||wach|n's

hey, i'm back!

2008-07-24T15:10:00.002+08:00

erm.. colema is not comfortable but a lot of shit came out (yeap, real shit)... real smelly and black shit also... still not thoroughly cleaned :(
so i'm still on a fast for 3 more days.

feels good to be home.

going to start a 6-day yoga course from this Saturday onwards :) time to bend bend bend bend....

treatment-wise: decided to go Natural. bye bye chemotherapy.

plan to go back Singapore: not in the near future.

update more in a few days. used up my time in front of this source of radiation. going to start writing with a pen in a book soon. going traditional.haha. should use pencil then :)

That day I finally graduated

2008-07-15T13:31:00.002+08:00

Wanted to post up more pictures but the internet connection is not too stable. But let me tell you about it. Friday 11th July 2008 was a mad day.
In the morning, my mom and I went to have breakfast at Clementi while waiting for my dad to arrive. Then we rushed back to Suming's place where I stayed over for the night to change and then to University Cultural Center (UCC) we went to attend JE's commencement. We took a few photos, and then rushed back to Sm's to iron my shirt, pants and grad gown! My mom did the ironing while I rested for a while. My sister arrived shortly before 1pm with her roommate and quickly changed into Sm's clothes as hers was not formal enough to enter the hall. Then we rushed off to school canteen to grab a quick lunch and walked to UCC. Once there, I quickly went into the Robing Room to put on the grad gown, checked in the extra stuff and realised I forgot to take my Attendance Card. Luckily, got it before my sister entered the hall.
Met up with Zhenghui who came to get something from Thunder and he got us both presents! :) Only had time to take a photo and we had to queue to enter the hall already.
In the hall, we were seated alphabetically according to the honours class conferred. So, I was sitting beside CM and we just talked and took photos =P
Weiying was interviewed "live" and appeared on the big screen! Then the lecturers and deans came in in their Harry Potter-like appearance. Next was the national anthem, speech by a Pharmacy alumnus who graduated in 1973. He talked a lot about marriage -_-"
The presentation of scroll was next, starting with the Doctor of Philosophy, Master of Science and Bachelor degree. Pharmacy class was in the same session as some of the Life Sciences cohort. Thus, it was a rather long session.
When it was my turn, I got rather nervous before going up the stage as I realised the heel of my shoes was coming off. I was scared that the heel will drop off on the stage (imagine the embarassment). Luckily it didn't.
When my name was called, loud applause was heard from the audience. As I received my scroll and turned to look at the camera, I saw that my coursemates were all standing and clapping! It was a standing ovation for me! I was so so so touched. The person who gave me the scroll said to me, "you have a lot of supporters ah." I turned a little towards the crowd and bowed as I walked down the stage, to thank them. Tears welled in my eyes. If not for CM telling me not to cry on such a joyous day, I would have cried there and then already.

Thank you Pharmacy Class of 2008!

After the ceremony, we rushed to the concourse area to take class photos. Then we took photos with our lecturers and friends. (all not in my camera cause my camera was with my sister). Did not have much time to talk to everybody cause everyone was busy taking photos with everyone!

Then, I went out to the lobby area to take photos with those who came. Thank you so much Sm for the fluffy heart, thanks to sis for the sunflower, thanks to King Liang and Luyin for the roses, thanks to Weisheng for so many presents, thanks to Yujen for being our maid, thanks to JE for still wearing his grad robe (lol). Thanks :)

I left kinda early cause my dad needed to rush to JB to take bus home. -_-"

My family and I.
My "family" in Singapore (absentees: CC who was busy with his gf *ahem* and Suwan who was working)
I WAS HERE :)

Going to stay in the Naturopathy Dr's clinic for another week starting tonight. Will be there to re-attend the AOL Basic Course and also to receive a treatment called Colema. Basically, cleansing of the colon plus some other stuffs.

p/s: send me photos thru You-Send-It ? or to my hwachin@gmail.com . Thanks yo :)

Commencement 2008

2008-07-13T16:26:00.003+08:00

Here are some pix I stole from Facebook and downloaded from the class album... Mine still in friend's camera, waiting for her to transfer for me :)
Pharmacy Class 2008! With our lecturers :) *spot me*

throwing our mortarboards.. erm.. if you found me, you would have noticed i didn't throw mine but held on to it. cause mine is rented, didn't want to lose it you see. HaHa... and to protect my head =P

WaH! See the one holding the certificate file instead of mortarboard? That's the embarassing me.. but smart cause the mortarboard is SO dangerous! It hit my friend and her face BLED!

Sookie Lee and Me :)

Me and Swei! (stolen from her blog)

Pei Yong, Wei Ying and I!

Will talk more about commencement and my birthday celebration when I get the pix :)

Happy Birthday To Me :)

2008-07-08T11:19:00.003+08:00

This is Bear 1.... Sometimes he is bear-y lonely because I keep him in a bear box so that he won't get dirty... He had been lonely for more than a month...

Finally, yesterday night Bear 1 got a friend.

This is Bear 2... a girl bear...

Now, they are bear-y happy together... (although they are still kept in their own separate boxes to avoid turning into grey dusty bears =P)

Thank you Stef, YW and SN... Went out with these 3 sec school friends yesterday night... and saw YW's baby girl too.. so cute :)

Today is my birthday.

Nothing much happening. No cake cause I can't take them and the day goes on as usual just that I am 24 today :)

Happy Birthday To Me!

Flying back to Singapore tomorrow night. Bye

Hi

2008-07-06T15:31:00.003+08:00

I am fine and almost physically well if not for the lymph node (i think) at the side of my neck that is a little swollen (i think) and that's not the most comfortable feeling. I am not seeing a Dr for it cause what Dr will do is press press, ask some questions, tell you his solution which may be fine needle aspiration (involves poking a really fine needle into the lymph node to scrap out some cells to see whether they are TB/cancerous etc. It's not a painful process but it's not the most comfortable process also especially when the Dr tries to joke with you while poking you -_-") or worse, operate and take out a node to check it. Or give me antibiotics again? None of the solutions sound too appealing to me. I'm waiting for Nature to work its course (sounds like lying to myself hor, I know) and hope the swell will subside. If not, I will see the NUH oncologist on Thursday morning anyway.

Last last week, we had a small celebration for small sis's birthday.. Since I can't take cakes (cause got eggs) and my parents don't eat cake, I bought a piece of cake for her only.. but arranged Smarties on it.. wanted to arrange in the shape of her name but the Smarties too big and the cake too small -_-"
Then the following weekend, we made sushi and salad! :)
I love sushi even though my sushi only had carrots, cucumbers or corn in it :)
Packed just like in Taiwanese/Japanese drama...This one's for my mom's friend... :)
Yesterday, we cooked spaghetti :)

Early this morning, the 4 of us went to Batu Feringghi for my sand therapy....
Nice, empty beach....
My sand therapy is for detoxification purpose and it involves burying our body in the sand for 20 minutes, then wash off with the sea water. It was a new experience and a rather pleasant one; lying in the cooling sand and looking at the blue sky with the nice breeze.. :)

My feet and my sis's feet...

Back in Singapore on Wednesday night. See you, people in Singapore.

The Natural Way

2008-06-18T15:42:00.003+08:00

Ok.. I wanted to post some pictures from the Advanced Art of Living (AOL) course I went to last week but the Streamyx internet connection is not helping :(
Anyway, the golf resort and country club we stayed in for the 4 days of the course was very nice... with great views of the golf course and nice rooms... Food was nice too. Although all were vegetarian food, they offered a great selection of food for EVERY meal. I especially liked the breakfast. HeHe :)
How about the course?
6AM-10PM everyday...... We had yoga, breathing exercises, meditations, doing volunteer work, singing sessions and knowledge sessions. On the first day, we had discussions where we were grouped and regrouped in small groups to talk about the different topics given by the teacher. (by the way, the teacher came all the way from Taiwan to conduct the course and there were over 100 participants from Pg, Kedah, KL and even 2 from Singapore).
Starting from the 2nd day till before lunchtime on the last day, we went into Silent Mode. Total silence where we were not even suppose to look at people we know and smile cause that's a form of communication by itself. We were supposed to be with ourselves only. To know ourselves better. It was rather difficult even for me who don't really talk to strangers.
Anyway, I would recommend the course to friends and family. Attend the basic course then the advanced course. Letting go of the bad and taking in the good. The meditations were tough for me cause I couldn't sit totally still for such a long time. However, after each session, the body felt rejuvenated and the mind stable, peaceful. Looking back, the 4 days were rather torturous but at the same time rejuvenating. If given a chance, I would want to repeat the course cause I felt I only gave about 90% and not 100% of myself into it. The more focused you are, the better result you'll get from the course. Some people had gone for the advanced course 9 times and will attend more!
I cried everyday during the course. Not because I missed home. I'm not the only one. People released their innermost emotions during the meditations. There was this special kind of meditation that was so torturous, people were screaming, crying or laughing to help them through it. But for some people the process was so easy it scared them. Different people had different experiences. Because we are all different. Thus, on the last day we sat in groups of 10 people to share our experiences and the braver ones went on stage to share. There was this man who went on stage and said if we saw his back, we would not accept him. But not knowing that, he looked just like a normal uncle who sang and beat the drums so passionately during our singing sessions. He was a heroine addict and he found back himself through the course and interaction with the people in AOL. There were also many cancer patients and survivors (breast, colon, liver etc.). And there many other different kinds of people, healthy or sick, happy or sad, having the worst period of their lives or having the time of their lives. It was heartening to just be there and in the presence of all these people with the same aim of discovering their true self and live in happiness.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Went to see the Naturopathy Dr I saw in Dec when I first discovered about my disease. Her husband, who is also one of the teachers of the AOL Part I course was there too and he managed to convince my dad to have full confidence in Naturopathy. The teacher himself was a survivor of liver cancer. A very very nice teacher with a constant smile on his face.
Anyway, I am following the natural way now. Gone full time vegetarian, taking fruit+vege juice, alkaline water and goat's milk. Practising yoga (I still suck at it cause my body is absolutely not bendable -_-") and breathing exercises every morning. This Saturday afternoon, I am going to stay over at the Naturopathy Dr's clinic for a week to learn how to take care of myself. And also will be following the AOL teacher to his Part I course in Penang island. There will be another girl coming to stay over from KL and she's diagnosed with brain cancer. The teacher said I can help her. I hope :)

My small sis said I'm like a backpacker. 2 days after first coming back from Singapore, I was packed to Lam Wah Ee Hospital for 9 days... then 1 day after discharge, I attended the 6-days Part I course (didn't stay over but spent almost all my time there), then immediately flew to Sg on the last day of the course. In Sg for 3-4 days then back in Butterworth for 3 days before attending a 2-days-2-nights prayer at the temple (didn't stay over also although most of the participants stayed over in the temple..). Rested at home for 3 days before packing off to Sungai Petani for 4 days... And now, being back at home for 5 days and will pack for a week away from home again... -_-"

And teacher said minimise handphone, television and computer... So, if you don't see me online, email me la... :)

Bye

The other life

2008-06-11T16:48:00.004+08:00

Staying in the hospital for 9 days made me realised how noble nurses are. Since I have nothing to do in the hospital other than lying there waiting to be injected with antibiotics and reading newspapers, I watched the nurses took care of the old aunty in my 4-person shared room. The nurses work 12 hours/day in 2 shifts (7AM-7PM/7PM-7AM) and we complain about working from 8.30AM-5.30PM (or a bit more). Anyway, the nurses were great except when they inject me :( The Dr in charge of me not that nice though. On the 2nd/3rd day I was in the hospital, I had severe diarrhea with terrible stomach cramp at about 5.30AM. The nurses called the Dr and he only came in at 10.30AM! I was in such pain, I couldn't sit, lie down or stand. All I could do was squat beside my bed clutching my stomach and stopping myself from fainting after what seemed like 20times of running to the toilet. The Dr I see in Sg responds to my SMS almost immediately unless when he's out of the country and provides solutions everytime (which explains why I'm still going back to Sg for consultations although not anymore after this last round). The whole experience actually made me so scared of syringes!
Got discharged on Tuesday and on Wednesday night, I started a 6-day beginners' spiritual course conducted by people from the Art of Living Foundation. In the 4 nights and 2 full-day course, we learned some yoga, principles of life, breathing techniques and had some interaction games. It was an overall a good experience as it taught us to relax and re-construct our views on life. I didn't finished the last part of the course as I had to catch the plane to Singapore on Sunday afternoon.

Then, I was in Singapore WITHOUT my laptop for 3 days 3 nights (misery cause got nothing else to do there). I had to use the computer in the Science library to check emails and book my return flight to Penang -_-". Had CT scan and blood tests done on Monday and then went back to my old place in Clementi to take the remaining stuffs (but STILL left a few stuffs there!sigh...). Saw Dr on Tuesday. No good news anymore. The tumors seemed to be resistant to the chemotherapy and had not reduce in size at all. There was even hint of the tumors progressing but my Dr said he would take the result as "stable". He then laid out the options for me.

1. Continue with chemotherapy but with a different regimen which will still give me bad side effects but may be different ones. He wrote down 3 regimen options, each with equal response rates but different side effect profiles. However, the response rate expected will not be as high as before (which was 50-60%). This time, it is only about 20%. If I were to proceed, I need to have blood transfusion because my red blood cells were very low (which explains my constant tiredness)

2. Take a 1-month chemo break and then do blood test again before proceeding with the new chemotherapy regimen. By doing this, I will not need the blood transfusion but instead let my body regenerate the red blood cells. This option also allows me to take a break from the terrible side effects of chemo. However, there is a risk that my liver functions will deteriorate in this period and thus resulting in not being able to administer the new chemo even if I want to.

Before he continued further, the Dr asked whether there is a possibility that I will ever consider chemo again. If I insist NEVER ever to have chemo again, then there is no point in going back to get my blood tests done. He went on to describe the situation of never doing chemo ever again as "the knife is already here (motioning with his hand the action of hand as knife behind the neck), it's coming down any moment, we don't know when but we are just waiting for it to come down" Scary description? You bet!

I said I don't know whether I would consider chemo again but I might. And that he said is "giving ourselves a chance". As he went on and on about this and that, tears started welling in my eyes. I was really scared at that moment. Things had gone worse :(

Anyway, not elaborating further, I decided to take the 1-month chemo break (which the Dr said isn't his favourite thing but that's life) and will be back for consultation on 10th July. I am 110% not ready for any chemo at that moment. I am terrified.

After letting out some fear in me through tears, I was actually strong enough to go back to NUS Science library to book my flight back home and then made my way to Vivocity to watch a movie. Met up with Thundercat at Vivocity Pacific Coffee to chat and "celebrate" her birthday with a piece of Tiramisu.HeHe... Then, we watched Accuracy of Death (or Sweet Rain: Shinigami no Seido) starring Takeshi Kaneshiro as Grim Reaper (or Shinigami) who decides whether someone should die after spending a few days with that person. It's a really nice movie and funny too. If you love Takeshi Kaneshiro, all the better :) (I'm not a big fan of him but I like Japanese movie and this movie had not been scheduled to be shown in Malaysia yet. So, I had to catch it while it's still showing in Sg).

Left Sg on Wednesday and in this one whole week since I'm back from Sg, I had been exercising in the morning, breakfast with parents, make and drink vegefruit juice, sleep, watch tv,eat, read, sleep. Basically a different life from what I had lived all these while. Good or bad? Sometimes good, sometimes bad...

That's life

Will be going for a 4-day advanced course (a continuation from the beginners' Art of Living course) in Cinta Sayang Resort, Sungai Petani. Back on Sunday :)

Was supposed to be long update but...

2008-06-10T18:08:00.002+08:00

Current location: Prai, Penang, Malaysia
Current job status: Semi-professional "Vege + Fruit Juicer"
Current mood: As good as it can be....
Currently rushing to: watch HK drama on TV3! (which explains why I can't do a proper blog now even though I had really wanted to update)

Will blog tomorrow.... will be disconnected from the world(again) starting from Thurs 5.15AM till Sun night

If you had wondered,

2008-05-27T11:58:00.002+08:00

I was hospitalised since Sunday night in Penang. Until today.

Reasons:
Fever + sore throat + vomit

After a check of my white blood cell count, Dr said it was nothing serious and I could be out of hospital in a day or 2.... Then, I developed diarrhea like there's no tomorrow plus vomiting... and stubborn fever which persisted for days...
Then, my white blood cells went down....

And so, I had to continue to be given IV antibiotics...
Finally got discharged today after so many pokes on my hands that I looked like a intravenous drug abuser :(

No more fever now...

Initial plan to fly back to Sg tomorrow is postponed to Sunday...

I have a "couse"

2008-05-11T21:53:00.002+08:00

My friends are wonderful. Really! Like really wonderful! :D

Remember the cat-mouse I talked about a while ago?

The Hello Kitty mouse that has glowing cheeks and ribbons as right-left clicks...

It's now on my table, connected to my laptop! Complete with a pink, bimbotic mouse pad! Even the wire with the USB thing is PINK!

I LOVE it sooooo much! Thank you!! :D

And it's very nice to click and scroll... Useful and pretty.. but soon the Kitty's face will turn black/yellow... HaHa!

