It's Finally Here!

What's here? My TP enrolment package that is! It's about time, I have seen almost everybody get their package since 2 weeks ago. But whatever, the most important thing is it arrived and, my god there's lots of forms to fill in + going for medical checkup. I am also pondering whether to buy my notebook from the upcoming IT Show in March or to wait until April for the TP notebook fair. Well, at least it keeps me busy, rather than to rot at home doing nothing but stare at the computer/TV screen.

So last saturday, I went to the Singapore flyer hoping to get free tickets. The flyer opens at 8.30am and I arrived at 7am hoping not to end up at the back of a very long queue later on. But I was wrong, even at 7am, there is THOUSANDS of people queueing, it made 2 loops around the flyer! There were only 2009 tickets avavailable. My mum was still so naive as to believe that we will get tickets if we tried to queue. My dad and I were not so naive and decided to walk off for breakfast while my mum had no choice and left with a grumpy face =.="

Met Justina at the National Library later for our study session. I was having a bad cough that day and at 1 moment, I almost vomited while coughing, luckily I did not vomit out my light breakfast on the fabric sofa. =) She was doing H2 maths, what about me? Haha, I was being such an uncle by taking almost 2 hours to read finish The Straits Times! I love the ST on saturday, the most interesting edition of the week, partly because "Life" has car reviews, but mostly it is usually the thickest edition of the week.

She's really studying leh! I thought she would fall asleep (which she admitted later on, but I was so engrossed in my uncle newspaper, I did not notice =.=")After spending 3hrs + at the Library, Justina introduced me to her new friend from SRJC, his name is Faid and he's a friendly and fun guy to talk with. We instantly clicked and talk like we were long time friends. They went to buy their horribly expensive graphic calculator from Bras Basah and visted Melanie at her workplace later on. I think we got Mel into trouble as her boss ANNOUNCED into the PA SYSTEM requesting her to meet him the moment we talked to her. Poor Mel! Hope you are alright with ur boss.

Drum lessons for Justina was next and Faid and me spent the next hour walking around Funan so that I could research on laptops for my poly. He told me that his acer screen cracked (so did my dad's). This is good enough reason not to buy acer anymore.

When that aunty finished her drum lessons, we went to Dhoby Gaught MRT to meet that Diva, he took a long time to arrive and so we 'considerately' camped at a corner of the busy linkway interchange.

Haha, My new friend, Faid!Went to Justina's house later while Faid took the bus to his home at Punggol. Diva brought along his acer netbook. I must say the pink is one of the better shade of pinks around, I thought it was the barbie kind of pink. The laggy Intel Atom proccessor was quite irritating but we still managed to take some spasm pics on the built in webcam. After being distracted by the camera, those 2 JC peeps went on to study while I did a different sort of studying. What kind of studying did I do? Using power ranger's street directory, I found out that Chong Pang wasn't in Serrangoon and I mixed it up with Chomp Chomp. How noob!

Just then, somebody I could not recgonise opened the door. I was about to shout 'intruder' but then, I took a closer look at the man with spectacles dressed in formal clothes, it was Power Ranger! I never knew he could look this formal, I almost could not recgonise him. Well, clothes does change a person's image I guess!

Good Scooby, that fat orange refused to meet 'strangers' as usual. We weren't exactly strangers right?Our original plan for dinner was to da bao mac, but power ranger told us that Just's ah ma knew we were coming and cooked fried rice for us! The fried rice was delicious, Diva took 4 large servings! There was so much fried rice!

Emo cheers!Aunty! Can cook faster or not?To 'enhance' the taste of the rice, we added Just's great grandma incredibly spicy chilli sauce and some pepper. Yummy!Some sapsm pics!The holy white Diva!So what made the 'holy bright diva' effect? My long lost attachable camera flash which can be used together with my camera phone.
Pizza documentary is on TV (Travel & Living) now, its making me so hungry now, gonna stuff myself with something, bye!

I Want Ben & Jerry's Ice Cream!

Yes I really doooo!!! I planned on having it after O levels finished, it was postponed becoz I thot it was not worth the $$, postpone till now when I finally tasted my 1st Ben & Jerry (B&J) ice cream (using my own $$) this year. Will talk more about B&J later.

So where do I start...? Ah yes! I met Justina and Diva last Friday at Kovan since it was near Justina's school. Diva was hopelessly late as he was coming from YJC which, by car is quite near, but by train it is an hr's ride. Contrary to my belief, Diva wasnt that bad in navigation at all. He took the shorter route by alighting at Toa Payoh and then take bus 153 to Kovan. I wonder if he took some tips from Varun o.0 Bought a bottle of Nutella as a surprise for Justina.

