someone from my dept. I wanna call her gaga. hahaha! Funny cos when I see her, I think of a monster. And at the thought of monster, I think of "fame monster-Lady gaga".

GAGA went mad. She scolded me damn harsh. U know the pek chek feeling, that u can almost tear in anger? Shit man. I felt so sorry for myself, yet angry that I didn't stand up for myself. Come to think of it, the HR lady that I mentioned the other time isn't that bad after all. She was just plain irritating.

I feel very malign! Gaga is not even my boss. She has no right to scold me. Also, I haven't done anything wrong today. Maybe I was just too enthusiastic and excited. So when I get too hyper, I forget the "house rules". The thing is, even if I don't do things her way, she doesn't have to scold me that loudly and in front of everyone. Give me some pride la.

According to my senior, I've been not liked ever since the start of this year. So weird. So she actually liked me last year, but this year, she changed her mind. Maybe cos I wear shorter skirts? haha! I love to wear short skirt/dresses. (and yes, she always complain about that). I seriously dunno.

My mom is amazing. She thought me how to use reverse psychology. hahahhaa! I shall try it someday! (But might not want to jeopardize my last week in the department).

Just 1 more week in my dept. But the thing is, I really love being in my department! I've the best boss ever, nice colleagues and super friendly patients! Kind of can't bear.

Is working life like that everywhere else? I wanna have so much fun with what I do. I hope to find that someday!

Lesson learnt from Mt Kinabalu

As much as it's great to go out there and meet friends, it's not a good time to meet new people climbing Mt Kinabalu, a tough conquest that requires lots of motivation. Here's why...

A brief introduction on the group (not team). From the left:

How Tze: He's from Sabah! Ironically, he has never been to Mt Kinabalu. He's a Hakka, like me! Nice guy!

ME.

Xinyi: My colleague, more of friend.

B: I dunno her and I don't quite like her. (Understatement).

Wing Yee: Nice girl too!

B totally destroyed the trip, and jeopardized the safety of Xinyi and I. From the moment I saw her at the airport (I've never seen her before), I knew she was weird.

- She carried a HUGE luggage for a 5D4N trip.

- Her baggage weighs 17kg.

- She exceeded the weigh limit given by air asia of 15kg.

- We helped her with the limit.

- She didn't thank us.

- She brought only RM120 on a trip overseas.

Upon the 2nd day when we reached Sabah, we went to Mt Kinabalu. I was sooooo freaking excited! Okay more of that some other time. Here's the MOST irritating part.

B totally hogged our guide cos she was soooooooooooooo freaking slow!!! Not to make fun of her or what. But her slowness could be worse than your grandmother. I mean, if you're so weak and slow, don't climb Mt kinabalu la! Go practise Bukit Timah first. Okay. BUT, I was very tolerant. Since she's slow, Xinyi and I proceeded to do the climb by ourselves. We were pretty much okay. Even met a very cute ang moh!!! And many other nice people who wondered why it's just us climbing, without a guide.

So Xinyi and I reached the halfway point rather early. We waited 2 hrs for the others to arrive. We had to wait as they won't know where we're. Our phones didn't work.

4 of us shared a room. I was appalled at how much B brought up the mountain climb! She brought huge bottles of everything! I forgot to mention, she didn't carry her own bag up. She passed it to the guide. Like what the hell right. The poor guide was our porter too. So we paid him to carry some of our stuff. That B didn't pay extra.

So anyway, we embarked part 2 of our climb the next morning, at 2.30am. We stared off well, together. Then B got way too slow. Xinyi, Howtze, Wing yee and I went up by ourselves. It was sooooo dangerous!!! At one point, we had to pull ourselves up, with nothing but just ropes. It was so steep! We didn't have any guide to tell us how to do it, where's dangerous, where's safe to go. NO ONE. We had to rely on other guides!!!

We eventually made it up the summit. Here comes the horror. Coming down part. It was so dangerous. Thank goodness to other guides! I got a personal guide, unofficially loaned by a pair of malaysian sisters. Xinyi had one, from a pair of german cousins! hahahha. We walked with them! I would have slipped and fall so many times, and Xinyi would have fallen off the cliff, if not for our guides.

GUESS WHAT. B insisted on going to the summit. It was already very late, and it started to fog at around mid morning. A lot of people couldn't go up the summit. So they gave up halfway, for safety reasons. But not B! She was so persistent and she made it up to the top. Congrats to her.