Unofficially graduated :)

2008-05-10T16:27:00.002+08:00

I did not cry but I think I will cry whenever I think of it. So, I'm not thinking about it.
My final paper of my final final examinations was on 7th of May 1pm. My coursemates all finished at 3pm while I was given half an hour more. However, the moment they were released, their happy laughters, sigh of relief and shouts of enjoy lured me to forget about my extra time. I quickly finished shading my answers and raised my hand to hand in the exam script. Then, I rushed outside to join the crowd for photo-taking :)
Everybody splitted to go do their own stuff while I headed back to hostel to catch a nap. A short nap later (cause I couldn't really sleep), I made my way to Clementi NTUC to get drinks for the night's party at my old place... It was to be a post-NUS-drink-til-drunk-party! LOL... (no alcohol for me but I was the mixer :D)
Dinner was Oiishi unagi pizza and chicken teriyaki pizza! :)
First, it was dinner with tv, then bridge session... Followed by Ginger Ale Vodka first to finish up the 1/5 portion of Thunder's Absolut Vodka... then Malibu pineapple to finish up Birdie's supply... and then the opening of CM's new Absolut Peach...After bridge, we played charades which was really funny! Next was "I'd never..." game where each person would take turns to say "I'd never ....(something you have never done before) e.g. "I'd never drank beer before" and whoever had drunk beer before will have to take a sip of their drinks... Simple game to get people drunk. Since KY and I cannot take the alcohol, we had to take off an item on us instead... Erm.. Luckily the game didn't go far. Oh yea! In between the different games, we had "clubbing" session in one of the room.. complete with darkness and clubbing music.. HaHa! Save money and safe dancing :)
Then we had karaoke session and boyband imitating session..LOL...
At around 10+/11pm, WY left.. and Khim just arrived with a BIG Gulp cause there was no more soft drinks to be mixed with the alcohol... Some of us were already tired... WX and I knocked off the earliest... while Birdie was busy preparing for her tuition kid the next MORNING! The rest continued to party till I don't know what time.. HaHa.. From what I heard, CM's friend even sent supper to them at 2+am...
I slept over at their place. Woke up at 8am and rushed back to hostel to wash up, then rushed back to Clementi MRT station to meet JE and CC.. Off we went to Bukit Batok Singtel to transfer the Internet and phone line... Waited for so long there and by the time we were done, we were starving! JE and I then joined YJ at The Cathay for lunch followed by movie! Watched "Ironman"... It was not bad.. highly entertaining... Better if you like the comic... There's a hidden scene at the end by the way.. After all the credits...
Dinner was MOS unagi (again) rice burger, which I packed over to Thunder's place (again).... Bought Ben & Jerry's for them too... Although the flavour I chose was a bit weird-some cheesecake with brownie ice cream... tasted like frozen cheesecake and ice cream..haha..
We wanted to play mahjong but we could not get the mj set... Bridge session again.. Packed some of my textbooks and stuffed toys back to hostel...
The next day (which was yesterday), I went to school to meet HY to pass present to our FYP Supervisor... It's a set of Parker pen and pointer, which I think is very nice! in a nice green colour... By the way, I was offered work as part-time Research Assistant under my supervisor while I continue my treatment in Sg. Not going to take up the offer yet as my plan is now to go home for a proper rest, exercise more and eat well.. Then get my body back to normal as much as possible first.
The Pharm dept had been extremely helpful. My supervisor said there's no pressure on me to start the work at a certain time or to complete it as a task. The offer is to help me alleviate some financial burden and for me to do some work that I may be interested in.
After meeting him, HY and I set off to Orchard (again) to meet KH after not seeing him for the whole semester. The first question HY asked him was whether he had grown taller cause we had not talked to someone so tall for a long time and it felt weird at first.. HaHa.. But he was still the same KH... still the same nice and fun Xiao Di :)
We ate lunch at Ajisen Ramen... could not finish my ramen and tako yaki :( Chatted for some time and KH was telling us that "JB is dangerous" is a MYTH by "those Singaporeans" (by the way, KH is Singaporean which made his statement even funnier). Imagine a Singaporean telling two Malaysians that. After lunch, we walked over to Cineleisure to catch Debbie who's supposed to be eating sushi buffet... We reached the Jap restaurant and peeped and peeped but no one looked like her at all! HY called her and found out she had finished her lunch and had walked over to where we just walked from! So, we walked back to meet her -_-"
The first thing Debbie said to us: It's like we haven't seen each other for 5 years! How come everyone looks different!
We settled in MOS burger (again) to chat......... talked rubbish for a few hours...... :) Good to catch up but too bad it was only 4 of us.... Can't believe it had been one whole year since we met in HK :) Great memories.... and although we had known each other only for a few weeks there, good friends will always stay in our hearts and mind :)

HY and I finally made our way back to Clementi and met my parents at the coffee shop there.. Talked for a while before we parted ways...
Slept for 12 hours yesterday night cause was too tired from continuous activities since end of exams....

Swei left for the US on 8th... Birdie left for Bangkok on 8th evening... CM left for Malacca on the same day... WX left for Klang on 9th afternoon... Khim left for Taiping yesterday night... HY left for KL this morning... SW left for Bangkok a few hours ago... HY going to leave KL for US tonight... the pharmies leaving for Korea next week... SM leaving for China some time in May...
Coursemates had respectively left for Taiwan, Japan and Korea...

I am leaving for Penang on 15th... will be back for scans... then commencement in July and lastly, Dinner and Dance on 26th July :)

Meeting up with HO gang for dinner tonight and visiting JE+CC's new place at AMK tomorrow night...
Chemo on Mon-Wed... Thus, meeting as many friends as possible before I leave Sg... did not get to meet all though.. But keep in touch people :)

How to NOT miss them when I leave Sg?

2008-05-09T18:26:00.007+08:00

If a picture speaks a thousand words, here are 12000 words- reason why I WILL miss all of them terribly when I bum around in Penang.... :(

McD Drive-Thru in the middle of the night to get supper.. notice the sleeping passenger and the bored passenger at the back seat... And the driver is on the LEFT side! HaHA! American driver :)

Little Red Riding Hood studying for final exams in PGP study room :D

The Ring Twins... result of too much mugging in NUS!

Mr Egg with mushroom eyes and spring onion lips... too much food at Marina Bay Steamboat... O_O"Whatcha looking at?!" -Steamboat gangsters... with chopstick in mouth.. the stick in my mouth was the ice cream stick... Attempt to capture a yucky photo of CC happily digging his nose -Failed. Turned out to be funny photo of weird expression and too-short-a-finger-to-reach-the-nostril...

Failed attempt to take a "boyband" kinda photo... :P

Birdie's "diamond" ring made out of rubbery thing that we blow into balloons... that childhood game if you know what I mean... When it was cold at 404 Clementi house...

Before sessions of "buaya-ing" and crazy singing began...

We crashed in our pretty red car... help us! :D

"I think Thunder fell into the well..."...

"Really? Let me see..."

"Hellooooooo?!"

Modelling newly-bought jacket :D

And the many videos I'm not allowed to upload... Well, I'll keep them for self-entertainment... whenever I miss any of you.... :)

Random

2008-05-04T10:04:00.004+08:00

Random 1:

Let's start with the story of my father. Last week, I vomited twice in the morning probably as a side effect to Tramadol. Other than that and a little pain, I felt fine. My mom told my dad about the vomiting and he got all worried. Then, he read the newspaper about fruit poisoning and he got even more worried. If you read the news, you would have heard of the starfruit poisoning in China and I ate starfruit like 2 weeks ago! So, he called my mom and insisted that she bring me to the hospital. I was taking a nap. He insisted to talk to me on the phone and my mom woke me up. I was only half awake when talking to him on the phone and he thought I was so weak from vomiting and pain that I had no energy to talk to him, thus lying in bed. -_-"

I told him it's the side effect of the pain meds but he did not believe.

After a while, my phone rang and guess who called me. My Head of Department! She asked me how was I and whether I needed her to accompany me to the hospital. Then, she asked whether I drank fruit juices in the morning that I vomited. I was quite surprised that she knew I drank fruit juice and somehow convinced me that I might be hyperkalemic (high potassium level) due to the fruit juice (although I didn't consume any high K fruits...). I did not want her to come and I did not think it was necessary to go to the hospital too. So, I told her I'll contact my Dr and let him know I vomited.

While I was talking to my HOD, my mom was talking to my dad on her phone. After I ended my call, my mom told me my dad CALLED MY HOD! No wonder she knew I drank fruit juice -_-"

Did not know what my dad told my HoD but she sounded like I was in very bad condition. So tired of explaining to them that I was fine but just experiencing some side effects of the pain meds. I messaged my Dr and asked him to call my HoD to explain to her my condition and if my dad called her again, she can then explain to my dad. Luckily Dr is nice.

And I was angry with my dad for a day... Hmprh!

Random 2: Yesterday night I went for after-dinner walk with mom as usual. I did not bring my handphone out cause it was a short walk. When we were near the basketball court, I saw a familiar person walking towards our direction. It was Winson, who bought desserts for mom and I! Luckily we bumped into him. If we had taken another route for our night walk, Ws would not had been able to contact me. Mango + pomelo dessert! :)
and another sesame + peanut dessert :) So nice! Thanks! :)

Ws leaving for Japan tomorrow! I want to see sakura in Japan.........

Random 3: Packing up some stuff for my mom to bring back home. Don't think I had posted pix of these souvenirs before.
Wooden doll thing from Germany... that can lift hands and legs up when the string is pulled.. HeHe... :)and this pair of mini clogs from Holland :)

Random 4: Daisy by Marc Jacobs... not the perfume but body lotion :) thanks Khim
Random 5: Instead of studying I click the mouse a thousand times in between reading ONE slide! -_-"

Was looking at a bunch of Youtube videos... and this very cute EmoKid pictures! EmoKid... HeHe..

After convincing myself to push the mouse aside, the phone is the next thing to play with... plugging in to listen to the radio... and then talking "wu liao" photos of my room... and my table.. and my wall.. and my wall..

My table and the wall... my bipolar notes... WX's chat window with fishes swimming around... and I was viewing photos from long time ago... -_-"

Random 6:

My mom was clearing her stuff in the fridge and suddenly gave out a cry... I turned and saw her looking into a plastic bag... She poured the content out onto the table....

Her long-forgotten onions had spring onions growing out from them.. She was considering to let them grow longer and cut them out for cooking... -_-"

End of this long, no point post. It was not meant to be like this. I wanted to post about something which I forgot right after finishing the part about my father! Then I left this window opened from morning til now it's 9.40PM, near my bedtime.

Oh yea. Got some things settled and planned today... :)

Good night.

Heart pain

2008-05-03T21:25:00.002+08:00

See this really cute Hello Kitty optical mouse? The ribbons are the left and right click and the cheek of the cat lights up when used.

I saw this mouse on sale about a year ago in one of the many NUS bazaars. It was around S$25 i think. I was SO tempted to buy it although I'm not a big fan of Hello Kitty but this was too cute. My mouse was going crazy at that time. Plus I like the fact that it's a cat mouse.. (cat=mouse?) HaHa. Just thought it's kinda cool to have a CAT mouse. But I thought it was a little expensive and after contemplating for super long time, I did not buy it. I left the stall with a heavy heart. Ever since that day, everytime I see a stall selling Hello Kitty stuff, I will definitely check it out to see whether THIS mouse is on sale.

NO! This mouse never appeared in NUS ever again.

Even after a year, I still think of it. Especially now since my mouse is going crazy again. I was going to shut my comp and rest but I thought I should just google it while it's on my mind.

I found it! On a US online store... selling for USD49.99!! o_O (Thought to myself that it may be more expensive in US cause it's imported from Japan. May be less expensive in Asian countries?)

Wrong! It's selling for S$85.12 at this Hello Kitty shop in United Square!! o_O

Why didn't I buy it when it was S$25 in NUS? Why? Why? Why?

Why is it so expensive anyway?

ONE more paper left! :)

Nice Song

2008-04-30T09:56:00.001+08:00

Jason Mraz Lyrics

Final Examinations

2008-04-26T20:10:00.002+08:00

29th April 2008 (Tue) 5-7.30pm
Natural Products
Format: MCQ + Short Questions
Progress so far: 45%

3rd May 2008 (Sat!) 9-11.30am
Pharmacotherapy III
Format: 70MCQ + 1 SOAP
Progress so far: 20%

7th May 2008 (Wed) 1-3.30pm
Dosage Form Design III
Format: 60MCQ + choose 2 out of 3 long questions
Progress so far: 0% !!

Prediction: Bad :(

Did not sleep well the past 2 nights... Waking up at 4AM (Thurs) and 3AM (Fri) respectively with abdominal discomfort (such a broad term cause I do not know is stomachache or tumor pain or bloatedness etc.)...
Tried to study on that Thurs 4AM but was too sleepy to concentrate.. read 2 pages (quite impressive considering the time) and decided to take 2 Panadols and went to zzz til 8AM -_-"
On Fri 3AM, stared at the Panadol, Panadeine, Tramadol and Lorazepam, deciding which to take... First 3 are pain killers, last one is sleeping pill... Dr's voice in my head, "if you can't sleep due to pain, take the painkiller. If you can't sleep due to more than pain (i.e. thinking too much etc.), take the sleeping pill"
Definitely due to tummy discomfort, but not exactly pain... Finally decided to take a piece of biscuit (probably hungry) and went back to sleep in discomfort... Luckily could fall asleep...
As a result, I had been taking more afternoon naps... Sigh... How to study?

Tumor pain is back yesterday night after disappearing for 2 days.... :(

Please let me pass my final exams x(>.<)x

Health updates

2008-04-22T20:25:00.003+08:00

Saw the oncologist today regarding my pain. Nothing from the scan, tumor is stable. Liver function test is normal except the Alkaline Phosphatase (ALP), but not too high.
Conclusion: Tumor pain.
Solution: Continue taking pain killer. Panadeine is not helping much so I have upgraded to Tramadol, which will also make me drowsy. zzz

However, my 6th cycle of chemotherapy is pushed back to 12th May (after my final examinations).
Reason: If I go ahead with chemotherapy this Wed-Fri, I will be suffering from the side effects next week. I will be very tired since my red blood cells count is quite low. And Dr said I MUST pass the exams and pass him a copy of my degree to be stapled in the case report file -_-" HaHa..

I went to see the doctor in the university clinic to get him to fill in the Special Consideration Form for me yesterday. The form is for my final examinations to ensure that I pass my examinations. The doctor that I usually see had just stepped out of the clinic so I had to see another doctor. Heard funny stories about this doctor before but I had not seen him till yesterday. He was really funny! Anyway, he asked whether I need more time for the examinations and I said, "I don't think so."
Can you believe it?
Later that evening, my lecturer-cum-pharmacist in NUH called me regarding the Special Consideration issue. And she said that I should have asked for more time! -_-"
Sigh.........

All is well now though cause I contacted the Uni clinic doctor for the extra time and he will help me to settle it :)

Got to study hard now though drowsy from the painkiller......................................

Hang in there...

2008-04-20T08:36:00.004+08:00

Today is Sunday again! The week had zoomed past me. It was the last week of school. Last week of my uni life. Last week of my entire education.

Last Sunday, the gang-YJ n gf, JE, CC and SM came to play board games at Red Dot Cafe.. Winson joined us later. We played a "duck hunting" game which was rather easy to play but quite fun at the same time. Then we played "Saboteur" which was a harder game but just as fun... :)

On Wednesday, Khim and I brought KY's birthday cake to their house to surprise her. BUT we got shocked instead cause KY was sitting in the living room and the moment I peeped into the house, I was face-to-face with the one we wanted to surprise. Plan failed -_-"

Anyway, we got a blueberry cheesecake for her which was very yummy! :) Then we had dinner together at Ocean :)

Then, on Thursday I was back in NUH. I was having some abdominal pain since last Friday. But it was just a very dull pain, something like "stitches" that you get when running or walking too fast after a big meal... The only discomfort was I could not lie straight on my back when sleeping. I could only lie on my side. So I ignored the pain till around Tue when it affected my mobility. It became more painful the further I walked. On Wednesday night, it got so bad I could not even lie on my side, thus affecting my sleep.

So, I contacted my Dr and went to see him on Thursday morning. He gave me 2 options; either get myself hospitalised and he would schedule me for CT scan as soon as possible OR go home and take the painkiller strictly till CT scan scheduled on Monday morning. My mother was leaving for Bworth that night, so I did not want to be in the hospital. I chose to go home and take the pain meds.

What's the cause of the pain?

1. tumor rupture which sometimes happen OR

2. tumor grown (disease progress) which is bad

The answer can only be known from the CT scan...

Friday was the last day of school!! I had a lecture from 4-6pm. Despite still having some pain, I decided to go for this last lecture of my entire uni life. The lecturers planned a game for us called "Jeopardy" where we were roughly divided into 6 groups. My group was called "Happy Tree Friends". HaHa. Well, according to the lecturer we were more creative than our seniors who called themselves all sorts of drugs' name like "chlorpheniramine", "allopurinol" etc. We had "Flaming Lamborghini", "No Idea", "AC-Gym Instructor" (insider joke), "Johnie Walker" and "Sleep Club". HaHa!

We were supposed to fight to answer the questions picked and the group who got the correct answer would get the marks as stated on the box for each question. The questions were based on Pharmacotherapy III, of course. And 1 unrelated question which asked the group to list all the lecturers in the Pharm Dept with the surname "Chan" -_-". The winner group would get extra credit! Our group almost won! ALMOST -_-"'

After the lecture, people were busy taking photographs. Actually before the lecture, they were already taking photographs. Then, Khim, Thunder, WX, WY, Bird, YK and I went to Holland V for xiao long bao! :)

-still waiting for photos from people with camera-

Sigh.. I wish I have a camera...

Look what came in the mail on Friday. A postcard from Melbourne. Thanks, Yvonne! :)

I am still feeling the pain at the abdomen. So, now I walk pretty slowly. Well, my Dr always ask me to "Hang in there for me, ok?". Me, "Ok.......". Dr, "Good girl". -_-"'

Random thoughts:

1. Does being a pharmacy student make it easier for me to go through this difficult period? Is it easier to sit through a lecture of economics or something non-medical related than to sit through a lecture talking about "Depression" which list cancer patients as high risk group of having depression while you ARE having cancer?

2. I found out, even after telling quite a number of people about my conditions throughout these 4 months, it does not get any easier whenever I need to tell another person about it.

3. And how to decide which friend to tell and which friend not to tell?

4. How will these friends react to it? Mostly had been nice. Not asking too much and just offering any help I need even though they do not know how they can help. Thanks, people.

5. Had been thinking about this for a super long time. Should I write a will now? Not that I have a lot of money or properties but what about my bank ATM pin number? And things like "Can I have friends and family bring a white rose each for the funeral?"

I like gerbera daisies the MOST but they are too colourful for a solemn occasion.
White roses (not the full-bloomed type) on the other hand are classy and nice cause I like white :) Well, I am not giving up on my life but you would not know what will happen. I hope the pain can go away soon. I still have to study for my FINAL final exams and a lot of things to settle.

Meeting friends before I leave (who should I meet and how to tell those who do not know yet?) ...

Settle admin stuffs...

Eat food that is not available in Msia yet like Ben & Jerry's!

But I had been advised not to take sweet things cause cancer cells like sugar.. -_-
Well, hanging in there for as long as I can! Pray for me? Thanks :)

Happy Birthday Kah Ying!!!

2008-04-16T10:59:00.003+08:00

CM and birthday girl, KY

We celebrated KY's birthday last Saturday (her birthday is actually today) at Suki Sushi... It rained extremely heavily that day and we were half drenched when we reached Orchard Cineleisure... Cine should really consider building a covered walkway to link it to one of the MRT stations... Well, the rain did a good thing by stopping people from crowding for the sushi buffet. So, we had 2 adjacent tables to fit the 12 of us :)

The everyone who went and Weiying who was the one who took these two pictures

Notice the similarity between the above 2 pictures? One had my head from the next table and the second one had CM's head from the next table..HaHa.. We didn't plan it and only realised it when we looked at the pictures =P

Funny pic of only birdie looking at the camera...