While waiting for that Diva, me and just walked almost the entire Kovan central, we even walked to Justina's pri sch which is nearby only to be chased out by the security guard =.=" Finally Diva arrived and I was quite shocked when I saw him, he did say he lost 6KG but I did not expect him to change in terms of size. But to my surpirse, he DID slim down abit! But after our up sized mac lunch, he would have gained back at least half of what he lost :)

Bused to SRJC coz Justina had *cannot be revealed yet* CCA in the aftnoon. SRJC was quite nice, we spent almost 3 hrs waiting for Just to complete her CCA =.=". Meanwhile, me and Diva were treated by Just's grandmother who was working there as a cafe vendor. She treated both of us pizzas and some mango ice blended drink. She's so nice! After Just came back, I revealed the Nutella and all of us started dipping into it. Justina treated it as a Valentines gift! Met Dayana later as she just finished band practice at SRJC and we saw some picture of a teacher that looks like Hai En. hahaha. Took the train to funan where justina needs to buy some music stuffs and it was sayonara! Valentines Day! Spent the day with the same people + Varun. I had free tickets for the fann wong movie 'The Wedding Game' which was incredibly boring (this was my 2nd time watching). Diva and me slept during parts of the movie while Justina did not. I'm not sure abt Varun. Before the movie, we bought 3 packs of chips and bottled drinks (to be smuggled into the movies).

Then while queueing to pay up at NTUC, this lady infront of us started talking crap to us. She was so RANDOM! I do admit her english is very good. But I'm not sure why she was worried (and I quote) that "the govt would inject something in our asses without our knowledge". I know! Its random right? I have no idea what she was talking about and everyone queueing around us was staring at our direction, how embarassing. She continued to blah blah blah and only Varun kept nodding his head. I for one could not be!bothered and started looking everywhere except at the lady. It was a random experience which caused us to be late for our movie.

After the movie, Diva and Justina fooled around at Challenger by destorying the wallpaper on the laptops on display. Varun had dinner with some others and we parted ways. Next up, dinner! I brought Diva and Just to Old Airport Rd hawker where I treated them to this super value Pasta meal! For $6, you get quite a large bowl of cream of mushroom soup, a bowl of pasta and a garlic bread. Even diva found it quite filling. The treat was our pre arranged plan - anyone of us who entered the disctinction club would have to treat the other 2 of us.

The pasta meal! Sunday was a study session for the JC peeps (Just, Varun, Diva). I came along because I was really bored. This study session is planned for every weekend. It would be a good time to keep in touch with each other too. When poly starts, I would have to study instead of slacking there.

Our original plan was to study at National Library. But Justina made last min changes and told us that her church would be also be a condusive place to study. Her church (which doesn't look like a church at all) was near Lavender MRT and was quite easy to find. When it was 12.30pm (the meeting time) only Justina and me were present. Slacked around in the baby room while Justina fell asleep while studying for her bio, like this:

Guess who is this?I, too fell asleep but somehow I managed to wake up earlier than her to snap this picture. Haha. Then, 2 hours later, Varun called to say he is reaching. We were feeling horribly hungry and decided to fetch Varun from the bus stop and then buy some bread from the confectionary. With Varun around. Things became more alive rather than the snooze session. Then Diva sent an sms telling us that he could not make it coz he was buying his new laptop. We were feeling hungry agn and I went down to the nearby 7-11 to buy the incredibly expensive cup noodles for all 3 of us.

Studied till it was almost 7pm then we bused to Vivo where Varun left us for his darling bus. Justina and me went to Giant to get our stuffs. I got my windbreaker and she got her safebox which was heavier than I expected considering the price of it. Went to my grandma hse at Sengkang after that. On the train, I read through Justina's econs notes and found out that econs is very interesting! If I went JC, I would surely take H2 econs.

On Monday, I finally met up Ary, Aishah and Xiao Dan! =) Haven't met them in a looonggg time, especially the 2 'A's. Our plan today was to walk from Alexendra to Vivo using the 2 bridges (again =.="). We spasmed and took lots of lame pictures and videos. It rained when we were within walking distance of Vivo (luckily).

Most of these pictures were taken using the self timer function. So ya, you can imgine how spasm-mie we got when the timer is counting down. Haha. So here are the spasm pics =)
Lunch was at Vivo's Banquet and XD brought a box of chocolate (most of which ended up in my stomach :P) Then, for the first time in... errr a few weeks? I had Ben's & Jerry ice cream! I just can't resist the chewy taste of B&J. I am going save up and buy a tub for myself!... Sometime!