We had to rush back, pack our bags, and THEIRS, cos the check out time was at 10am. Any later, they charge a hefty sum. HER BAG WAS SO FREAKING HEAVY. I had to carry them down for quite a distance. I was cursing and swearing. I was such a disgrace. Poor xinyi had to bear with my profanity for the whole trip down to the breakfast area. And by the time we reached the breakfast area, almost all the food were gone. Sian to the max.

We waited a while for them, and finally they arrived. We told them we'll go ahead first. As my unofficial guide told me I'll take 6hrs to go down the summit, given my speed. He told me to faster begin my descend after breakfast.

Xinyi, Howtze and I went ahead. Cos we wanna take our own sweet time walking down. It was rather pleasant with just us. The view was fantastic. We had to quicken our footsteps though at the last 1km. It was almost dark and we had to use our headlights. The final 100m consisted of numerous steps, about 2 storeys worth of steps. We rushed up, despite being damn tired. It's so hilarious that we walked (almost to the point of sprinting) unanimously.

We reached Timpon gate at about 7pm. Slightly earlier than that. We couldn't go anywhere but wait for them. At 8pm (yes 1 hr), we saw lights! We got damn excited to finally go back. But it turned out to be just Wingyee. She paid for portering service down! (yes you can pay someone to piggyback you down if you're injured or tired). Smart Wingyee. B was nowhere in sight.

B refused to be piggybacked down. Before you think she's so persistent (AGAIN) and determined, I think she's just damn kiam siap. It's impossible to wait for her. We were so cold and hungry. We left first. (long story, but we did).

So we got to a hotel, ate and had a nice hot shower. She appeared, at 1130pm. Poor guide!!!!! He looked so shagged!!!! So here's what happened: At the 1km mark, he piggybacked her, on top of our load, and her freaking bag (which she didn't pay for portering). omg and here's the worse part. She actually bargained with him about the fees!!!! He had to agree, if not, it'll take them dunno how many hrs to get out of Mt kinabalu.

AND she didn't tip him!!! All of us had the courtesy to tip him for carrying our bags. When I asked, she said "Oh it's included". RUBBISH. omggggg. If you're thinking, maybe it's cos she didn't bring enough money, we volunteered to lend her some! She should be giving the biggest tip!

- For hogging him

- For him carrying her bag, on top of her portered bag (which was the heaviest)

- For him having to piggyback her down. If she had been like Wing Yee, someone else would have taken over. And our guide would just focus on carrying the portered bags

- For being soooooooooooooo annoying.

At the start of the story, I might have been portrayed as being very mean when I called her slow. But towards the end, if you realized, I'm not the mean person!

p.s. During our planning stage, she was telling us what to do based on her experience with Grand Canyon, like an expert.

p.s.s At the airport on our way back to Sg, her luggage weighted 19kg. WTF.

Mt Rainer- Seattle

I'm in love with mountains!!! Mt Rainer is so beautiful! Love the snow-capped top. Reminds me of a Mt Blanc pen.

I wanna ski someday! Maybe should go Korea first, cos it's cheaper.

I'm so in love with scenic places! Best if I can self drive to those places!

As much as I'm scared to drive in Singapore, I love to drive overseas!!! Some how, people overseas are more gracious.

My dream: To drive a Ferrari by the coast!!! Top down. (the car, not mine. haha!)

Talk about professionalism

I was very upset with myself on Wed. Cos I allowed myself to be bullied. I was very angry when I received a very unprofessional email by an assistant.

"This is to confirm that we have an appointment with you on the above today @ 4.30 pm. We need to close this today as you are now officially not our staff as the last contract has lapsed on 31 May.
Implication include - no door access, no LAN access, no salary for June ......................"

What the hell. What's with the threat? Plus the "...." And, her facts were very very very wrong. So I called the official person but she was on leave. I was super busy that day, so I sort of ignored it, and went ahead.

I was late in meeting her, as I was busy. Last min meeting.

When I reached her office, I had to wait for quite some time. When she finally arrived, she was very rude. I hate rude people. She was so horrible, that I should have just left!!!! Not only was she rude to me, she also had no respect to the receptionist.

I'm full of angst. I'm angry for not standing up for myself and the receptionist. What have work done to me???? I'm such a coward.

I did it!

I succeeded the Mt Kinabalu climb!!! I've never been so excited!

Though I was slightly disappointed to not make it in time for the sunrise at the summit, I'm just as glad! Major accomplishment!!!

I'm so going to go again soon!!!

Mt Kinabalu

I'm so freaking nervous! I'm going to Sabah tomorrow, and going to climb Mt Kinabalu the day after tomorrow. omg. I really hope I"ll have an okay time climbing. I will not say easy cos I know it aint gonna be easy.