The mess we made

No sashimi for me though... But had a lot of tempura >.<>

The Other Boleyn Girl

2008-04-12T19:58:00.004+08:00

Yesterday, I went out ... to civilization. >.<
Our lecturer moved the Friday 4-6pm lecture slot to 2.30-4pm due to great demand from the class. And that, gave us an opportunity for an impromptu movie at 4.45pm! I was a little apprehensive at first since it was Day10 which means my neutrophils are starting to go down and thus my immune system may not be strong enough to be exposed to crowds at a shopping mall.
BUT I so wanted to go watch a movie, plus it's a weekday (although Friday) afternoon. Should have less people. Decided to go ahead and 4 of (Thunder, Swei, Bird and I) flagged a cab right after lecture and off we went to Vivo City :) (haven't been to VivoCity the whole semester!)
Watched "The Other Boleyn Girl". There were only about 10 people in the cinema, which was great! HaHa.. 4 of us had a whole row to ourselves :)
Saw the trailer on YouTube a while ago when I was telling Swei about "Atonement" and she felt that the sibling rivalry is rather the same as in this new movie. Even checked out Rotten Tomatoes at that time for its rating which was not too good; only about 30+% while Atonement's was way higher.

Anyway, the movie was rather good. It felt like a long movie but it was just nicely 2 hours. The actresses were good; besides the 2 leads, the one who played Queen Catherine and the one who played the mother of the Boleyn girls were great as well.
I think Scarlett Johansson is really pretty in this show! I never thought of her as pretty. I think Natalie Portman is pretty although I do not particularly like her but Scarlett was really pretty in this show. Looks better in motion than in pictures, I feel...

The guys in the show are quite pathetic though.. The King... sigh.. The Boleyn brother...double sigh! and the Boleyn father.... zzzz...

Talking about movie, I watched 3 movies on HBO during that 5-day NUH week. HaHa. Instead of studying on Monday while waiting to be CT Scan-ed, I watched "The Hitcher". Typical thriller + chick-flick but rather intense and thus captured my attention for that nearly 2 hours I was drinking the yellow contrast thingy...

I like Sophia Bush in One Tree Hill and I like her in "The Hitcher". Pretty.

Then, on the long chemo Wednesday, I watched "The Weatherman" by Nicholas Cage. Funniest thing in the movie is how he always get thrown at with fast food. McNuggets, sundae, apple pie!
That was followed by "My Best Friend's Wedding"! An old movie but I never successfully finished watching it. All I ever could remember was the airport scene and I think that's like the earliest scene in the movie. Finally, I finished watching it and it's nice!

Nice song :)

Sometimes the strength of motherhood is greater than natural laws

2008-04-10T16:34:00.002+08:00

Swei gave me a calendar end of last year. It was a beautiful one with pretty drawings and meaningful quotes on each page for each day. The calendar is called "A Brand New Day". Some of the quotes had kept me going on when I felt really down. I did not flip through all the pages to see all the quotes because I want to see a new quote everyday.

There were 2 instances when this calendar did kind of shocked me by its presence. The first time was when my neutrophil count was really low and was hoping for it to go up and it went up just in time for chemo. I felt like it was a small miracle and when I came back from chemo that day, I flipped the calendar and the quote was, " Every hour of the day and night is an unspeakably perfect miracle." Exactly what I felt at that time!

This morning, I was lying in bed refusing to wake up just yet. My mom was already up at 5.30AM. She prayed and then started to cut fruits to make fruit juice for me at 6+AM and she slept later than me the night before. Then, it just crossed my mind that a mother's love is so great, so priceless, so unparalleled, so unbelievable. Sometimes I feel that I cannot comprehend what a mom can do for their children.

I woke up, flipped the calendar for the page of the day and saw, "Sometimes, the strength of motherhood is greater than natural laws." -Barbara Kingsolver-

Love your mom, love your dad, love your family, love your friends.

The 9 of us :)

2008-04-08T20:34:00.001+08:00

Birdie, CM, Swei, weiying, KY, Khimpy, Thunder, Me and xia....

The 5-day NUH week

2008-04-05T21:02:00.002+08:00

Health updates

Monday: Was at NUH for CT scan, X-ray and blood tests.
Tuesday: Went back to see the oncologist. Thank you CM, for accompanying me after lecture :) The CT scan continued to show improvements, not as much as the previous one though. Some bigger tumors in the liver are more stubborn than the rest. Dr didn't mention about the one at the tail of the pancreas though and I just remembered I forgot to ask him in the email I just sent -_-" The full report was not out, so I have to wait for the report by email. Tumor markers remained stable, would be better if they had gone down though. Liver enzymes had almost all normalised which is good.
In conclusion, still responding to treatment, so most probably going to go to the max of 8 cycles.
However, my neutrophil count was low. Too low for chemotherapy to be continued the next day. My absolute neutrophil count (ANC) needs to be at least 1.5 x something something for chemotherapy to be continued. ANC that is too low will predispose me to febrile neutropenia where the body will be unable to mount any immune response in case of infection. That is VERY dangerous!
CM and I both gave the Dr a "Huh?!" when he said I need to delay chemo by another week. So, he asked me to be back the next day for another Full Blood Count (FBC) and hope the ANC would have increased by then, which was rather unlikely since my count was only 0.6 x something something..HeHe...
Wednesday: Well, went back to NUH in the morning with my mom to have another FBC done. At 10+ am, the nurse called me in for chemotherapy! which meant that my ANC had increased to sufficient level for chemo to continue. YEah!~
The nurses were all rather curious at my special ability to summon my neutrophils to come out in time for chemo. This was not the first time my ANC had been low when I consult the Dr and shot up the very next day for chemo. The nurses wanted to know what miracle drug I took so that they can teach other patients with the same problem as me.
My tips: no miracle drug or food. Only enough food, enough rest and PRAYERS! plus visualisation. believe it or not, when I pray, I picture the neutrophils coming out from my bone marrow and maturing, then they enter the bloodstream to be circulated to the whole body. Well, it helps if you know how neutrophils look like .. HeHe (go google it)

The bad thing on Wednesday was I got poked 3 times before successfully locating the vein for chemo. Painful! *sobz*
As you go through more chemo, it gets harder to get good veins cause the drugs are so toxic. :(

Thursday: Cycle 5 Day 2. Poked ONCE only, luckily. But was very tired.. slept the entire afternoon and did not feel like eating much. Just wanted to zzz...

Friday: Cycle 5 Day 3. Poked once but just as tired.... Zzz.. some reading for test on Tuesday. Watched some drama and more Zzzz... fainted on the bed at 8.30pm till this morning! woke up near 11pm for a pee and the next thing I know, it's 6am!
The anti-emetic, dexamethasone is supposed to make me unable to sleep. But no effect. 45mins after taking it, I was in dreamland... Zzz...

Thus ends my 5-day NUH week.

Mom had gone home for 2 days.
Time for prayers and zzz... Nite!

Quick update

2008-04-03T21:01:00.000+08:00

Havent been blogging for about 2 weeks. Too caught up in studies and my Final Year Project. A quick update for tonight. Hopefully less tired tomorrow and can blog :)

That Saturday after the nauseated week, the pharmies girls came to have a Chocolate Fondue party! yeah! (^_^)v The 404 girls bought a lot of fruits...

pineapples, professionally cut by KY... and baked by master chef, WX...

Strawberries and kiwis! professionally cut by pretty housewife, Khim and master chef WX again :D

Marie biscuits proudly sponsored by me and bananas, professionally peeled from the comb by me! :D and somebody's hand...

There were also apples...

The main character was chocolate! sponsored by the 404 girls I think...

Some of the happy pharmies with their choc covered fruits... Love this pic the most... Me love strawberries, me love bananas and me love pineapple!

All of the pharmies who came... still like to pose with my "Lan Kwai Fong" road sign even after a year.. HeHe.. rather useful souvenir eh?

Master chef, WX's creative work on Marie biscuits.. cute and nice! :D Packed for those who couldn't come...

Sunday was spent watching drama and studying for Natural Products lab test on Monday. The test was rather disastrous as my TLC (Thin Layer Chromatography not Tender, Loving, Care) plate was not showing the desired results... zzz... But it's over. No point crying over spilt milk..

Mom and dad came back on Tuesday morning. The next few days were spent studying for Pharmacy Practice's one-to-one medication counselling. Topic was on Paediatrics. Was quite disastrous again cause we had to teach the "mother of the patient" how to use 2 types of inhalers for asthma plus counsel her on the use of this antibiotic suspension which comes in granule form. I did not know about it, thinking it was in suspension form. Was practically staring at the reference book, trying very hard to spot any instructions on mixing the granules to make into suspension. Finally, the tutor gave up and changed to another question. -_-"

Oh yea, the whole week was spent preparing for FYP Final Presentation due on Saturday morning. So torturous. Nothing can top FYP as the MOST torturous thing to happen in my university life (well, maybe besides having to cope with cancer and doing FYP at the same time)... Not only presentation was due, FYP poster was also due... So, work work work and non-stop work on FYP. Hate it!

Finally on Saturday, 11.20am, I presented. Presentation was kinda messy cause I forgot my script and I forgot to refer to the script I was holding on. Got scared by the 3 examiners there I guess.. and not being able to answer some chemistry questions... zzzz... But it's over! So relieved that I came back to watch 2 episodes of HK dramas and slept! :D Sunday was blissfully spent watching dramas.. I wished!

By the way, I am watching this HK drama called "Death Investigation Extension (D.I.E)"... rather funny show about this police who has special power to connect with the dead. Not a horror show (I do not like watching horror shows and scaring myself)... Finished 12 episodes and am still waiting for episode 13 to be uploaded... Faster than TVB channel on HK TV now... Wahaha...

Sunday morning, KY, CM, HY and I met Laiyi at Sunshine Plaza to print our FYP posters! While waiting for the poster to be printed, we ate at Victor's Kitchen which serves dim sum. This place is recommended by some blogs. The boss, Victor is a Hong Konger and used to work as dim sum chef in HK till he decided to come to Singapore to sell affordable Singapore-styled dim sum. The dim sum were generally good but some had been modified to suit the local taste bud which is not my taste bud...Zzz.. 5 of us shared one glutinous rice in lotus leaf, one bowl of Wala wala porridge (not the pub in Holland V), 2 baskets of siew mai, 2 baskets of har gao, 1 plate of their famous fried shrimp in some wrapping, 1 basket of char siew bao, 1 basket of chicken feet aka known as phoenix claws, 1 plate of shrimp cheong fun, 1 plate of char siew cheong fun and 1 plate of char leung or yiu tiao chang fen as it is known in Sg.For dessert, we shared 1 bowl of their famous "Pomelo Mango dessert", shared cause we were really stuffed towards the end... 3 of us had chinese tea while 2 has chrysanthemum tea. Why? Cause they don't serve tea in the traditional chinese teapot kind where the whole table gets a pot of tea. Instead, chinese tea were served in mugs! Zzz.... The glutinous rice in lotus leaf is good! S$3. big and affordable. I thought the siew mai were rather nice. The chicken feet was Ok too, tastewise. Out of the 3 plates of cheong fun, I think the shrimp was the nicest. My biggest disappointment was the char leung as I was highly anticipating it after trying my first char leung while in HK. The one I had in HK was super nice!(in the pic above) The one in Victor's Kitchen was zzzz... The yiu tiao was too crunchy and more oil and air than flour... The cheong fun wrapping it was a little too thick for my liking. Thus, the combination was weird... The char siew bao was also not as expected. The char siew was too red for my liking and rather sweet. I like them black and fragrant. The dessert was really GOOD though...a little expensive for such a small bowl S$4 but according to the worker, it's made of ALL NATURAL ingredients which might explain the higher price. But it is good! Could have ordered more had we not been totally stuffed at the end. Didn't get to try the carrot cake though. Hmmm..

Overall, it was a rather OK dining experience. But if you want to go on Sunday, please be early. We were too early. Victor's Kitchen opens from Tuesday to Sunday from 10.30am onwards (can't remember the closing time but it's not too early de) @ ground floor of Sunshine Plaza on Bencoolen Street. When we were eating, the queue was SUPER LONG despite the 2 shoplots extension for more customers to sit. Anyway, we spotted a famous wanton noodle shop nearby too.

Collected our posters after the meal and went home to study for Dosage Form Design III Lab diagnostic test...

Had my CT scan and blood test done on Monday morning before rushing back to NUS to take the lab test. Followed by free tea break to celebrate end of lab sessions and pre-final examinations. Zzzz.. the food was rather nice though! Happy! :)

(More on the hospital reporting in the next post..)

Pictures of my Mickey Mouse organiser which I took a while ago. Had been extremely useful in keeping me with my school deadlines + hospital appointments... Love classic Mickey :)

Got a card from Pei Yong. One of my favourite bears -Forever Friends... fat and cute! :) Thank you!
This pic was drawn by my ever-talented roommate and labmate and coursemate and same surname-mate, CM! And painted by my ever lovely 404 housemates! by using Photoshop :)
Such a colourful and lovely pic! and fairy-tale like. The idea for this picture was started by bored CM and I during the journal club session in school, one afternoon. I drew the rainbow, clouds and sun.. and mountains, while CM modified the rest. HeHe..
And the girls got this pic printed out as an A2 poster for me! Now I can paste it on my wall :)

Ok. The end of my LONG "quick update" -_-"
Too overdue that's why it's so long. Next, updates on my health conditions...

Chemo Cycle 5 Day 2
Time to rest..Zzz

vAgue

2008-04-01T18:10:00.001+08:00

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I did it! -_-"

2008-03-21T21:00:00.003+08:00

Yesterday night.I vomited.Tears dropped down.Nothing to be proud of.so sad.
But I am Ok now. Lab test on Monday.FYP presentation on Saturday.
Another lab test on following Monday.Poster up on Tuesday.FYP Symposium on Wenesday.

CT Scans on the same Monday.See Dr on poster Tuesday.Chemo on symposium Wednesday, Thursday, Friday.
Yay! April!!

Hmmm

2008-03-19T20:45:00.005+08:00

So sick of being nauseated. but still have Jap food craving. --"
no raw food= no sashimi. no raw sushi. Argh!

i like Japanese rice.i like Japanese fish.i like miso soup with clams.

i like omu rice!

i like yakitori!
i like Japanese bento set.

i like mochi!

I miss Japan.

Did not do much today.Slacked.

nausea will go away tomorrow.how do i know?i'm demanding it to leave.

i'm going psychotic.

Most difficult...

2008-03-19T17:40:00.002+08:00

The MOST difficult side effects of my chemotherapy is the NAUSEA

It's so bad, you will wish you can just vomit out everything... But what is there to come out if it's even harder to put things in?
It's so bad that everything you eat feels like they are stuck at the throat. and going nowhere.you wish you can get it out of your system by shitting but there's just nothing.
It's so bad that no food can ease it.no smell or taste can make you feel like eating.nothing.
It's worse when your mom puts in so much effort to cook something you can look at or smell without puking but you just can't put in the same amount of effort to eat them.
It's bad.
It's very bad when the whole range of anti-emetics are being thrown at you and you still can't cope with the nausea.

I HATE NAUSEA!

Thanks to the internet

2008-03-16T20:32:00.004+08:00

Last movie I watched in the cinema was "The Warlords" with my dad... not the best father-daughter bonding session but we BOTH love watching movies.. So, it's the best activity :)

Just finished watching these few movies... Some are rather old... Some nicer than the others.... (1st 3 nicer than the last 2..HeHe)

Want to watch "American Gangster" and "Charlie Wilson's War" after pharmacotherapy test on Tue --" oh.. and "Sweeney Todd" (long overdue)...

THE long story

2008-03-14T20:34:00.004+08:00

So here goes... to the maybe 10 readers of this blog, I think about 2 do not know what exactly happened to me...
don't think you don't matter to me if you do not know this... it may just be that I had not talked to you on MSN recently or met you recently... or your parents know my parents and my parents are not too comfortable getting questioned yet...

Well, this "condition" (as my pharmies coursemates and I had been thought to say to patients) that I have, or "diagnosis" as my oncologist puts it or "dis-ease" as the Healing Transformation guru I nearly called if not for the price tag of S$400 for 3 sessions...

It all started last semester when I had this terrible, more annoying than painful pain all around my abdomen... Sometimes it got so bad I thought I would faint from the pain... Being a stressed out pharmacy undergraduate (sometimes it's not good to know too much that you tend to self-diagnose), I thought it was just gastric problem. But the weird thing was the pain was more on the left side where the most prominent organ is only pancreas. Self-medicated for the whole semester and survived the final exams....

All's well till I went home for the December holidays and the pain came and went. Since I was free anyway, went to consult a GP and told him my self-diagnosis (wrong thing to do!). GP did not even palpate(check by pressing) my abdomen or anything and just gave me gastric meds to take for a week. If condition did not improve, got to see a specialist. One week passed and the pain got so bad on that Sunday I think my parents were starting to get rather panicky.

Saw the internal organ specialist I see about once a year for routine blood test for this genetic disease that's in the family called "Wilson's Disease" (I could have directed you to a wikipedia page but this is a more medical-like.. =P). The moment he palpated my abdomen, he gave me a grave look and sent me to get an ultrasound in the other room. The Dr doing the ultrasound is even "better"! She gave me this very very worried look and told me there are dark areas all over my liver, suggestive of tumors... o_O
She sent me back to Dr with the scans and Dr immediately referred me to Lam Wah Ee Hospital (LWEH)in Penang Island. Dr even asked me to be prepared to be hospitalised immediately. My dad was paranoid! I was not surprisingly cause the whole thing had not set on me YET!

That Monday afternoon (weirdly, I only remembered the days, not dates...), my dad, younger sister and I went to see the Dr in LWEH... did a whole stretch of blood tests... The person at the blood lab counter even asked me whether I was sure I needed so many different kind of tests cause they cost A LOT! Well, how would I know, the Dr ordered them -_-"
Got a chest X-ray done the very same day followed by a CT scan where I had to drink this unpleasant drink (the contrast) so that the organs are more viewable in the scan. Hospitalised that very night. My very FIRST time being hospitalised in my entire 23 years + of existence...
Was in the hospital for about 4 days I think.. Got a gastroscopy done (totally NOT pleasant!)... I was awake throughout and saw my stomach and all.. Nothing in there...
I did a nasopharyngeal scope (through the nose to the throat) before in NUH about 1+ years ago (very much more pleasant than the gastro one)...
Got a liver biopsy done. This was the WORST ever! Still have the scar... Got discharged the day after.