BeforeAfterTP, I am still waiting for my enrolment letter! =( My sore throat is back again. Even more =(

My Little Adventures

I had a series of unexpected adventures recently. 1st being my planned solo cycling trip to Temasek Poly to see how is the route like from Tampinese MRT to TP. 2nd was an unexpected trip to explore the parks/forests/bridges of the southern ridges.

Part 1

So, 1st up my planned solo cycling trip to TP which ended up as a cycling trip with one of my pri sch fren instead. The original plan was to meet my pri sch frens (Jason & Abel) for breakfast at mac before I set off for my solo cycling trip to TP. We spent more than 1 hr at mac chatting and aft that Abel decided to follow me on my trip since he was really bored. Disaster struck even before we left his estate, the chain on his bike came off and luckily the problem was simple to fix, though the grease did create a mess on my hands.

We mainly used the almost excellent Park Connector Network (PCN) to cycle from ECP to TP and back. I am glad that the govt is building such PCNs for cyclist and joggers alike. It is so much easier and safer to cycle on the PCNs than on the road. Although the system is not perfect (I will explain why later), I believe that the PCN is one of the govt's better policies and I look forward to the expansion of the network.

So it was a 1 hour trip from tiong to the start of East Coast Park using roads. We took a short break at ECP mac before cycling the rest of ECP+Changi Airport runway stretch to changi village via PCN. Luckily, the wind wasn't blowing as strongly as the last time I cycled there, which helps reduce the time we took to cycle to changi village. After about 1.5 hrs of cycling we reach changi village for lunch and a break.

The next leg of the trip was to cycle to TP using the Loyang PCN and the Tampines PCN. This leg was the toughest part of the whole journey. The loyang PCN was a constant uphill climb and within minutes, our legs started to ache alot. This is the first time i felt real pain in my thigh while cycling, not the usual 'tiredness'. After a terribly long and arduous climb we reached Pasir Ris park which leads us to the Tampines PCN where the hills fortunately stopped going up and it was a relatively easy ride to Tampines MRT.

Part of the purpose of this trip is to test out the feasibility of me cycling to TP when poly starts. What I found out is that it is a very easy 10min cycle to TP from Tampines MRT. This is largely due to the PCN from Tampines MRT to the junction before TP. I also noticed that alot of TP students cycle to school too, which is apparent from the number of bikes parked inside. The only grouse I have is that pedestrains don't keep to their own pavements and sometimes walk on the PCN pathway, which is an irritant for cyclists. I would explore taking the bus and walking to TP sometime later.

After cycling the length of TP, we decided to take another (shorter) PCN back to ECP. We were quite tired by then and did not notice that there was a more straight forward Bedok PCN nearby. Instead we took the Siglap PCN which was filled with various obstacles.

The most problematic PCN I have encountered so far

It was the only PCN I got lost in. 1st, the PCN snakes through various HDB estates, which isn't a complain, but the way the signs are placed is a complaint. At various junctions, signs were non - existent or placed badly. What happened next was a series of disasters after disasters.

We crossed one of the many bridges in this PCN and found out it was leading us away from ECP instead of towards it. We backtracked and found out that we should not have crossed the bridge at all. We eventually found the correct way which leads us straight into another problem.

Usually, PCN overhead bridges has ramps for bikes to be pushed up. But when we cycled to Bedok North, we were lead by the arrows to this overheadbridge which looks like a normal pedestrain bridge, not for bikes.Just then, a burst of heavy rain started to plet down on us. It was a 5min heavy thunderstorm which made us run for cover under a tree (the nearest acceptable shelter near us) while we wait for the short thunderstorm to past. While waiting, we FINALLY figured out that we have to push our bikes up this really narrow and steep ramp at both sides of the bridge. Well, at least they provided a ramp for us to push our bikes up. But it would be better if they would build a bridge with a proper ramp instead (maybe its not built due to space contraints?) Decending was dangerous! The concrete was wet and my brakes/tyres kept locking up making the bike slide down the ramp even faster. I resorted to carrying my bike down instead.

This is how the really narrow ramp looks like A closer look at itNow for the next disaster, right after we finished crossing the flawed bridge, Abel's bike chain came off again! I had to repair the chain once again which made my hand really dirty, thankfully, I expected mechanical problems like these and brought along wet tissue towels. The weather looked really threatening and the ground was quite wet and slippery which made the next part of the PCN really dangerous as it is filled with tight/sweeping bends and various up/down hills, just like a F1 track. We rode really cautiously throughout the whole 'F1 track' until we have to cross yet another bridge (this time, with a proper ramp, not stairs!).