My left knee is aching as I type. My back feels like it's gonna snap when I sneeze. Though I'm in a bad shape, I know I'm not going to regret going to Mt Kinabalu. I gotta preserve to the submit! I know it's going to be gorgeous. So I really can't wait!!!

I'm so freaking lazy to pack. There's still tomorrow! hehe.

Okay if I make it to the top, I gonna be give my family a super duper good treat!!! May I survive the climb!!!

SEPANG!!!

I was so excited that I couldn't video properly. hahahha! At least I got the start and the "end" of the start!

I love Sepang circuit!!! It'll be my fav for now! Love how there was soooo many overtaking actions! And I was so excited throughout the race. Never a dull moment!

AND Sebastian Vettel rocks!!!

Poor elephants

I do not want to act like a super righteous bitch. But the elephants in Chiang Mai elephant camp are really very poor thing. They get clawed at by those rods with sharp ends to perform stunts. So cruel.

But, I guess this is the livelihood of the Chaing Mai people. The best that we, as tourist, is to NOT buy elephant products, or support their show. Regretfully, I've done both before. I bought an elephant task necklace years ago when I was pri5. I highly suspect it's fake though. haha!

The elephants were made to perform stupid stunts.

And they were used to get tips.
The elephants were really cute though. But I would rather see them in the wild, or on BBC knowledge (my favourite TV show now! cos of the apprentice! and top gear!)
This was taken in Laos. The people there were selling snake and many other creepy insect tonic. Looks damn gross!!! I'm amazed by how they "arrange" the snakes/ insects in the bottle.

The saddest thing is not the elephant, or the snake. It's the cute little Thai girls in long neck village. It's so sad that they're used as "display" for tourists.

The ladies/girls are made to weave all day. Maybe they're happy with their lives. And maybe, if we exchange positions, maybe they'll feel damn sian with my life (which I'm currently feeling).

I'm in no position to judge what's cruel and what's not. Just sincerely hope that the elephants get a good meal after their day of hard work. The snakes had lived a meaningful life. And maybe, the girls in long neck village are very happy showing the world their special culture.

Guess I might be the only one who's not happy.

p.s. BUT, I'm okay with my life now. Not fantastically happy, but satisfactorily happy.

p.s.s This is cos, I'm going to Sepang for F1!!!! WHEE!!!!

Separation & death

A friend's mother got into a car accident and she died after a few days of struggling in ICU.

A doctor from my dept is returning to her country. I really like her! A very humble doctor.

So sian that all good things come to an end.

Then again, an end to something good, is the beginning to another wonderful something.

Randall Tan!!!

Yes I met Randall Tan today!!! No, I did not join mediacorp, or the noose, as what my dajie said. haha! I'm not Barberella Sharon Lee.

So how did I meet him? He was invited to our web based/iphone app media launch. He's Prof's patient! I'm not leaking out anything confidential. Go see tonight's news or the papers tomorrow!

He was our so called spokesperson for the app. If you've rheumatoid arthritis like us (YES me too!), go to our mobilecare website @ https://mobilecare.sgh.com.sg. It's easy to sign up and you can start immediately!

What I like about Randall is that he has no celebrity air AT ALL!!! He was so sorry when he turned up slightly late for our media launch. But that's cos SGH is under some renovation, so everywhere is quite messy. He was so flustered and was sweating profusely! And I saw him whipped out a hankie!!! So cute!!! Which guy in this world still use a handkerchief???

He attracted the media's attention throughout the press conference. I love the way he talks! So eloquent! And he sincerely promoted our app. Good job!

I'm a teenage fan crazy girl once more. Yes I was the first to request for this pic. Then my senior asked him for one too. HAHA! I'm not paiseh when it comes to this kind of weird request. haha! After all, I've asked Andy lau (a very blur shot), 5566 (who turned me down) before! hehe.

What a good day it has been! Credit to my brilliant prof and IT team for bringing this all together!

Chiang Mai

I wanna blog about Chiang Mai! But I've no pictures. They're all in my old laptop. Just a quick one. I love Chiang Mai, despite the super hot weather.

I was so wrongly dressed! Can you imagine, I wore fake leather jacket, jeans and boots for a weather like Singapore?! HAHA! Epic fail. Then on the day we went to the mountain top, I wore a tube dress and slippers. Almost slipped and fall on the way to the water fall. HAHA! Double fail.

Okay nothing else that's interesting in my life.

I don't exactly like my job. But I admire my prof and the doctors! They're super cool people. I wanna be one too. In my next life. HAHA! For now, I just wanna enjoy life! hehe.