After the terrible episode in LWEH, the liver specialist I was initially referred to in LWEH referred me to the oncologist. The oncologist referred me to Selayang Hospital in KL. I was still rather hopeful that the situation was not as bad as it seemed. But all evidences proved otherwise. The oncologist fell short of saying it's Stage IV liver/ pancreatic (somehow the Drs couldn't agree on one) cancer, instead he said it's Stage III *hesitated while checking his PDA*, well should be Stage IIIb. If you are not familiar with these terms, Stage I is the one with the best outcome and Stage IV is the WORST. My dad tried to be strong and told me it might not be as bad. The Dr in Selayang may be able to help.
Having worked for 6 weeks in the National Cancer Center Singapore and studied oncology pharmacotherapy, I knew what it all meant at that moment. It was as bad as it could get. But it was just a far thing in my mind as if it was not happening to me but to someone I was watching.
It was 24th December 2007 (Xmas Eve).
With such bad news about my condition, there came another blow in the form of the insurance claim. Somehow, my insurance could not cover all my medical expenses due to the change to a new policy which needed some time to take effect. And that some time were only a few days AFTER i got admitted into LWEH. I do not know about the details. I was numbed from all these.

My dad bought 2 bus tickets to KL for 26th December.

First few people outside the family I informed were my housemates in 404. They were almost like my family away from home and they had to know. The pharmer gang was next informed and so was Suwan...
Swei helped tremendously in getting contacts in Sg and checking out all the prices and other possible ways... and also to inform the Pharm Dept. The Head of Dept was away, the 2 lecturers who work in Cancer Center in NUH and NCCS were away too.

One thing led to another, the next thing I know, I was heading to Sg without stopping by at Selayang Hospital. We stopped at KL and immediately bought bus tickets to Sg. It was one of my life's longest bus journey that day. I was tired mentally and physically. I was totally numb.

The pharmer girls who were in Sg were GREAT... The practically helped me arranged things and we met up with Assistant HOD the very next day where he helped to contact the pharmacist in NUH. and this great pharmacist successfully arranged for an appointment with the oncologist the very next morning. Meanwhile, Swei also got me an appointment to meet this private practitioner at Mount Elizabeth Hospital in Orchard that very afternoon. Off we went to see this very nice surgeon at Mt E. After looking through my scans and blood tests, he suspected it might not be liver/ pancreatic cancer but neuroendocrine cancer... well, there are many kinds and if it's hormonally-responsive it has better prognosis (not mine though). Had a late lunch @ Orchard (I remembered this cause since then I had not stepped foot on Orchard yet... )

Finally got to see the oncologist at NUH on 28th December 2007 (Friday)... Went through the scans and options etc.
And he gave us the weekend to seriously consider whether to have treatment in Sg or back in Pg. His rationale, the drugs in Sg and Pg are the same. Drugs are drugs. They are made by the drug companies. During very difficult times like this, I may need family support back in Pg more than anything. Financially, it was another problem. Treatment in Sg meant high cost even if the drugs were the same... If I was to decide to have treatment in Sg, the appointment was set for Wednesday (2nd January 2008)................

Thus started the longest few days in my life... the most torturous few days in my life.... for me and everyone around me...

*phew*

It's getting a little tiring to type all these... (considering today is Day 4 of my 4th cycle of chemotherapy)

To cut the long story short,

2nd Jan: I was back in NUH. Got the plan out and admitted into the ward. Repeated CT scans showed tumor had grew in that few short days.

3rd Jan: Repeated gastroscopy (I was given Fentanyl and Diazepam, so was woozy throughout but could still roughly see my stomach... ) followed by colonoscopy (the optical scope goes up the other way round... through the anus... I was awake the whole time... Not pleasant but not as bad as the gastroscope in LWEH)...
The oncologist (Dr Ben) came in the afternoon and confirmed the diagnosis- Neuroendocrine tumor (poorly differentiated) with metastasis.
5pm- Started my FIRST cycle of chemotherapy. 2 drugs on Day1 followed by 1 drug on Day 2 and Day 3, rest... 21-day cycle.

4th Jan: Day 2 of chemo, parents met Dr Ben.

6th Jan: discharged with slight nausea...

23rd Jan: 2nd cycle of chemotherapy

20th Feb: More than 21 days after the previous chemo due to low neutrophil count. 3rd cycle of chemo

12th March: 4th cycle of chemo

So much happened in between all these dates... Moved out of the Clementi place back to hostel on campus. Seen the school counsellor.

And not to mention buckets of tears in between....

More on the psychological aspect in following posts... Time for prayers :)

graze :)

2008-03-10T19:30:00.009+08:00

Photos from Thursday evening chill session @ Graze, 4 Rochester Park...

Upon entrance, the waitress asked whether we were having dinner or just drinks...

Drinks- and we were directed to the area under the nice white canopy and nice sofa seats...

nice hangers in the toilet ... =P The toilet itself is rather nicely furnished actually...

My "pussy foot" mocktail with Thunder's "Grazing Smile" mocktail and Popcorn Chicken... very old school lamp on the side table...

Giant white screen on one side of the open area showing this old Audrey Hepburn movie.. She is really pretty... with impossibly small waist...

The Drinks place has 2 of these half-covered bed-like huge sofas ( bed-like cause you could almost sleep in it.. ) with many cushions to hug... We hogged one of it for such a long time =P

Well, Graze is really a nice place... but the price is a little high... plus 17% tax.. -_-"

On Friday, the gang came over to visit me + cookies-baking + watch geyao performance in "Super Snack"... and we played mahjong...

On Sunday, WX and XH came to visit in the afternoon... and we played mahjong.... in the evening, WS, HY and KY came to visit... and we played mahjong... =P

Dr's appointment tomorrow.. x(>.<)x

Malaysia Election Day 2008

2008-03-08T20:37:00.004+08:00

This post is not about Election but just heard that my home state, Penang got taken over by the Opposition! :o

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
There are many things that I particularly like.. I was looking for a new blogskin. Not for this blog but was thinking of opening a new blog... to separate the normal things and the abnormality I'm going through now. Well, being the lazy me, this new blog may not be successful. But looked at many blog skins anyway. And I found this particularly attractive. Not really the "see me fly" nor the lyrics scribbled on it. But I like hot air balloons. Especially the colourful ones! And I like old looking testpads with those lines... Nice :) Anyway, it was a terrible week... FYP final report due on Wednesday and my supervisor had not read our first draft even at 4PM Monday. Finally got some feedback from him on Monday evening and rushed the report for the whole of Tuesday and Wednesday morning. Thanks to my great skill in forgetting things, I shed tears on Wednesday morning! Tears of panic and pain... The other time I ever cried over schoolwork was in Sec 4, a day before my Physics exam cause me and Physics just dont click...

Well, I woke up at 6+AM on Wednesday and started my final edit on my FYP report around 7AM................................... ALL the way till 10AM (was supposed to meet Thunder to print the reports at 1030AM @ Central Library). Satisfied with my final report, I proceeded to make the content page by this autoformat thingy I just learned the night before. BIG MISTAKE! The AutoFormat just couldnt get my contents up properly. So, I finally decided to manually count the page to make the content page. And started clicking "Undo". That's when disaster striked. Accidental over-click of the Undo button resulted in failure to re-do. I successfully UNDO EVERY SINGLE LITTLE EDIT THAT I MADE SINCE 7AM! and I DID NOT SAVE along the way. Greatness!

So, in panic-stricken voice I called Thunder and cried. But I rebound in like 3 minutes and furiously started to re-edit whatever I remembered from the morning effort. Done in 1 hr and sped over to Central Library to print and bind the 4 copies of reports. Just in time for lunch. -_-"

Wednesday night was spent mugging for Top 88 Drug Quiz the next day. Imagine cramming information of near 30 drugs in a night. Not Possible!

Swei suggested to go somewhere to "chill" on Thursday night.
Option 1: One Rochester (alcohol! no no... but there's mocktail)
Option 2: Clarke Quay (too far.. tired...)
Option 3: Dempsey Hill (very excited about this cause I was craving for Ben & Jerry's ice cream and there's a new outlet there! big, nice outlet with a cute van in front! But difficult to get there, unless I have a car...)

Ended up at Rochester Park cause it's the nearest but One Rochester was booked for a private function... So, we "chilled" at Graze! a few bungalows down... The restaurants and bars in Rochester Park were all bungalows but converted into the different restaurants and bars now.. Some are still in the process of converting..

No photos from the night yet cause Swei has not sent. But this one above is a collage done by Swei for me :) The first corner actually showed the place's name but cannot be seen due to poor quality of my camera phone. top, right is WX, bottom left is Swei's leg and bottom right is me drinking fruit punch + milk :)

Everybody had mocktail and Swei had tea!

That photo is the 3rd in the series of nice photos Swei gave me. The above is for CNY.
This was the first and my favourite. Very beautiful day. It's on my wall now and I see it every morning to remind me that it is a BRAND NEW DAY and to 感恩每一天！

From 09/02 and they still remember I love this bear. Thanks, ppl!

Interested?

2008-03-02T20:18:00.005+08:00

What have all these things have in common?

They are all WHITE!

and they are all from IKEA!

I own a set of these things... and I need to get rid of them by mid-May... Anyone in Singapore interested in getting these things? I can give them away.. I think... or you can pay me a sum of money?

Or I can give them to the housemates if they want, but I doubt so.

Anyway, descriptions of the items below (and their original prices quoted):

table

VIKA AMON/CURRY
$45.00
The feet protect the floor against scratches. White foil/whjte lacquered steel.

L100xW60, H73.5cm.
Designer: IKEA of Sweden

drawer unit on castors
GOLIAT
$59.00
Drawers with drawer stop. Particleboard with fibreboard drawer bottom.

W42xD40 cm, H58cm.
Designer: IKEA of Sweden

Chair
HERMAN
$19.00
Stackable to save space when not in use. Durable, easy care quality. Polypropylene seat/ lacquered steel legs.

W45xD50, H78cm. Seat H44cm.
Designer: Ola Hermansson

Work lamp
ESPRESSIVO
$15.90
Adjustable shade and telescopic arms. Aluminium/plastic.

Base Ø12cm.

I LOVE

2008-02-29T17:31:00.006+08:00

I love to eat.

I love to watch movie.

I love to sit around and just talk crap with friends.

I love to cycle. The feeling of wind brushing against your face. The feeling of balance, freedom and control.

East Coast Park by novacainepepper

Was trying to take a nap but the mind could not stop from running around. So, I woke up and decided to blog something. Had been opening this blogger page for so many times in the past few days. Everytime I opened this window, my mind decided to stop running and reflected the white blankness of this page. Everytime I closed the window and climbed onto my bed, the mind started shaping thoughts to be penned down.

Why?

I had not been able to say it all out yet. But this one "lonely" mid-semester break got me thinking again. Friends had been busy with pre-registration training interviews. I had been doing nothing but pretending to be sitting in front of my computer busy with work. I need somebody to talk to sometimes but I don't know how. I have to learn.

Anyway, was thinking about the fun times that I cannot have. The movies I cannot watch in cinema. The outings I cannot attend. The food I cannot eat (most painful thought). The rollerblading that I could almost learned but missed out. The concerts I cannot attend.

I love bright, beautiful photographs.

Gorgeous by translucented

I am 23 years 7 months and 21 days old.

I have dreams and I have desires.

I need to learn to accept and let go.

I would love to get a call one day and the person on the line says, "Hwa Chin, 'they' are all gone."

I LOVE miracles.

I had been wanting to blog for the longest time~

2008-02-21T20:14:00.003+08:00

But I have so much to do..

Tests

FYP

Me...

and rest... a LOT of rest.. like every 2-3 hours...

Eating too..

no more Living to eat but Eating to LIVE...

But today I suddenly had the cravings for doughnuts again.. Maybe I should go get it during my better days... Just the original glaze... nothing too fancy.. Heard J. Co is doing better than Krispy Kreme in Indonesia and it's now in Raffles City... Krispy Kreme is not here yet, I guess this should be a good try?
Although the small stall in Clementi smells freakingly like KK... Taste-wise nothing near but they are quite nice... My favourite was Mocha back then.. :)

I'm strong now... So many people had been telling me that I'm very strong. I hope this strength can end with something well, something good.. Give me a happy ending to this!

Back to writing the dreadful FYP report...

Quoted from a Pharmacy alumni, "FYP is to build your character."

Bubbly- such a nice song~

2008-02-19T12:33:00.001+08:00

My tarot card prediction of the day

2008-01-16T18:17:00.000+08:00

"The Five of Chalices card suggests that my power today lies in a crossroads.
I am not alone.
I intend to let go of despair or nostalgia and I choose to make peace with loss or express mourning in order to move forward.
I release the rut of regret and the fear of tomorrow to make way for forgiveness, pleasure, beauty, and hope. I am empowered by my conscience and my gift is forgiveness."

2008

2008-01-01T17:56:00.000+08:00

My most successful resolution from last year is to READ MORE... I did! Thanks to birdie for supplying the books.

All other resolutions failed.

This year, only 1 resolution:

"Be Strong!"

Have a BLESSED New Year...

Life IS a rollercoaster

2007-12-30T10:19:00.000+08:00

So many things had happened since I last properly blogged... So many more uncertainties ahead...

There's the saying "Friends in need are friends indeed."
Going through this very difficult period, I realised I have so many true friends who helped and will continue to help me... I don't think I can ever repay them for ALL that they have done.

Thank you.

Thankful for wonderful family and friendsssss (here, there, old and young).

Bugis, 8AM Saturday

2007-12-29T11:26:00.000+08:00

Peaceful...

I dress sloppily at home

2007-12-12T17:51:00.000+08:00

I used to lug a super heavy luggage whenever I go home from Sg, back in my JC days... Then, I realised I did not read half of the books I brought back.. and I did not wear half of the clothes I packed in my luggage... Most of the things in my luggage remained untouched till the day I had to pack to go back to Sg.
So, these few recent years, I had decided not to pack any clothes back (maybe just a pair of shorts and the neccessary *ahem*). No books too. Just my trusty laptop (sometimes not even it).
As a result, I rely on clothes I have at home which were from many years back and definitely out of style. Not that I am a stylish person anyway.
This time I am home, I realised the clothes are really unbearably out of style... So embarassingly ugly that I looked like a maid when I go for breakfast with my sis. And she, remarked, "You cannot go on dressing like this or nobody will want you!"
Welcome to the cruel superficial world.
Today, I wore my sis's clothes.. Luckily they fit :)

Of old photos and thoughts...

2007-12-11T17:21:00.000+08:00

I checked mail today and found a Facebook notification of an acquaintance tagging me on a photo.. o_O

I don't remember having taken any photo with him before... Nonetheless, I clicked on it and saw the title of the photo album.. Ah! PJ's birthday celebration in Year 1- how embarassing

So tempted to remove the tag.. But that would not be nice to that acquaintance.. But it's not even a likeable acquaintance in the first place! HaHa.. =P

Then I saw another old photo accidentally added by JC friend.. although both photos have the same embarassing feel about them, I was actually tempted to Tag this photo myself.. HaHa :)

Anyway, was looking at the Multiply updates and saw this blog post about Receiving gifts written by a coursemate. In it, he mentioned that Japanese will receive gifts given to them without declining or trying to decline first and thank the giver happily. Is it just Japanese culture? Or is it just Chinese culture to pretend to decline the gift although in their hearts, they actually are very happy to receive the gift?

Well, this blog post caught my attention because I am not the kind to pretend to decline first or I don't know how to pretend... I did not think it was a big deal until a friend asked me, "Why did you just receive the gift I gave you without erm declining it first?"

Erm.. I know my friend is rather funny in asking me such question so frankly..

My answer,"I don't like the pushing back and forth thingy. If you bought the gift for me means you intended to give it to me. So, I shall receive and Thank you!"

Right?

And I am sincerely thankful for the gifts! :)

The other day...

2007-12-10T18:45:00.000+08:00

I was cleaning up after my little nephew.. Then I saw this bag of things that I kept from my JC days... inside was a pack a candles and a "Happy Birthday" plate... Ah! one of the many little things I collected... I took a look at the number of candles in it.. only ONE Big candle?
Must have been 19 years old then.. counted the small candles- only EIGHT! Ah!
18th Birthday Celebration... seemed so long ago... I was once eighteen....

(cute pic circulating in Facebook)

After 7th final exams!

2007-12-05T18:56:00.000+08:00

Cab to Golden Mile...
Cafe Cartel for dinner...
"Enchanted" for movie...
Cab back home at 2AM.....
Late night talk....

Miss Clarity Cafe for lunch the next day....
Ben & Jerry's Chunky Monkey for very belated birthday celebration...
Ten Dollar Karaoke....
Chinatown Glutinous Rice Ball and Fried Koay Teow for dinner....
Fake Karaoke in Thunder's room...
:D
HappYness Maximum!
Hanging out with friends- Priceless, really...

What I love to do the most~

2007-12-01T15:08:00.000+08:00

This has got to be one of the top things I like to do when I have a lot of time- arranging my stuffs!
I store all sorts of stuff from everything and everywhere. So, once in a while, I need to dig all of those things out and decide which I should continue keeping and which should go into the dustbin. Sometimes, throwing things is quite therapeutic especially for someone who keeps almost everything!
So, a few hours before I hop on the bus to go home, I decided to arrange the bunch of rubbish I brought back from Hong Kong.. Had not have time to arrange them since I'm back...

Ok! Some pictures of (useless) things I lugged back from HK and nearly had to pay for overweight luggages... -_-

In very random order...

HK- 吃东西卖东西。。。vegetarian food in temple, dim sum, McD and nice restaurants- the best place I ate in was Lei Garden where my cousin treated us to lobster, giant crabs and very good food :D

Shopping everywhere! Miss TST!

Disney key chain- best souvenir I bought

My "Ho Mei" Choice Krispy Kreme Doughnuts- chocolate iced glazed cruller! can die... when we had cravings for it there, we could just give some friends a call and someone would be at Mongkok to get these ... now? :(

The salt, pepper, sugar, toothpick, napkins I stole from Disney fastfood place.. we played the treasure hunt game and got ourselves a Pirates of the Caribbean gold coin each.. :D

And the "Goofy" entrance ticket.. all of us asked for Mickey but none got one.. the nearest was Minnie..

The only movie I watched in HK.. partly cause we were busy visiting all the places and partly cause it's quite expensive to watch movie there.. HKD60 is about SGD12, about RM28!! And I fell asleep towards the end.. wasted about HKD5 worth of movie time cause I was too tired... But ended up playing till 3.30AM anyway -_-

Madame Tussauds.. quite nice.. if you have been to the one in UK, there's not much to see here.. But I have not been there..

Starbucks!
The post card says "Safe Distance"- almost a non-existent thing in HK! everybody walks so near each other that any emergency stop will cause some human pilling up to happen I think.. Terrible
Some branded things I bought and some grabbed... very nice Agnes B. postcards.. they even have condoms in small boxes but I didnt take.. got a nice pink pencil though.. Have not heard of this brand till I was in HK but apparently it's quite well known there... and expensive larr!