Upon crossing, the next disaster stuck! We looked on the words painted on the ground and sighed.So after 5.4 KM of weaving through the really crowded Eunos area, having the bike tyre splash ground water on our faces and crossing yet another bridge, we finally reached East Coast Park! There, we were given a reward by chancing upon our own Mediacorp actor Edmund Chen (Chen Zi Cai) and his son jogging. Haha, did not talk to him though, as I was on the bike. We took a well deserved rest at the mac area of ECP before setting off to Old Airport Rd hawker for dinner.

Dinner was a $6 pasta meal, complete with a bowl of cream of mushroom soup and garlic bread! Yummy! I will be having that same meal again soon with the usual peeps :P My treat! So we rode home from the hakwer and arrived home at 10pm.

It was a interesting trip, especially getting lost for a while at the Bedok North area, and only to find out (when i got home) that there was a much more straight forward path to ECP via the Bedok PCN instead of the crowded and obstacle filled Siglap PCN. Nonetheless, the experience at Siglap PCN will be a moment I would think back and laugh about :P

My next cycling trip would proabably be in the western part of the island as i haven't cycled there before, Most probabaly I would start cycling to Bt Batok park and then down to Jurong and so on. We'll see if this trip will be a reality or not.

Part 2

Now this trip will be about my totally unexpected trip through the parks of the southern ridges (eg, Kent Ridge and Mount Faber park)

It all started when Haikal and me were supposed to start working at some telemarketing company at Science Park 1 (near Bouna Vista). We met for breakfast at Ghim Moh hawker and then caught a bus to take us to our future office. At the office, the HR person told us that their call center was full that day and it was their mistake for not informing us earlier, she said she would call us back the next week to tell us if there's any more vacancies or not. We left the office angry but not disapointed (strangely). I felt a sense of relief that I could still enjoy my holidays and not be bogged down by work.

We walked out of the building and immediately stumbled upon our next problem, since it was so early (10am), what shall we do now? Then an inspiration suddenly appeared. Since we are in the middle of the Kent Ridge Park, why not we use it to walk all the way to Vivo and cross the tallest pedestrain bridge in S'pore along the way? A quick look at the map shows that we are quite a long way from Vivo. Well, that doesn't matter as we have plenty of time on our hands. So, this is how our unexpected adventure begun.

The problem is, we were in the totally wrong attire to 'hike' through the parks. We were in jeans and t shirt, which was the dress code for working in the office, not for 'parking'. The sun was incredibly hot that day. Luckily, there were rest stops on the way where toilet and drinking facilites are provided. So here are some of the pictures of places we passed by on our trip.

The long metal bridge which was quite fun to walk on as the floor was made out of metal grilles which allos you to see the ground. People with fear of heights would be better off walking with a blindfold!The bridge zig zags up the Telok Blangah HillNice view eh? (My Pri 6 teacher lives at the white HDB block on the extreme left :P)One of the star trek looking rest stops. Cool! Finally we reached the peak of Telok Blangah hill where we saw this guy driving (more like racing) a S Class Mercedes doing laps after laps on the windy and narrow roads of Telok Blangah hill. Haha, future F1 driver in the making eh?There, we had to climb up more hillsto reach...Yeah! Henderson Waves, the name of the tallest pedestrian bridge in S'pore. It is around 70+ metres above sea level and the view of and from the bridge is beautiful!Have you ever seen the road this far and small away from a pedestrian bridge in S'pore? Surely not!
Henderson Waves leads us straight to Mt Faber where we visted the cable car station which I haven't visted since errrr... god knows when. Alot has changed since, for example, the coin operated binoclulars has shifted to a less scenic spot on Mount Faber. Luckily, the original koi pond is still largely intact.Specatcular views from Mt Faber
We finally reached Seah Im food centre which is opposite Vivo. It was my 1st time having lunch there and thankfully, we managed to find a seat during the crowded lunch time hours.Nothing significant happened after that except that I downed a 1 litre bottle of Meji choc milk and had runs that evening =.="

Well, I had fun in all my unexpected adventures at Siglap PCN and Southern Ridges park. Kudos to the National Parks Board for building parks like these in land scarced S'pore.

Ok, enough of parks, my horribly ancient phone, the SE K750i needs replacing soon. The joystick has been acting up lately, dust has been accumulating in the screen which makes reading in the sunlight almost impossible. And my screen has rows of dead pixles already. But I must say that although it has faults, it has lasted a rough 3 years and 3 months with me already. It has been abused countless of times, once it dropped on a sharp small rock on the ground while I was running for the cross country in Macritchie and that caused a visible dent on the phone.