No, I did not buy any "lok hap choi" or bet on horses.. But we grabbed these to be souvenirs.. =P

Many other ridiculous thing that I brought back including a few bottles and cans.. But Jetstar did not allow me to check in my bag pack cause the total luggages exceeded the 20kg per person.. So I had to carry my bag pack as hand carry but ALL my unopened bottles and cans were in the bag pack! Drank up some of the water and threw away some.. Sad :(

My other tiny little stuffs chucked into the pink wooden box.. and some leftover HKD and RMB

"My yesterdays are all boxed up and neatly put away
But every now and then you come to mind"

"Butterflies are free to fly, and so they fly away

And I'm left to carry on and wonder why"

-Sting & Sheryl Crow "Always on your side"-

梁靜茹-會呼吸的痛

2007-11-27T20:03:00.000+08:00

在东京铁塔　第一次眺望
看灯火模仿　坠落的星光
我终於到达　但却更悲伤
一个人完成　我们的梦想
你总说　时间还很多
你可以等我
以前我不懂得
未必明天　就有以后
想念是会呼吸的痛
它活在我身上所有角落
哼你爱的歌会痛
看你的信会痛　连沉默也痛
遗憾是会呼吸的痛
它流在血液中来回滚动
后悔不贴心会痛
恨不懂你会痛
想见不能见最痛

没看你脸上　张扬过哀伤
那是种多么　寂寞的倔强
你拆了城墙　让我去流浪
在原地等我　把自己捆绑
你没说　你也会软弱
需要依赖我
我就装不晓得
自由移动　自我地过
想念是会呼吸的痛
它活在我身上所有角落
哼你爱的歌会痛
看你的信会痛　连沉默也痛
遗憾是会呼吸的痛
它流在血液中来回滚动
后悔不贴心会痛
恨不懂你会痛
想见不能见最痛
我发誓不再说谎了
多爱你就会抱你多紧的
我的微笑都假了
灵魂像飘浮着　你在就好了
我发誓不让你等候
陪你做想做的无论什么
我越来越像贝壳
怕心被人触碰　你回来那就好了
能重来那就好了

My current desktop

2007-11-25T22:12:00.000+08:00

Looks like this:

The pic in the middle is by Athena Dreams... something Thunder found... he/she has a whole collection of these kinda of photos with different colour code.. This is one of the nicest and it's in my favourite colour- Yellow! :)
Really really nice.. Especially the top left hand corner pic of the balloons, the kid in raincoat, the yellow flowers and the one with the man in between flower bushes... :)

And after i uploaded this pic, I realised the clock shows 10.10 which is the standard time you see on almost all clocks and watches on sale... Someone told me before that it's an agreed thing between all clocks and watches sellers... If you have noticed, all the advertisements of clocks and watches show 10.10 AM/PM ... Something to do with the artistic look of it, i think.. =P

And many people asked whether my laptop is an MacBook due to the taskbar that swings around when the mouse pointer hovers over it... It's NOT, although I wish I'm using an MacBook... will change to an MacBook as soon as I'm financially capable... :)

One more paper on Thursday! Losing some momentum to study but got to persevere! Jia you, my friendS :D

The 5-lettered word

2007-11-16T23:00:00.000+08:00

My friend had been having some GI (gastrointestinal) problems lately. She can't really eat and feels nauseated. These few days, she had diarrhea... So, dear friend went to see a doctor. After checking, the doctor told her,
"Aiya, it's nothing. Just 5-lettered word."

Friend: o_O

Doctor: S.T.R.E.S.S.

Friend: double o_O Doctor, you don't know how to spell ah. Stress has 6 letters.

Doctor: Oh.. no.. I wanted to say Tired...

-___-"'

My final examinations starting on next Saturday! Feeling the 5-lettered word now =P

pictures first =P

2007-11-15T21:12:00.000+08:00

Final examinations

2007-11-10T20:32:00.000+08:00

picture courtesy of dhavatar from deviantART

Last week of school and I have 3 presentations and 2 quizzes in 4 days!

Lucky_1_by_Qwerg

Straw stars... Have you made them before? I can fold paper stars but straw stars are difficult to make..

Phobia

2007-11-06T00:49:00.000+08:00

A phobia is a type of anxiety disorder. It is a strong, irrational fear of something that poses little or no actual danger -Medline Plus-

This Phobia List are some of my own phobia..

Acrophobia- Fear of height --> this phobia got me thinking whether phobia can be genetic.. My dad is afraid of height and my uncle is also very afraid of height... But then, many people are afraid of height...

Telephonophobia- Fear of telephones--> Actually I fear talking on the phone, especially to strangers. So, I can't really call up a place to reserve for dinner or call to complain about bad service... I can talk on the phone with friends and family but I prefer to SMS.. and when i talk on the handphone, my finger is always on the "Cancel" button, ready to end the call anytime.. Weird but true!
o_O

Brontophobia- Fear of thunder and lightning --> not really but since I complain so much about loud thunder noise, I got asked before a few times whether I am really afraid of the thunder...

Phronemophobia- Fear of thinking --> I was looking for the right word to describe my new phobia.. Fear of things, words or images that evoke bad memories... I just learned a new phrase while doing my chinese homework and I realised this phrase had a very strong connection with a feared memory, so I tend to make my brain skipped through it.. like xxxx it.. -__-
Can't find the word for my new fear, so i guess the fear of thinking is the nearest i can get...

Read somewhere before that phobia are usually to cover up very bad memories that we had when we were young. Truth or fiction? I don't know.
I guess phobia is as mysterious as dreams...

So tired of mining data for my Final Year Project that I decided to post something...

What do you call the Fear of being thrown sour plums?
and Fear of dead fish?
HaHa

Red Dot Cafe

2007-11-04T14:20:00.000+08:00

The new hang-out place in NUS is this small, cozy cafe at Prince George's Park Residences' air-conditioned canteen....
The hand-painted wall with drawn world map on it and many strings joining all the different locations on the map to Singapore-the red dot on the map!

the Menu on old-school blackboard, written with coloured chalks... and one of the bosses serving you today :)

The counter- Red lamp, tea collections, coffee grinder (a gift from the Pharmers) and a small Xmas tree cause Xmas is near! :)

The menu?

Coffee, cakes and pastries...

Black Forest Cake! as yummy as how good it looks... with Rum in it- most probably the most alcohol you can get on campus :P

Belgium Chocolate Fudge... melts in your mouth.. not too chocolatey with a tinge of alcohol taste *grinz*
Iced Mocha.... for those who prefer less strong coffee and more chocolatey taste...
Hot cappuccino... frothy on top, smooth inside.. with the right amount of coffee taste.. and the design on the froth is even nicer now... sprinkled with cinnamon or cocoa powder :)
Ice Blended Mocha.. chunky coffee beans in smooth cream, coffee, chocolate and milk :) You like coffee, you'll like this.. you like chocolate instead, you'll still like this...

These are only the few we tried on.. More on the menu like the highly recommended hot chocolate for non-coffee drinkers.. and also the darjeeling tea...

We tried the Burritos which were GREAT! esp the Seafood burrito...

There also pie and puffs..

Tuna puff......
Chicken pie- i like this!

Curry chicken puff- spicy and yummy...

We also had the hotdog with premium sausage... with mayo :D

If it's your birthday, you may even get a free scoop of ice cream with whipped cream and a candle on it! :)

So, if you are reading this and you are in NUS, drop by Red Dot Cafe !

Naraya or Malaya?

2007-11-03T16:50:00.000+08:00

SW: The brand of this tissue paper bag is Naraya.. you can get it from Vivo City.. or you can get it from Bangkok, where it's cheaper :P

Me: Hmm.. Naraya.. sounds so familiar.. *mumbles to self*- where had I seen it before?

WX: *nudges me softly and whispered* Naraya is Malaysia la...

-_-"

Happy Birthday to Ms Wong!

2007-11-02T20:27:00.000+08:00

My lab partner, my roommate :)

The birthday girl and I waiting for the bus...

Dinner was at Brotzeit @ Vivo City.... cause we promised to bring the birthday girl for a drink and the beer here is nice :)

The mango beer... smooth :)
Thunder and I decided to try something different since we had the beer the previous time we were at Brotzeit.. so, we chose the Schnapps and it turned out to be a shot! (We actually planned to share it.. --")
All the food!! We had a Seafood(with prawns, anchovies and salmon..) German pizza, German dumplings in mushroom stew, sausage platter for 2, Sausage with mashed potato and sauerkraut (which was a wrong order by the waitress cause we ordered grilled chicken instead... ), and pork knuckles... ALL the food was soooo good! HaHa... :) 很幸福！

clockwise from the left: Bird, KY, WX, Swei, Birthday girl, Thunder and I !! :D
Birdie serving the birthday girl.. HaHa... It's her birthday after all.. so, we have to entertain her :P

Wanted to have desserts in Bakerzin but they couldn't get us a table for 7... So, we packed cakes and ate them outside Vivo near the fountain...

Pretending to have candles and making wish! :)

On the way back home....
Normal.....................................

...

....

..........

Scary! :P

Happy Halloween!

2007-10-31T23:12:00.000+08:00

Swei came on Sunday night to play and be our professional manicurist... She always bring nice cheesecake for us.. this time, she bought Tau Sar Piah for us! I like this Singapore version of tau sar piah (actually prefer the salty version but this sweet version is just as nice)...
The few of us watched "Stepford Housewives" together... It was a rather enjoyable movie though the plot is so-so and maybe a little absurb... But the perfect house and lawn and kitchen.. and the mountain of colourful muffins! :)

There was no class on Monday but I went to school to do my FYP and study... Khim came in the afternoon and brought us a bag of chocolates from her cafe :)

Some of the chocs we took out and the pack of strawberry-flavoured chewy sweets WX bought... Met Xue Hui and the HO gang for dinner.. Haven't eaten with them for a long time... Kinda miss the time when we were in the EXCO... always eating supper after harmo practice.. and the cycling trips we had.. Now, nobody wants to go cycling with me anymore (or actually nobody is free to go..)

Came back to study for Chinese test on Tue morning.. The test was more difficult than expected.. or I did not study hard enough... Only practice all the characters once.. :(

Promised Thunder to watch piano concert that evening but I was too tired.. almost fall asleep in Pharmacotherapy class... went home to study for dispensing lab instead... At 9PM, dear housemate-Birdie decided to cook green bean soup.. I don't like beans generally but her soup was rather nice! :)

It's great to have housemates who can and likes to cook... Feel pampered:)

Today was my last dispensing lab ever!! (^_^)v

Our dear lecturer mentioned in class that he will give bonus points to students who turn up in Halloween costumes! The normal dress code for dispensing lab is formal (to look as much like a real pharmacist as possible)... Well, a pharmacist can be considered rather scary...
Our dear class rep decided to plan for a costume theme. So, everybody was supposed to wear all black.. black top and black bottom.. Many people adhered to the costume code and she went to ask the lecturer for extra points for those in blacks but he did not agree :(

After lab, CM and I rushed home and then to Macpherson Road to meet Agnes... Agnes was going to treat CM to a birthday dinner and CM asked me along :)

It's an Italian restaurant called "Finalmente gastronomia"... the restaurant had opened for only about 2 weeks... The design inside is rather simple.. with minimal decorations on the wall-1 very nice big photograph of a lady and 1 colourful wall painting by a pizza chef... There are 2 sections, one at the front and another private area behind the curtain... The Italian boss and chef can be seen walking around in the shopfront, entertaining the customers... With such great service, there is NO service charge! and NO GST! The prices of all the food are nett prices! Save up to 17%... The nett price is not even expensive in the 1st place!
The food?
Great!! (even forgot to take any photos as we just start to dig in and almost lick the plate clean..)
We had
1. salad- 'finalmente' antipasto with Focaccio bread and chicken slices
2. Pasta of the Day- ink pasta with squids and clams
3. 5 Cheese Pizza with cured ham
4. suckling pig with shredded cheese and mushrooms
5. dessert- tiramisu and chocolate cake

The 3 of us shared all the above.. the chef was nice enough to cut the 2 pieces of cakes into 3 portions and decorate them so nicely for us! It was just great :)
I personally like the salad a lot cause the bread, the chicken and the vegetables go very well with each other... The ink pasta was special and the suckling pig was something different... The 5 cheese pizza was nice too! especially with the thin slices of ham on it..
The dessert was superb! I like the Tiramisu more than the chocolate cake.. the mousse was very light and fragrant... But if you are a chocolate-lover, the chocolate cake is wonderful! and very sinful! :P

We felt sooooooooooooooooo full after the meal... There were 2 pieces of bread left so we asked the chef to pack and he kindly add 2 more pieces for us-packed nicely in 2 separate boxes for CM and me! :)

The bread inside for the housemates :)

Thanks Agnes and CM! :)

G.I.R.L.S.S.S.S.

2007-10-29T12:17:00.000+08:00

2 tests tomorrow! >.<

2007-10-25T21:02:00.000+08:00

When I get bored in the library, I just whip out my camera phone and snap all the things around me... Thank you, XH for the Jap biscuit :)
Had Americano from Starbucks today (the new outlet opposite Bugis Junction)... Happy! ^_^

"Turn Back Time" by Aqua

Give me time to reason,
give me time to think it through
Passing through the season,
where I cheated you

I will always have a cross to wear,
but the bolt reminds me I was there

So give me strength,
to face this test tonight

If only I could turn back time
If only I had said what I still hide
If only I could turn back time
I would stay for the night. For the night...

Claim your right to science
Claim your right to see the truth
Though my pangs of conscience,
Will drill a hole in you

I seen it coming like a thief in the night,
I seen it coming from the flash of your light

So give me strength,
to face this test tonight

If only I could turn back time
If only I had said what I still hide
If only I could turn back time..
I would stay for the night

The bolt reminds me I was there
the bolt reminds me I was there

If only I could turn back time
If only I had said what I still hide
If only I could turn back time
I would stay for the night

Almost normal again...

2007-10-23T23:45:00.000+08:00

Yesterday, I decided to be alone and away from everyone for a while. So, I decided to skip lecture and be at home alone. It was rather nice. I did some studying and then went to take a long afternoon nap. Just doing things at my own time, own pace.
Met CM after her lecture to go to Ikea to buy frames for our puzzles. The puzzles had been occupying one whole long sofa in the living room. So, to avoid further complaints from fellow housemates, I decided we had to get the frames! Had dinner at 4.30PM :)

Chinese class this morning was as boring as usual. The lecturer decided to show us a movie while waiting for the rest of the students to come. There were only 4 students initially!
I actually helped the lecturer who was having trouble using the computer to play the movie (with CM's help, actually). The lecturer was rather impressed with my computer skill leh! :P
At the end of the class, she showed us some very old chinese books and she said we could keep them if we want. I took one :)
Bought a G2000 shirt from Bazaar for S$3!! Ridiculously cheap :P

Today's weather was really really very good... The temperature was just nice with a slight cold breeze and calm wind...
How I wish the weather here is ALWAYS like today's! I told CM I could walk anywhere with such beautiful weather :D

When we came out from lecture, the weather was still nice but a little more sunny... Then we realised the clouds were white and puffy! like white cotton floss :)
We seldom see such nicely formed clouds here...

The long stairs we take to our secluded seminar room almost everyday. Not as bad as the one in CUHK though... The CM with bright orange bag waiting at the bottom of the stairs :P

The Lessons We Learned in Life~

2007-10-22T09:16:00.000+08:00

I woke up late this morning maybe cause I was drained out yesterday. The first thing I did was to jump up from my bed and on my computer. Without taking a breath, I signed in MSN to check my hotmail.
I wrote an email yesterday night, after thinking for the whole day and discussing with YJ. He even gave me some poetic lines to start my email with. I finally decided to put in all my questions and thoughts into the email and hopefully get an answer. I told YJ I don't want to leave this feeling bitter and I want to clear my doubts before I can be at peace with myself.
I wrote, deleted, wrote and deleted. It was harder than I thought. I read and re-read to make sure what I want to know are all inside the email.
Although I did not expect a reply, I hoped there would be one.

This morning, there was only 1 email in my inbox and it was THE reply. It was as long as my email itself as answers to each of my questions were stated out.
After reading it about 3 times, there is a weird mixture of feelings inside me. Can I really be at peace now that I had cleared my doubts? Can it all go back to normal now?
I found out that I actually knew what had gone wrong! I found out what is the problem with me, something that I had not fully accept myself because nobody had confirmed my suspicion about it.
Then I realised, these are lessons in life. Each lesson makes me understand myself more. I want to be a good person to everyone, and maybe in the process had tried to conceal too much of my own feelings. I am scared of commitment and yet I want to feel the sense of belonging.
Maybe I am such a confused soul who had yet to learn enough lessons in life.

What am I going to do next?

I guess it's time to end this life tutorial continue to the next class...

Singapore Pharmacy Congress

2007-10-21T19:09:00.000+08:00

The 19th Singapore Pharmacy Congress was being held on Friday till Sunday.. We signed up to be volunteers so that we can attend the congress for free.. :)
We took turns to go and today was my turn... CM and I woke up at 6+AM to take the 7AM bus to Grand Copthorne Waterfront Hotel...

We were so blur when we reached there but a nice lady directed us to breakfast .. HeHe! :)
Breakfast was great! Various kinds of dim sum was served.. with nice coffee :)
After breakfast, we attended a few talks and it's break again! There were nice doughnuts and missed my second of coffee.. i guess pharmacists are all coffee addicts! they practically grabbed all the coffee cups there..
After break was a few more enlightening and interesting talk.. especially the one by Prof Ian Bates, Head of School of Pharmacy, University of London.. Why don't we have such interesting and inspiring lecturer?!
Lunch was great! Birdie came back from the Congress yesterday and told us the food was horrible cause it was too DELICIOUS! yea, my friend has some problems with expressing herself :P
There was no salmon today but in place of it was mullet (just as nice)... and the chocolate mousse was superb! nice mango pudding too.. But my stomach wasn't feeling too well, so I didn't eat as much as I normally could.. Sad..
We left after tea break... Too tired -__-

Met many NCC pharmacists today.. and the pharmacist from Guardian where I worked nearly 2 years ago! Nice :)

Anyway, one interesting thing today while we distribute certificates to the congress delegates was this piece of cert below..

Lucy Liu (actress famous for her role in Charlie's Angels) was at Singapore Pharmacy Congress!! HaHa .. didn't see the real person though cause she hasn't come to collected her cert when we left.. :P

----------------------------------------------------------------------
Digressing from the educational stuff, below is a personalised Milo made by my employee, Swei.. as you can see, I am "boosy"- an affectionate variation of the word "Boss". Yepz, I'm the Boss! :)

Our house was very fortunate yesterday as our neighbour gave us a huge tuna pie and Swei made us a cheesecake... Both were EXTREMELY DELICIOUS! I feel very fat today cause of the over-eating.. :)

And my friends had been really patient to listen to me yesterday... I re-told my story to a grand total of 5 people yesterday and another one this morning... Got scolded by CM cause I kept everything inside me instead of sharing with them..

I am terrible to myself... Really

I didn't want to disturb my roommates, thus decided not to tell them even though I was feeling terrible... and I think a lot...

Took a long bus ride home alone just now and on the way, I thought of a lot of things... There are things that I want to do but don't know is right or not... Who should I consult? My friends? I don't know.. It's so hard to express myself sometimes I just decided not to explain them... and keep it inside till maybe one day I just explode and kill myself.. suicide bomber o_O

-The end-

The funny (crazy?) things we do

2007-10-20T08:50:00.000+08:00

There's some thing about dates and time that is rather mysterious and intriguing.. Like how a certain date is your birthdate and it's very meaningful to you... Like how a certain date is your first time attending a live concert...

I remembered watching a Korean drama and the leading actor told the leading actress that whenever she sees the clock and it shows 11.11 (PM/AM), someone is thinking about her at that exact moment... Isn't it such a nice thought?
The next time you glance at your watch and it shows exactly 11.11, you may realise that a small smile had just formed across your face. Why?
Everybody (almost) loves to be missed once in a while...

I haven't been posting on my blog for a while now... Many things had happened.. Did some crazy/ unbelievable stuff with the girls... Bought something I had never imagined myself wearing yesterday... Volunteered to do presentation... Many birthday celebrations.. Resumed swimming at the Clementi Swimming Complex :)

But why am I posting so early on a rainy Saturday morning?

My initial plan to go swimming was ruined by the rain which started at the exactly same time that I was to wake up and get ready. Plan B to sleep in was disturbed by this tugging pain in my stomach, probably due to the mooncake we ate late yesterday night.
I woke up not feeling like doing anything at all today. I felt like sleeping my day away and hiding in my secluded bed under the blanket. But I could not!
I could not sleep well after what happened last night (early this morning to be precise).
It's exactly 3 months where everything started and on the exact same date 3 months later, it's official gone.
It was clear and I cut it totally clean, which in the process had broken my own heart.
You always think you can do something until you are really in it and you realised all that advices you had given your friends are all rubbish.
It is ALWAYS easier said THAN done!

Stop this heartache overload....

You're a mystery, you're from outer space, you're every minute of my everyday

2007-10-13T13:27:00.000+08:00

On Wednesday, the pharmer girls and guy went to watch "LustCaution" at Vivo City. Singapore is showing the censored version also showing in Malaysia and China.. sianz.. The past week's newspaper were filled with arguments about showing the censored version instead of the full version here.. Some said it was to get more ticket earnings, some said the distributor only submitted this version to the board for ratings... Sigh...
We were rather disappointed to miss the much anticipated sex scene but then the movie was still quite good without that climax...

Both Tony Leung and Tang Wei were great! They were practically talking with the eyes in the movie... I still can't really get over the seducing effect of Tang Wei's eyes... It was innocent yet seductive...
There were a few classic moments in the show... Like when Tang Wei told Leehom, "You could have done it 3 years ago, but why didn't you?"
That was painful! Really!

Leehom's performance wasn't really convincing as everytime he appeared on screen, it reminded me of a pop music video instead of a serious movie...

Other than that, the movie is quite well done with much attention paid to all the tiny details.. like suitable background music, scenes, and languages... -there were Cantonese, Shanghainese and English on top of the main Mandarin dialogues...

Go watch it if you haven't... It would have been even more emotional if it was the uncensored version.. =(

---------------------------------------------------------------

The 4 housemates and I went to eat dinner at Pizza Hut yesterday... Haven't eaten at Pizza Hut in Singapore for a long time.. It seemed like their pizza quality had improved... and they have this nice Ice Peach Tea (with peach cubes in it)... Since the Pizza Hut was located right opposite K Box, we were so tempted to go over and sing karaoke after dinner... But, we are all kinda poor, so we came back home and sang K in the room! Got the MVs from Youtube and blast it while we sing along! HaHa...

But, I'm depressed... My singing had been critised a lot these few weeks... It seems like I really CAN'T sing in tune at all! =(

When I sing this song at home, my friend said I made it sound la-la even though it's such a sweet song... --"

Michael Buble - Everything lyrics

Enjoy.

Blessed is he who expecteth nothing, for he shall enjoy everything

2007-10-07T17:08:00.000+08:00

I'm OK, really :D

Yesterday night the girls and I went to Holland V for dinner... ate Katong Laksa... was suppose to eat Xiao Long Bao after that BUT only WX and I were keen! :(
So, we decided to buy bread instead and then we saw this 30% discount for cakes at Crystal Jade Bakery (after 8.30PM).. We bought a Black Forest Cake..
For what?
Just cause we wanted to eat cake --"

Then, we had this BRILLIANT idea of celebrating Winson's birthday earlier! Cause he lives very near us... although his birthday is on the 15th and yesterday was 6th! HaHa... So, we celebrated Winson's birthday 9 days earlier.. He thought we remembered his birthday wrongly :P

-------------------------------------------------------
Today, Birdie decided to make custard for us! I volunteered to help.. So, the custards are made by Birdie and me :D
We just tasted it a while ago, and it's surprisingly OK! (^_^)v

Practising my Chinese now.. going to have a test on Tue ...

Photography

2007-10-02T21:21:00.000+08:00

Some time ago, I posted this photo in one of the posts...

A few days ago, I decided to try imitating that photo... The only round mirror I found is this ugly blue one.. and the "Life of Pi" book on my table...
Taken with my 2MP phone camera...

Definitely not as nice, but not bad for a first try =)
Since this photo has been displayed on my friend's MSN pic, I guess this is a rather successful try (^_^)v

什么是幸福？

2007-09-30T16:15:00.000+08:00

me: 幸福是抱着一罐Ben & Jerry's 一次过吃到完！

幸福是喝一杯 Starbucks 的咖啡。

幸福是和你一起吃甜甜圈。

KY: 幸福是你眼里的星星

WX:幸福是不用做工，不用烦，不用想，不用读书，什么都不用做！

不断的付出, 不断的努力, 不断的牺牲, 忙碌的过生活。。。也是一种幸福

G: i think is being loved by someone you love...FOREVER (我的爱也包括亲情和友情。。。)

K: 幸福是你开心，你身边的人开心. 发自内心，知足的幸福

Good things come to those who wait... But great things don't!

2007-09-30T00:04:00.000+08:00

HaHa... The title has got nothing to do with the post... =)

Coming back from home this time around had been quite fruitful.. After being down for so long, I finally let go! (^_^)v

Came back happier and stronger (?).. HeHe...
Went shopping at Orchard today~ Haven't done this in a long time... Haven't gone shopping with KY+WX+HY+Khim for a super long time!
After shopping, we went to eat at Bakerzin, Paragon... =)

We walked past this promotion for a new perfume... I am not a big fan of all this expensive perfume thingy but this one totally caught my eyes.. and my heart!
Firstly, the smell is nice..not too overpowering...
Secondly, it's by my favourite designer- Marc Jacobs...
and Thirdly, it's called Daisy- my favourite flower!

And the bottle is so pretty.....
I had been thinking about it all the way back... till now...
I guess I really like daisies...
So nice! =)

Some other nice photos I found online.....

Had been thinking about how the photographer took this pic... HaHa... If you want to take a pic like this with your bf/gf, how do you go about doing it? Quite a difficult task... But, the end product is so nice =)

This one is easy but the end product is still fantastic.. I bet it put a Smile on your face, cause I know I smiled when I saw this... =)

Back in Singapore, again...-_-"

2007-09-29T10:06:00.000+08:00

I am back in Singapore, again! In these past 5+ years, I had been in Singapore more than in Penang :(
Anyway, back here to enjoy the last few days of my mid-sem break... Back at home, I did nothing but sleep, eat, read story book, shop and watch tv... It's fun but boring after a while... And very fattening!

Some photos before the break, in blk 404 :)

My apple that is rather distorted cause it has a very slim bottom and fat top.. rather like a Heart-shaped apple <3

In school,

my new pasar malam sandals... and CM's ... waiting to enter the seminar room ...

CM, me and HY... trying my camera phone... can snap rather nice pic if the lighting is right :)

A friend asked me before why I want to take off my spectacles when I take pic.. Well, as you can see from this pic, the specs blocked my eye.. Somehow, my ears are not of the same height on both sides.. So, my specs is lopsided :(

a nice lotus blossomed out of a balcony along the department's walkway...

During the break at home,

a series of my nephew... very playful! :)

I reached Singapore yesterday morning and followed the 2 housemates to Central Lib to do some work.. very hardworking?
Actually, I just didnt want to stay at home...

Met Rui (exchange student from Sweden from my Chinese class) for lunch and he got CM and I a souvenir from Bali... It was a very exotic souvenir indeed! HaHa...
For dinner, the 3 of us decided to go to Bukit Timah to try out the place where Birdie had praised so much about... BUT, the place was already closed when we reached there! Ah! So disappointing... We went to eat at the 2nd best place there... The food was OK and not expensive... But still, we were disappointed to have come so far...
After dinner, we went grocery shopping at the NTUC...

And I took this pic of the fridge area in NTUC selling Ben & Jerry's....

To compare with the fridge in my house...

Ben & Jerry's! *yummy* :)

When I am at home~

2007-09-24T11:29:00.000+08:00

My posts are always about my favourite niece and nephew.. HeHe...
It's really hard to take photos of these 2 kids nowadays... the niece refused to be on camera.. the nephew can't stop moving around...
finally, I took this photo as my niece was not looking! :P
Niece wearing the dress-top I bought from H&M, HK :)
It's such a cute dress (can be a top when she's taller, worn over pants.. ) ...

Then, she turned around and scratched her neck.. HeHe.. She has short hair now although she looks nicer with long curly hair... :(

Niece turned and strike a pose long enough for me to take a good pic! :)

Mission accomplished... for small sis who is far far away in Johor to see our niece...

2nd mission is to snap photo of my nephew.. Has yet to obtain an un-blurred pic of him... -__-

可愛

2007-09-20T00:14:00.000+08:00

咖啡已經溫熱不再靜靜在一旁發呆

連風也停留窗外等待

電話也已經喧鬧不在靜靜在一旁無奈

時鐘也不知怎麼停下來

期待突然醒來有你溫暖依賴(有愛可以依賴)

只是愛與不愛在徘徊搖擺

我想你明白可能不是愛我想你只想找個替代

你都說自己並沒有那麼可愛

我想你明白這並不是愛我想你忘了什麼是愛

我不過是可愛卻還不夠被愛

The SICK weekend!

2007-09-17T15:20:00.000+08:00

On Friday, after the test on Nutrition Support, I went to Khim's room before meeting my sister at Science Faculty.... In her room, I ate a cup of cup noodle.. was supposed to share with her but then she put on make up and refused to eat! o_O

Met my sis and friend, CW who came from JB.... Went to Subway for dinner.... But the cup noodle spoilt my appetite already..

Me and Chien Wen @ Subway~

Me and sister @ Subway~

Ended up eating these cookies only...

Met up with SM and CC too.. then we proceeded to the student activities center to watch JE's Acapella concert! We were there early, so SM, my sis and I went over to the Jap restaurant to grab the half-priced sushis! :)

The Acapella concert was NICE!!! really enjoyed it :)

After the concert, we went for supper at Fong Seng.. Had not been there for a VERY long time! Had nasi lemak (which was the culprit of my sickness).... Met Alex on our way there and he joined us at FS... After supper, we went over to Alex's room @ Sheares Hall cause he wanted to treat us eat mooncake! HeHe :)

We played a bit in his room... while SM tried the skincare stuff he has...

Reached home at about 12+AM and lazed around talking to my housemates till 1+AM!!

the next day, had to wake up at 8AM cause was meeting CW and JE for breakfast at Clementi! woke up with a bad stomach ache... actually the stomach ache woke me up at around 4+AM :(

Went ahead with the breakfast anyway.. then, sent my sis and CW off before going back to my house.. started to get a very very bad stomach ache on my way back.. I could not even walk straight...

But, I followed KY to the library anyway~ It was a decision I regretted later as I felt terrible in the library... Went back home, alone... CM was at home but she left for movie in the evening... I was all alone in the house.. sick... Slept til 7PM and woke up to make something to eat.. only ate half a bowl of my pasta... then watched tv till the others were back...

On Sunday morning, I woke up with a headache but no more stomach ache! Took my temperature and it was 37.6C- Low Grade Fever... -___-

Took 2 Panadols and went to PGP anyway to use the internet... Felt OK for the whole day... until at night.... I started doing my puzzle with CM but I started to have muscle ache... Ended up sleeping at 10PM! When I woke up at 1AM, the puzzle was already done! ALL 500 pieces of them! HaHa

Nice! Thanks CM :)

Went back to sleep at 1.30AM till this morning...

The Singtel ppl just came to set up our internet connection.. There were some technical problems.. but it's all done now!! our own fast internet connection at home!! :)

old song....

2007-09-13T22:06:00.000+08:00

如果你还爱我
演唱:光良
作词：光良作曲：光良

我带着一颗疲惫的心走了

我知道自己在你心里已不重要

虽然我们曾经相聚过

也许对于你来说

已经没有什么值得回忆

我带着一颗沉重的心走了

我知道自己没有勇气道别离

虽然我们曾经拥有过

但是对于你来说

已经没有什么值得回忆

难道早以注定

不能真正拥有你

难道我真心付出一切

只为了承受孤单和寂寞

我知道你不敢对我坦白

是不要看到我的伤怀

虽然你没有说要离开我

我已经感到你不再属于我

如果你还爱我

你不会对我如此的冷漠

又怎会让我在漫漫长夜独自徘徊

如果你还爱我

你不会对我如此的冷漠

我只能含着眼泪

默默的离开

Berblog

2007-09-12T23:22:00.000+08:00

Sesudah memblog dalam bahasa cina, saya teringat yang saya tidak pernah berblog dalam bahasa melayu... bahasa yang saya paling fasih (beberapa tahun dahulu)... sekarang, bahasa pertama ini semakin hilang dalam kehidupan seharian saya....
Tatabahasa sudah lama tidak berada dalam otak saya yang kecil ini... Hari ini, saya mengingati bahasa kebangsaan saya...
Hari ini saya harap bahasa inggeris saya lebih bagus... Hari ini, saya harap boleh mengguna bahasa berbunga-bunga untuk memaparkan perasaan saya...
Hari ini, saya tahu bahasa melayu saya sangat teruk! Ah! Memalukan sekali!

---------------------------------------------------------------

Attended the NUS Harmonica Orchestra Impressions concert at UCC... Performances were alright... some were more entertaining than others...As usual, alumni performed better...

Housemates and I went crazy with our jackets just now... acting as stalkers dancing in a club... took some crazy photos and a video... :)

My orange Adidas jacket, her green Adidas jacket... but I miss the warmth and smell of the black Adidas jacket...

Doughnuts, coffee and a nice book :)

2007-09-10T18:52:00.000+08:00

Doughnuts after dinner on Thursday~

On Saturday, Thunder, Bird and I went to Central Forum to study...
fish biscuits that Bird bought... nice nice :) Healthy food according to her...
We were happily studying and researching for our FYP at Forum when this big bunch of ppl started their activity... They were so noisy, we had to move to somewhere else... And it was difficult to find a place with plugs for our computer... Finally, we decided on Arts Canteen...
There were very little people in the canteen and we were able to sit near the balcony area where you get to see the sea view~
It was a nice place... with breeze blowing~

I occupied a table by myself while the other 2 used one table.. :) I LOVE my laptop, my Starbucks tumbler and my Espirit pencil case!

STAFF area from 12-2PM everyday...

We came back from school at about 6+PM... ate dinner and laze around... at 9+PM, I decided to take a nap but I fell into a deep sleep... I could not bring myself to wake up.. When I did, it was 10+PM... But my whole body was still so weak.. only my eye lids and fingers could move... So, I continued sleeping and the next moment I opened my eye, it was 8AM Sunday! Slept for ELEVEN HOURS!!! o_O

Gave tuition to Karin in the morning.. In the afternoon, KY, WX and I went back to Prince George's Park Residences (my old hostel) to use the Wireless internet connection... cause our house is temporarily internet-less.. Waiting for the new internet plan to come on 17th... :(

Joined YJ and gang at Pit Stop, Clarke Quay in the evening... for YJ's pre-birthday celebration... played 2 games... It was quite fun :)

Food was alright...

Will go back to play again... :)

This morning, I had doughnut(again!) for breakfast... with coffee :)

Mocha-topping... my favourite!

Was studying in the kitchen this morning... Still reading the book I picked up before I left for Hong Kong.. my entertainment in between stacks of notes and journals ... from an innocent kid's point of view.. rather refreshing book...

After coming back from Hong Kong, I actually finished another book,"Five People You Meet in Heaven".. cause I forgot about this book... HaHa.. and my housemate recommended me to read a book about Relationship!

Happy that one of my housemates is like a mini library in the house.. After this book will be "Life of pi" :)

Simple things in Life~

2007-09-06T21:32:00.000+08:00

I'm back to typing in English...
Yesterday I received a mail from CUHK... It contained my results for the 2 modules I took during summer school... surprise Surprise- I got A- for both! HaHa! So surprised!
Cause we really "tried" so hard to study amidst all the other attractions.. We really only studied hard the night before the exams... Slept for only 2 hours and off we went to take both exams... Feeling nauseated at the same time o_O

Today, my housemates and I went to Clementi Market for dinner... All of us had the satay and sesame oil chicken (both recommended by a TV programme on food...) the satay was nice! the sesame oil chicken was O.K... There is a big pasar malam (night market) at Clementi Central now due to the Malay fasting month... so many kinds food sold! :)

CM and I each bought a pair of sandals there... and we bought doughnuts for supper :)
Then, we made watermelon juice once we reached home.. from the HUGE watermelon that Raymond got us for housewarming...

HY, KY and I had a session of girls' talk after that... Used up 1+ hour of my time and lotsa energy... finally settling down to do some work...

没有矿泉水的第18日。

2007-09-05T22:04:00.000+08:00

晴天。

今天又喝了咖啡。咖啡苦苦的。喝完了还是去装了一罐矿泉水带去班上喝。

今天心情不太好。

不能读书也不能睡觉。

quoted from my friend's MSN nick: "想念是一种病."

I wish I can stop~

In mixture of chinese and english :)

2007-09-04T23:59:00.000+08:00

"没有矿泉水的第17日。

晴天。

今天，一口矿泉水都没喝到。。。我开始慢慢的convince 自己不再想念他了。。。"

我又在lecture 睡了。

晚上去了 JC 朋友的家 gathering！真开心！好吃的食物很多！又有白酒和红酒。。。吃喝玩乐后，还有朋友送我回到家去！认识会开车的朋友真好！:)

Learning to type and write in chinese :)

2007-09-03T16:07:00.000+08:00

" 没有矿泉水的第16日。

雨天。

今天我喝了咖啡。我以为放手了！

可是。。。。。"

Today's lecture was kinda boring...