I am now planning to get this phone, the w902i for its sturdy feeling and decent camera. Although I am not a fan of walkman, I don't mind having this phone as I feel it is built to last, and reliability plays a big part for me in choosing phones. My SE K750i passed the test with flying colours and I hope this phone can do the same! The only problem is, this phone is bloody expensive. The last time I checked, it was selling at $498 with a 2 year contract :o I guess I will wait for the price to drop before I buy this phone.

Ok, now Valentines day is here already! I really want to wish all my loved friends a Happy Valentines Day! I really appreciate the happy times we spent together. Memorable moments with people like Diva, Justina, Varun, Haikal, Ary, Aishah, XD, Dan, Elsie and so on.... will always be remembered! Don't be angry with me if i never mention your name ok? :P There are just too many people to list out. Here once again, wishing everyone a Happy Valentines Day! Cherish the moments spent with your loved ones.

Please Find Me Something To Do!

Well, I did say I would update once I got my poly posting results, so here I am! I was posted to Temasek Poly's Aviation Management & Services course - My 1st choice! :P Xiao Dan was also posted into the same course as me. With that, I would probably be working in Changi Airport in the future! I am glad that quite a number of my friends are going to TP too! People I often hang out with, eg Diva, Justina, Varun have all gone to JC which leaves me with nothing to do when JC started a few days ago =.="

This could be my future workplace :P
Now I am feeling so bored, mainly relying on my computer games to keep myself entertained. Luckily, Justina the JC nerd did not go totally emo after JC started :P We still hang out once in a while, eg-to celebrate mel's birthday.

My cycling trip as gone well so far. I have completed my holiday wishes which is to go Ubin and Seletar to cycle.

I went cycling at Seletar with Justina and her dad since they were the only ones living nearby. It was a very dusty place as heavy construction is going on to redevelop the area into the future Seletar Aerospace hub. Since there were no pavements, we had to cycle on the narrow 1 lane road. It was especially scary when dozens of dump trucks just drive past you kicking up a cloud of dust while doing so. This area is one of the last remaining places where old British Colonial houses can still be found (the other place being Portsdown Rd). So, do visit while it is still around. It will be gone in no time. Now, look what I have found!

What is gay hammy doing in Seletar?A disturbing sight has been appearing on the roads of Singapore. Some disgustingly painted pink taxis with cow horns & tails on them have been spotted and one even made it onto the newspaper. I hope they would at least change the colour of the cow taxi. Not pink please!
Ubin was fun! Me, together with Haikal, Elsie, Vivek, Justina and Xiao Dan went ubin to cycle on a bright sunny morning. We rented bikes that just cost $5 per day to rent! It was a rather crap bike with all of us finding various problems with the bike. For instance, I had my chain falling off the teeth 8 times, so did Elsie and Haikal. Vivek and my bike had spoilt front suspension. The rear ones were so rusty that it did not work at all! Vivek was having the worst problem among us by far, he had his rear brakes permanently rubbing the rim of his tyre. Which means he rode the whole day with his brakes on. No wonder he has been having leg cramps the whole day!

Other than the bike problems, we also got lost for more than an hour after we decided to venture off the beaten track. It was tiring when we got lost. The 'road' wasn't really a road at all, it was just a track filled with mud/bricks/stones which made cycling on them a real headache! It was nonetheless a fun adventure. We, of course managed to find our way out of the forest. We also threw countless number of rocks into the sea for fun.

And what's an adventure without a campfire? We found an undisclosed spot on the island and made a campfire using lots of dried leaves, cardboards, newspapers, rocks and a lighter. It was not a complete success, but it was not a failure either. We managed to keep the fire alive for quite a while. Here are some pictures

Get the fire started damn it!
Finally, now pass me the cardboards
It's getting smoky, we do not want to attract attenttion right? This Justina Sun Wu Kong ah! Instead of helping out with the fire, started posing for the camera insteadThe fire taking it's last breath
While on the boat back to mainland Singapore, I caught a high fever, glad to say I have already recovered from the fever or I wouldn't be blogging now.

I need to find a job soon, and I would continue my cycling expedition around Singapore. Next up would probably a cycling trip to Pasir Ris park and back, via ECP, Changi Village. I also hope I can meet up with the JC peeps soon, I miss them already!

Hmm, when will my next update be? Your guess is as good as mine :)