Rat-a-too-ee!!

2007-09-01T12:30:00.000+08:00

Yesterday night, met up with the CUHK Summer school gang...

went for dinner at Queenstown... we ate quite a lot... the usual thing we do whenever with this gang of people.. eat, eat and eat.. :)

The food was Ok.. some were better than others..

After dinner, we took a loooong bus ride to Dhoby Ghaut due to the massive jam... Most prob caused by Comex 2007 (some computer and eletronics fair that had been attracting a lot of attention and PEOPLE!)....

Finally reached The Cathay in time to collect our pre-book tickets~
Before the movie, we dropped by at Ya Kun for a round of coffee and toasts.. :)

Then, it was RATATOUILLE!!

The animation is so real! and SOO CUTE!! the storyline is quite nice.... and FUNNY!! the whole cinema which was jam-packed was roaring with laughter all the way!!

Especially the last few parts.... It was hilarious! and heart-warming at the same time...

It was plainly good :)

Go watch it...

If you have to let it go, walk away~

2007-08-30T20:37:00.000+08:00

I found that phrase from my friend's MSN nick...

The difficult part is walking away. The more difficult part is deciding to walk away. And the most difficult part is deciding to let it go~ (for me at least.. )

I guess I can't YET...

so, I was finding for a photo with 3 legs to photoshop it into something for a friend... Didn't get anything suitable from Google.. got a few OK ones from DeviantArt .. But gave up after photoshopping for a while..
Then, I was talking to another friend on MSN and introduced him to the deviantart website... And he found me this cute cat photo.. with 3 LEGS!! I didn't think it was suitable at first.But I put in the words anyway and it looked cute!

Cat with 3 cute legs...and paws...

Then I realised my friend likes photography and these are 2 photos I like most from the few he showed me...

A couple with their child on the beach... What's in the photographer's mind when he took this? Contented? Happy? Lonely?

Looks like 幸福 to me 。。。

And this lonely lock photo is my favourite! For one, it is quite weird to find only ONE locked mailbox among the many many mailboxes... And this photo can represent so many things...

It can be an locked heart... Waiting to be unlocked..

It can be loneliness.. Being the only lock there.. HaHa

It can be security? :P

I like nice photos... :)

Half of the people at home are sick!

2007-08-28T23:12:00.000+08:00

There are 6 people at home and 3 are sick now! All of them had or are having fever now... one with suspected throat and lung infection.. one with stomach flu and one with headache, nausea...
Now I'm feeling rather unwell too.. Had some muscle pain and thus I went to sleep from near 9pm-10.45pm... Didn't want to wake up... Sigh

I was still feeling alright in the day.. After lecture ended at 4pm, Bird suggested to go to Vivo City for dinner!
It was drizzling and there was a Silver Cab right in front of lecture theatre dropping a passenger... So, we jumped onto the cab and off we went to Vivo.. feeling guilty and excited at the same time.. HaHa.. Haven't been to Vivo for a long time and wanted to find things to eat for dinner too...

We decided to go try the much-hyped doughnuts... Erm.. nothing special.. in fact, i felt that it was not sweet enough, the doughtnut itself is not solid.. a bit airy.. How can YJ said it's better than Krispy Kreme's?!?!

Did a little shopping around before having our dinner at Food Republic... rather early dinner.. (feeling hungry now.. o_O)... Grocery shopping at Giant, then back home...

Was rather happy today.. good food, some shopping and great friends' company make a girl happy :)

a whole day of talks~

2007-08-27T22:52:00.000+08:00

All year 4 Pharmacy students had to attend a Safety Induction Talk today... The talk stretched from 9AM till 5.30PM! with 3 breaks in between... there was food only for the LAST break-Tea Break... :(
The talk was so boring I fell asleep a few times...

One interesting thing I observed early this morning.. I was wearing a plain yellow top.. Gladys was wearing a plain red top and KY was wearing a plain green top!
When we arranged ourselves in a straight line, we look exactly like the traffic light! HaHa

At the end of the talk, we had to sit for an open book test... we have to pass in order to go into the lab for our dispensing session and for those doing lab-based FYPs...

Thoughts......................

My friend commented yesterday evening that I looked happier now.. more cheerful..

I felt so too.. Was it the effect of coffee or was it really cause I cleared my doubts?

But today I slowly start to wonder whether this "lightness" and cheerfulness I'm feeling now is real or is it just something I pushed out to hide something beneath...

Trying too hard to be optimistic .................

feeling L.O.U.S.Y.

2007-08-26T14:02:00.001+08:00

That's me...
Once in a while, I'll tend to do something I'll probably regret in the long run.. Once in a while, I'll do something so stupid I feel like burying my head in the ground... Once in a while, I just do things that's totally out of the norm...

The past week had been a troubling week for me... I had been thinking about a lot of things... Besides delaying my momentum to start mugging.. and also missing my summer holiday... And the PMS added on to all the LOW points in my daily life...
I started to feel uncomfortable.. I'm not my normal cheerful self... I don't find joy in things I do.. it was especially bad cause I was broke! my scholarship money had not been deposited into my bank account.. thus, I could not even eat good food to counter my depression...

Yesterday night, I plucked up enough courage... after 2 nights of alcohol drinking (plus plenty of nausea and headache and lack of sleep).. I confronted my problem... my point of confusion... my LOW point..
I did what I only do once in a blue moon...

I got the answer to the questions that had been bugging me...
It was not the perfect answer, but at least I'd got an answer... Did that clear my problems? Did that lift me out from my LOW points...
Did I regret what I did?

I guess not.
There was no regret for what I did to get the answer..

There is just a feeling of emptiness now... a feeling that it's over now... Will it ever be the same again?

I really hope the rainbow will come out after the thunderstorm.

Feeling rather lousy :(

at least i can start to concentrate on readings now...

National Museum of Singapore

2007-08-25T17:18:00.000+08:00

Today, I became a tourist in Singapore and visited the National Museum with Thunder and her friend... :)
Very very fun place! not a very big place.. not much artefacts but definitely very high-tech... $5 admission fee for students..

My Nephew!

2007-08-14T18:17:00.000+08:00

My nephew is 9 months old...
Sometimes he may look blur... Or act cute... and always get bullied by his older sister~
But, most of the time he loves to SMILE~ :)
and SMILE!! especially when you call him "Teng Zheng", "Zheng Zheng", "Baby" or " di di"...

My nephew is a HAPPY baby! :)

Back @ Home

2007-08-10T13:07:00.000+08:00

Finally, after plane ride and bus ride I'm back at home! Back in Butterworth! Have not been home for about 3 months. The previous time I came back was before my preceptorship started. That time I came back for 4 days. This time, THREE days! Argh!
The feeling to be back at home is always GOOD!
:)

last few days in HK

2007-08-05T00:25:00.000+08:00

Had not blogged for a very long time! first it was busy sight-seeing.. then busy with exams.. then busy with Farewell Party! every night! Had not been sleeping enough recently as a result..
Anyway, the first one to leave in our closer group of friends was Meng! a "F.O.B", which according to him means Fresh Off the Boat... unlike ABC (American Born Chinese), FOBs are not born in the US but migrated there.. in Meng's case, his family migrated to US when he was very young.. so, he's almost 99% like an ABC..
Just received an email (actually 2, cause he sent another personalised one for the Malaysians -Thunder and I) from Meng.. to everybody who's in the pic.. a very funny email.. and touching at the same time.. Quoted from him "Hong Kong was a LOT of fun for me but only because I had y'all to mess around with there."
The most precious thing I got from this summer school was Friendship! very very fun friends..

and experience of course... :)

Not many people left in hostel now.. Will miss all of them badly.. but will see the Singaporeans soon.. maybe not as often cause uni startin soon..

Going to post the other pictures soon.. and write about them but there are just TOO many pictures taken.. some are in my Facebook.. not in Friendster though cause need to resize the pictures which is troublesome..

Wednesday-HK Museum Day

2007-08-02T03:36:00.000+08:00

01-08-07
Every Wednesday is Hong Kong's Museum Day and entrance to all the museums are FREE!~ Since we had class every Wednesday, we could not make use of this Museum Day to visit the many museums in HK... finally, on the last Wed we had in HK, we made it our Museum Day...
But, we (HY, Irene and I) woke up late.... So, we only had time for 1 or 2 best museums.. According to the guide book, the ones in Top 10 must see spots include Science Museum, Space Museum, Museum of Art and Museum of History... From information we gathered from friends who had went, the history museum is the best and space/science (?) museum lousy..
So, off we went to TST where the 4 museums are located nearby (after lunch at University KCR Station Maxim)...

1st stop: HK Museum of Art
Reached there about 2+pm... Was not difficult to locate this huge building at the end of the Nathan Road... where all the nice hotels are in TST~

This is like THE only photo we had of this museum... Cause not allowed to take photos in the museum itself... There were a lot of artsy stuff... even bumped into Zhenghui and Yun Loong in the museum! While Irene walked around as if she's shopping for paintings... examining the paintings and commenting on whether it's lousily drawn or not.. HaHa
Yc came to join us after his lunch at Shatin :)

Next stop: HK Museum of History
This was almost like the Wax Museum at Sentosa, Singapore.... The concept is for you to walk through the history of mankind.. and then to HK... walking through different era...

It's a fun place! We got to act like we were from those era... see us buying some stuff from a traditional shop~
Met Stephanie and bf, Raymond, and some Taiwanese friends there! With Raymond in front of a traditional tailor shop :)
Oh! I'm the shortest -__-"'

Old street with old shops on both sides... old traditional chinese medicine shop.. old pawnshop... nice!
old tea house...
old school mailboxes! red and nice :)

red and nice (again)!

tram! in the museum :)
huge stamp on the wall...
This is HONG KONG :)

We left the museum as it was closing for the day at 6+pm... We walked over to the Victoria Harbour for more photo-taking...
Beautiful afternoon... Irene and HY went on crazy phototaking spree! While Yc tried to scare me by telling me ghost story in broad daylight! HaHa :)

Traditional ship~ We can actually board this ship but reservation was needed and the places were all full til after the date we leaving HK :(

Me and the beautiful Victoria Harbour HK........... Missed it soooo soooo much!

It was such a fun and sunny afternoon! :) Irene snapping HY snapping her... o_O

Last stop: Harbour City (dinner and movie)

Irene left 3 of us to do her shopping @ Harbour City~ the 3 of us walked around... shopped a bit (HY bought Adidas stuffs for her bro)... then time for dinner

"FRESHNESS BURGER"

a Japanese fastfood restaurant... at the basement (or ground floor) of Harbour City...

HY and I had the Teriyaki Chicken burger with pumpkin bread while Yc got the Fish burger... cuppaccino + cinnamon coffee :)
the pumpkin bread burger is so nice! soft, sweet and tasty!

After dinner, we met Zh to watch "Transformers"! Yc actually watched it before but... he liked it a lot..HaHa

I actually fell asleep in the cinema! at the very last part where the robots were fighting.. Why? too tired i think~ played too much...

Movie ended late and we took a cab back to i-house... Went over to Yc's place to get some anti-emetics (was feeling nauseated for a while..)... It was 1+am when I walked into my flat...

Guess who I met the moment I opened the door?

KH and Jimmy were in my flat! Waiting for us to come back! Their gang came back from Shenzhen with lots and lots of stuff.. and my polka Dot PORTER bag! So happy! Many of the NTU gang were leaving the next day... KH bought Belgian Waffle and HM bought Krispy Kreme.. there were also beer.. and other food... It was farewell party for them... (It was near 2AM o_O)

I was dead tired but I could not say No to Krispy Kreme! I could not say No to food.. I could not say No to my last night with this best group of friends I made in HK... So, we all went down to the party venue-Blk 1 Level 1 :)
The Malaysians with the Singaporean- our supplier of food, entertainment and air cond! :)

Tonight I didn't play bridge cause my brain had really shut down... I didn't drink beer too.. I just ate the doughnut and waffle... I left at 3+AM while the rest were still cooking supper (or breakfast?).. I promised to send them off at 8AM the next day... Said my goodbye and went back to HY's room to sleep (cause I was afraid to sleep in my room alone-->another story)

I didn't wake up in time to send them off the next day. Yea, I'm a bad person :( But I'm going to see them back in Singapore anyway, so it's not that bad.. HeHe

CUHK ISS 2007 Farewell Dinner

2007-07-31T23:54:00.000+08:00

It was initially scheduled to be on a Saturday but changed to Monday! The day before both our final examinations.. Sigh.. But then, we are on exchange!

After all the dressing up and make up, we made our way to the bus stop outside i-house to take the chartered bus to the hotel at Mongkok... Me, HY, SH, Irene, with Jimmy at the back cause he's too tall..
We could not get up on the first bus.. so, we had to wait for the next one to come.. the other people who were at the bus stop too..
The girls~ We reached the hotel ballroom....
Had to wait in line to register our names... So, we took a big group photo! (my eyes are closed..sigh... )
The food! it was a buffet dinner...
and more food...
and even more food.. i love sashimi... salmon sashimi... and sushi! :)
There were a lot of food but I didn't eat to my full capacity.... Mainly due to the not-too-comfortable dress.. and also we were busy taking photos with everybody!

The few of us went on photo-taking spree.. catching anyone and everyone we know... :)
SH grabbed anyone who's good looking! HaHa :P

Yingchao (Intro to Financial Markets classmate from Sg) and me ... we were on the same dinner table...
Kee Hong (my favourite xiao di) and me :)

Me and Lion! (Taiwanese friend who's very cute! He was trying to act cool by not shaving off his moustache and wearing sunglasses)
HY, Stephanie (my Taiwanese flatmate who's very very cute and super nice!) and me..
Me and Raymond (Intro to Financial Markets classmate who's American but studying in McGill, Canada)... He likes to speak in Mandarin to me and HY.. o_O

The Malaysians!! Me, Msian clan head- Sze Huey and Huiyie-the acting clan head... :)
Me and cute cute Jiaxin (Fundamentals of Chinese Medicine classmate from NUS!)

Me and Jimmy (self-claimed Mr Big Head from Sg... )

Me with Dexter (a teenager we talked to on our cultural trips, from Canada with Hong Kong parents...)
me, Jackson (from the Singaporean gang), HY, Yanru (Sg who can sing very well) and KH...

Meng (the only American that matters.. :P) and I
HY, me, cute Soma! (from the Office of Academic Links, in charge of some of our welfare and this farewell dinner!) and Irene...

on the stage...- CUHK International Summer School 2007 Farewell Dinner *sobz*
Me and Ryan (Australian Chinese we clubbed with at Lan Kwai Fong ;P)...

Jennifer (Pharmacology student in US + Intro to Financial Markets classmate)...

The girls at the lobby... before leaving the place...

Hui May (cute girl from Sg+ my flatmate..), HY, Dickson (another officer from Office of Academic Links) and I at the lobby of the hotel....

A few of us took a cab back first cause we had to study for examinations... The rest went to Lan Kwai Fong for drinks... But they didn't stay til too late cause everyone was kinda tired.. So, they bought supper (McD) back... HY and I who were still studying at the wee hour went down to grab their supper! LOL

That night, HY and I slept at 4AM and woke up at 6AM to continue studying! Surviving the whole night on Portuegese egg tarts given by Yc + coffee provided by Irene :)

The examinations the next day was quite a killer.. 1st paper was in the morning- Fundamentals of Chinese Medicine... We were given 2 hours but I left after about an hour.. Cause I had nothing more to write.. After the exam, i felt very nauseated.. probably due to lack of sleep the night before! But I still had to study for the next exam in the afternoon.. The afternoon paper was worse! There was another batch of students who took this exam earlier (on Friday).. Thinking the paper would be the same, my dear classmate gave me a lot of tips, esp on the essay questions... BUT the prof changed the exam questions! so- DEAD! HaHa...

Singaporeans in HK

2007-07-29T23:46:00.000+08:00

28/07/07 (Saturday)
Even though it's a Saturday, we didn't have any plans for the day because we would be having TWO final examinations on Tuesday!

After coming back from lunch at Coffee Corner and meeting Merlin at Chung Chi College library, HY and I went back to our room to "study"...
HY ended up taking a long nap that took up her whole afternoon while I ended up playing table tennis with Financial Markets classmate, Yingchao and KH! My whole afternoon was gone just like that... and still no studying done yet...

After table tennis session, HY and I went out to meet our Pharmacy coursemates who came from Sg for holiday!

@ TST

the coursemates and us! Angie, my ex-JC classmate came too! :)
We went for dinner together and shopped a bit at TST before sending them off at the MTR station...

and my plan to study had once again failed! o_O

Liverpool @ HK Stadium!

2007-07-28T00:59:00.000+08:00

27/07/07 (Friday)

It was THE day I had been waiting for!! I was going to see Steven Gerrard in person! (^_^)v

I was going to see my favourite football team ever- Liverpool!! playing right in front of my eyes...

It was the last week of lectures and we had a presentation in the morning.. Was supposed to sit for the final examination of Intro to Financial Markets as well but we were given the option to sit for the paper on that day or next Tue... I chose the latter.. Why? I don't know..HaHa

The presentation went alright as each person were only given 2 minutes to talk! I was the first to go in my group and the introduction of members already took 1.5 minutes! o_O

After all the presentations, we took some photos with our classmates... My project groupmates! - (clockwise from top left): Derek, Xuejin (both from NTU), Fred(from CUHK) and me! We had to invest HKD100 000 into the HK stock market as our project (virtually.. not for real but the price of the stocks follow the Stock Exchange of Hong Kong's).. our group lost about HKD100+ ... It was a fun project.. except maybe the written report part..HaHa... :)

Huiyie, Merlin (from Macau but studying in CUHK) and me! Merlin was our cute cute classmate in both the Intro to Financial Market module and Fundamentals in Chinese Medicine module.. He skipped many of the Chinese Meds class and we took the lecture notes for him.. In return, he promised to treat us to tea but he's such a busy man! We didn't get to claim the cup of tea but we'll wait til he comes to visit us ;) Merlin was my permanent source of cantonese practice... He spoke only cantonese to HY and I... I found it rather difficult initially BUT it was a super good experience.. :)He got a shock when we spoke to him in Cantonese the first time! and he thinks Malaysia is such a unique place cause we can speak so many languages... HaHa :D

After all the photo taking, HY and I rushed back to i-house to meet the rest of the gang... due to some misunderstanding the day before.. and a sudden increment of people who wanted to join us for the football match, we had to split into smaller groups... the Malaysians got splitted from their normal bridge kakis... 3 of us + Jeremy + Edward + Jiaxin went to Shanghai Street @ Jordan for dim sum lunch before proceeding to HK Stadium~

The restaurant we wanted to go to was closed for the afternoon tea time! We were devastated and very hungry...

So, we settled on the nearest and best looking restaurant...

Me and Sze Huey~ the 2 in white top
Hui Yie and Jiaxin~the two in yellow top
Jeremy and Edward~ the 2 guys...

We were super hungry.. frantically ordered a bunch of food so we could start eating.. :)

Mini egg tarts... looks big in pic but is actually mini sized ones... but still nice :)

and presenting the dim sums!

with abalone slices...
xiao long baos with carrot slices as the base... but not tasty.. -__-

everything else was nice though... there was this super nice spring rolls that i dont have a pic on.. probably snapped up too fast by the hungry people before the camerawoman could take a pic...

small, medium, large all at HKD 7.50 each! nice :)

After the filling brunch +tea time, we proceeded to HK island...
Once we reached the nearest MTR station to HK stadium (Causeway Bay? or Central? can't remember loh..), we met some of CUHK ppl... so, we waited for everyone before proceeding to the stadium.. It was the wrong decision though.. Because our walking speed was so different, there was no point waiting for them.. So, the 6 of us went on our own...

The huge huge crowd all walking to the stadium together... many people were wearing Liverpool jerseys..
the back of Jeremy, HY and me.. following the crowd...
passed Caroline Hill Road.. don't know where's that...

Finally, we reached the HK Stadium!! and we presented out tic at the Student Ticket Holder entrance... HKD100 = SGD 20 = RM45 for a Liverpool match! cheap :)

people were fast filling up the stadium.. the red part at the bottom are South China team supporters (not Liverpool's)..
3rd-4th placing was between Fulham and South China team... the captain of South China team is my new idol.. cute and talented! he won the Man of the Match that night :)

At 8.30pm, the much awaited match started! Everyone was so excited and high...

And our seats were so good! Basically, with cheap student tickets, the seats are not too good.. our assigned section was directly behind the goal... So, to see the whole match, we should sit higher up.. But, we decided we wanted to see the players more than the match.. We sat at about the 3 or 4th row from the net! and the Liverpool players on the bench were warming up right in front of us! at the small small grass part behind the goal net! WaHaHa.. ecstatic!

The star of the night- Steven Gerrard! everytime he turned over, the crowd went crazy! He spent of his time warming up at the little field.. and spent only the last 10 minutes in the match!! Ah! It was a goalless draw at the end of 90 minutes...

Penalty shootout followed and Gerrard was the first to go.. and he SCORED! :)

But the rest of the shootout was a disaster...

Liverpool LOST! unbelievable...

The Man U fans - Jeremy and HY were happy.. the rest were not.. :(

I left the stadium, hungry, sweaty and sad..

Met the rest outside the stadium... and the whole big gang of us went to eat supper at Shatin...

We reached i-house around 1+am and they few of us decided to play bridge after we take our shower...

@2am- KeeHong's room~

only four of us kept to our promise to play!- HY, KH, me and Zhenghui ... we played and played and played.. by the time i looked at my watch it was already 4.30AM! But at that time, we were all very high from analysing our strategies and some wanted to win more... So, we continued playing and by the time we felt tired, the sun had already came out!! it was 6AM when we decided to sleep.. ZzZz

I woke up at 11AM cause was supposed to meet Merlin to get his textbook to study for exams!! Then the same four of us with panda eyes went for lunch at Coffee Corner :)

BBQ @ CUHK i-house

2007-07-27T01:24:00.000+08:00

26/07/07 (Thursday)
It was nearing the end of our 6 weeks in CUHK.. Irene decided to organise a BBQ as a pre-farewell for everyone.. A big gang of Singaporeans, some Taiwanese and the 3 Malaysians.. oh.. and a few Americans, but only one matters (as quoted from him!).. Many of us were going to have examinations soon... But, we are on exchange! So, no studying yet.. :)

Irene (the organiser) and Starla- both from Taiwan~

the small BBQ pit.. it took us soooo long to start the fire.. the hungry ppl ordered pizza and we ate that first.. nearly gave up on the BBQ until a master came to help us! Yeah :)

and this is Caroline.. the cute cute fire fighter.. cause everytime the aluminium foil's on fire, she'll save them... HeHe :)

I sold beer for the night.. Heineken~ HeHe

After setting up the fire, we had good food! Yeah~

Then it was photo-taking time...

We wanted to take a professional photo of a future pharmacist and future doctor..
BUT

our dear future doctor is accusing me of sending the wrong message by wearing a beer T shirt!

He refused to be in the same professional team as me.. But then, he regretted and actually thought that my T shirt was quite cool... HeHe.. and I know more medicines than him! YEah!

So, he decided to cooperate with me.. and we can form a very good healthcare team.. :)

Me with Dr. Chen Meng ;)

Kee Hong (my supplier of food! and bridge kaki), Irene, me and Jimmy (the big head :P)

We ate and talked.. and played badminton til after midnight...

Then had to go back to sleep cause we had a presentation the very next day! and I had not even done up my script.. ZzzZzz

1 Day Cheung Chau Island Trip + Jap dinner at Mongkok

2007-07-25T18:21:00.000+08:00

Another outlying island tour

Last cultural tour in HK with CUHK

2007-07-21T23:54:00.000+08:00

Lamma Island and Po Toi Island + Seafood Lunch

Ivene, me, Sze Huey (pretending to be really sad... HaHa), Hy and Debbie! @ TST Harbour waiting for our ferry to come.... :)

HY, me, SH and Jimmy in front of the clock tower... see the difference in our height o_O

We took the chartered ferry and our first destination was Po Toi Island.... We spent about 1 hour to reach the 1st island.. On the way, we chatted with the tour guide.. getting information from him of good places to eat.. HaHa! and practising our cantonese speaking skill ;)

1. Po Toi Island

It was a hiking trip as stated in the email... But the weather was about 36C!! Freaking hot!

Meng, holding my umbrella cause he couldn't stand the heat.. while I walked without an umbrella! HaHa

But the view was breathtaking! really really worth all the time under the scorching heat...

This is a very nice photo! the angle and the arrangement.. cause it was taken by me! haha :P

The Palm Cliff.. the rocks resemble the Palm with the 5 fingers... the 4 crazy person climbed nearer to the rock while we stayed on safe ground..
More climbing and more rocks.. then some crazy people decided to take another path to climb up the higher rocks! I was stuck at one of the lower rocks cause I was super scared.. scared of heights ah! Jeremy passed by...
And Jimmy helped my back to a safer rock.. we got a little tired and squatted down to pose for a photo..haha
The crazy people up on the super high rocks!! I was sitting down there waiting for them to be back..

On our way back... view still as breathtaking.. sun was still as warm!

We were all drenched in perspiration when we got back to the initial stop... everyone bought drinks to replenish the lost fluid.. then, it was back to the ferry and about 1 hour more to Lamma Island..

2. Lamma Island
Seafood lunch! :)

the 1st dish was corn soup and the 2nd was chicken! seafood lunch? Where?

Then, came the prawns.. crunchy prawns.. yummy!

this is a plate of super yummy, bouncy sotong ball! they looked so plain but it was one of the yummiest dish that day!

Sweet and sour pork... one of HK ppl's favourite.. always served...

vegetables! after being carnivorous for so long, a little vege was very delicious... HaHA
The best dish- Abalone! 1st time eating a whole abalone although it's quite a small one only.. yummy! (^_^)v

After lunch, we had an optional walking tour to a temple on the island... Before we went on the tour, the tour guide recommended us a dessert stall...

This is very very smooth taufu fah... i don't eat tau fu fah but i tried this and it's superb! if you like taufu fah, this will be excellent! it's called san shui tau fu fah cause they use water from the mountain...

I bought "putt zhai gou" instead.. often hear about it in HK drama but this is my 1st time eating it! I don't like red bean but then this is worth trying.. the texture is very good and the taste is just nice.. not too sweet.. :)

On our way to the temple....HY, SH, JX and me! took so many shots at this point cause the cameraman purposely wanted to make us stand in the sun for a long time! -__-

The cameraman mentioned previously, HY, me and SH.. very green and picturesque backdrop of mountains... :)

The sampans bobbing at the jetty...

3. Tsim Sha Tsui (Avenue of Stars)

We went back to the Avenue of Stars to take more photos of the "stars" on the ground.. the previous time we were here was at night and it was too dark to see the "stars"..

Shadows of Jx, KH, me and Jimmy... nice windy day~~~~

4. Jordan Road- dinner! :)

this is the wantan mee that the tour guide recommended us... it's a very small bowl of mee which we should finish in 2.5 spoonfuls... but erm.. cannot la...

But then it's yummy! not as salty as the others... and the prawns in the wantan is nice :)

After dinner, we went next door for desserts...

Chinese egg custard~ with almond...
Pure chinese egg custard~

I didn't order the custard cause I don't like the one in Singapore! But actually these are SOO much nicer! I like them! But I ordered the fresh milk which is also very nice! :)

After dinner and dessert, we went to Portland Street.. and to Temple Street.. see see look look.. bought a birthday present for WX after not very successful bargaining with the stall owner..
Passed Man Ming Lane... drank herbal tea on the way...

Then SH mentioned she wants to eat Krispy Kreme doughnuts, so we walked to Mongkok! It was a long way and I was super tired...

But when I see the doughnuts, my tiredness disappeared! HaHa :)

I like the one at the top left hand corner.. can't remember the name though.. The pretty 3-coloured ones are too sweet though.. and the one with the peach is not bad..

Coming out from Krispy Kreme, we smelled something very very smelly! Means good smelly tofu were nearby....

I bought the smelly tofu and shared it with Jx.. one of the guys were quite impressed by our ability to eat!! HaHa :)

Another typical 吃东西 day in HK~

2- days post~

2007-07-20T23:58:00.000+08:00

As usual, our Thursday's dinner will be out of campus because we did not have class on Friday :)
This week, we had decided to go to Taipo Market to eat.. recommended by taxi driver..HaHa.. But we were not sure where to eat in Taipo Market.. and what to eat.. So, a group of us took the KCR there and went to ask a security guard where to eat.. There were me, Thunder, Jiaxin, Hui May, Yu Xin, Starla, Meng, Jimmy and Kee Hong.. We ate at a food court-like place.. but it's air conditioned.. ordered some food and they were all not bad at all!

Only have these two pix for the entire trip cause we were too busy eating.. HaHa! After dinner, we went to walk around Taipo Market area and found some super cheap egg tarts! 4 egg tarts for HKD5! (SGD1!!) and they are actually quite yummy! (^_^)v

This area has a lot of eating places.. dim sum.. desserts.. etc.

20/07/07 (Friday)

Put aside the student mask and put on the tourist's! Theme of the day was "Sight-seeing @ HK"..

4 of us set off from i-house in the morning - Me, HY, Sze Huey and Starla

1. Wong Tai Sin Temple

After taking many many photos inside the temple (as usual~) and prayed, we went for lunch... at the plaza next to the temple.. Wanted to eat in Cafe de Coral but something happened.. think we stepped on somebody's vomit on the floor! Argh...
So, we ate at KFC instead.. Why KFC? Cause they have quite a different menu from ours.. they have Portuegese egg tarts! and rice! and you can buy just one piece chicken.. they have criss cross fries too... their fried chicken was Ok.. not as good as Msia's but better than Sg's! HaHa :)

After lunch, Starla left us to get her stuff done~ the 3 of us embarked on our half day HK island tour! Passed by Mongkok station...

And changed to another MTR line heading to Central! (i like red walls! nice)

Sze Huey was our tour guide of the day! :)

Saw this cute cafe along the way... Ladder Street really has a lot a lot a lot of staircase!! up and up we climbed to reach our destination...
2. Man Mo Temple! one of the top 10 places to visit in HK (from the small handbook Suwan lend us..HeHe)
Specialty of this temple? There are 2 deities in this temple. One represents the Man, which means erm.. Culture? Studies? HaAH.. and the other, Mo is represented by God of War.. Another special attraction of this temple is the many many spiral incense hung from the ceiling.. this is the temple you usually see in movies when there's this spiral incense ..

3. Hollywood Road (Antique St)...

Rows of shops selling antiques.. we didn't go into any of them.. but from the window displays you can see many antiques.. some are really quite exquisite...

4. Bonham Strand West

Rows of shops selling abalone, dried oyster etc.. This is where the drama 溏心風暴 was based on... We even found the public toilet where Moses Chan got dumped in :P
a nice park along the Bonham Strand.. inside the park, there are a lot herbs planted.. there are even sign board for each plant... nice! :)

5. Western Market...

At a corner of Sheung Wan, where the buildings look like old western buildings.. inside the building, there are many shops.. many of them sells textiles..

A wall outside the main building...

From Sheung Wan, we took the Tram to Central~

in the tram! this photo looks funny because the trams are very close to each other.. so people in the tram beside ours were staring at 3 of us taking photos non-stop.. aiks!

5. Li Yuen Street East...

This street has many small stalls and shops selling clothes, bags, shoes etc. Can get very cheap bargain here.. I bought a bag here.. came here again on the last week before i left HK and got a cute T shirt for HKD10! (SGD2!!)- washed it and still in good condition..haha :)

6. South of Hollywood Road- SoHo

We took the world longest escalator (as said by the Hong Kong-er) up the hill... along the way, you can see shops.. many art galleries and antique shops.. and restaurants, cafes etc.

7. The Famous "governor's egg tart"!

How these egg tarts get their nickname? It is said that the last governor of HK loved the egg tarts from this shop so much, he kept coming back for more even after the handover of HK back to China.. On the glass door of the shop, you can see newspaper articles of the last HK governor with the owner of this shop.. What more can we say but Delicious!! :)

8. In search of the Best Cha Chan Teng in HK! (as heard from others..)

Me in the Cha Chan Teng.. but the WRONG one! HaHa! We found the place where the best is supposed to be.. but at the particular location, there are 3 cha chan teng! and we picked the one which is beside the famous one! but this was not bad too.. :) HaHA

Later, we found out from a tour guide that the famous one is very expensive and the food is not that good after all..

9. Dinner at Honolulu (@ Wan Chai?)

erm.. something sauce noodle.. HaHa.. nice! :)

10. Golden Bauhinia Square

This was the place we missed out on our 1st cultural tour planned by CUHK due to the massive traffic jam.. So, we came by ourselves to see the national flower of HK-the Bauhinia...

11. Outside the HK Convention and Exhibition Center~

nice night view!! :) a great end to a GREAT day!!

packed but fulfilling tour! went back to Kowloon by the Star Ferry~

Day 17 @ HK - Ladies' Nite at Lan Kwai Fong!

2007-07-17T23:26:00.000+08:00

It was after class on Thursday and we decided to go to Lan Kwai Fong! The famous stretch of pubs and clubs in HK...

The 5 out of 6 girls that went that night... At the University KCR Station.. the girls went first while the guys were playing poker in their bedroom -___-.......

As we were still early, we decided to take the Star Ferry instead of the MTR.. the ferry is cheaper and we could see the night view... On our way to the ferry terminal, we passed The Peninsula (a place where we want to have afternoon tea, ONCE!)

At the ferry terminal.. with HK island as the backdrop....

In the ferry.. the seats are just like Penang ferry but there is one section which are air-conditioned.... it's very rocky when the ferry is not sailing, unlike Penang's...

The overhead bridge towards Lan Kwai Fong area... :)

Me @ Lan Kwai Fong! Streets nearby were filled with people.. many foreigners... and filled with taxis too...
Happy Hours ALL The Way!! :)

We were walking around the area to see which pub/club to go in while waiting for the guys and 2 more girls to come over... Then we saw Shirley Kwan (a HK singer).. she just came out from one of the club..
5 out of 6 of us who were there early... So, we decided to go get a drink at a bar 1st.. This was at Bulldog's... We were deciding what to order when an ang moh guy came over and stood by our tables.. thinking that he was the waiter, we asked him to give us a little more time.. Then he said, "I'm not the waiter.." and started to introduce himself.. He's in the US navy at Japan...
and he started to know everyone at the table and tried chatting about this and that.. Basically, we weren't in the mood to erm..get to know a guy... So, we told him we just wanted Girls' Talk... He resisted awhile but then left... :)

Finally, the guys reached and we proceeded to a club called Sugar... Unfortunately, 2 of the girls were in slippers... So, we couldn't get in...

We finally chose a club which had Ladies' Nite offers and was decent... Can't remember the name though... Ladies could have free flow of champagne all night long.. BUT they were out of champagne! So, only red or white wines..

The rest of the night was - CRAZY! Photos should not be seen by any outsiders.. Basically, we left at 3+am and I reached my room at 4am.. After sending my girl friend back..

And the next morning, we woke up at 6.30am to do our assignment before leaving for one-day Macau trip!

Day 12 @ HK

2007-07-16T11:59:00.000+08:00

07/07/07- Cultural Tour to Lantau Island

The looooong winding road up the hills to reach the Giant Buddha... very very long indeed....

was soooo hungry when we reached the Po Lin Monastery for vegetarian lunch... Our table had so many people-12! as compared to the other tables.. especially the table beside us only had about half of ours..

Sat beside 2 CUHK student helpers- Thomas and Jessica.. very very nice people! Jessica was very friendly and enthusiastic to know about others.. Thomas was very interested about Taiwan~ :)
Outside the temple...

very nice carvings along the wall of the temple...- Yx, SH, me, Thunder and Irene...
with the guys- Shawn and Jimmy at the bottom of the stairs leading to the Giant Buddha~
at the top! breathtaking view! and the air was soooo much cleaner and cooling! very nice! worth all the 280 steps I'd climbed!
very windy.. love the shades of green everywhere! and I was in a green T~ blend with nature :)

The Giant Buddha!~which faces Mainland China for political reason instead of facing its normal direction (which I don't remember.. )
The looong and steep staircase UP!
At the bottom again...
In Ngong Ping Village.. where they sell a lot of Chinese stuff.. like chopsticks.. very nice chopsticks... (such a funny picture! HaHa)
After the tour ended, we proceeded on to Tung Chung where there is a whole building of Outlet Shops! like Nike Outlet, Espirit Outlet, etc.

The girls went crazy shopping.. a few of us bought more than HKD1000 in Espirit Outlet itself and got 20% discount! yeah!~

I didn't buy any thing for myself! But I bought some souvenirs..and a cute blouse for my niece :)

After some grocery shopping, we went back to CUHK~

Backward post no5: Day 11 @ HK

2007-07-16T11:10:00.000+08:00

06/07/07 (Friday)
Today, SH, Thunder and I decided to go to Repulse Bay... followed by The Peak at night because the previous time we went to The Peak, we saw only the day view and not the night view...
As usualy, we took the KCR then changed to MTR to the Island Line..

The International Finance Center (IFC) building which is the tallest building in HK... We took a bus from the Exchange Square... heading towards Repulse Bay....
After very winding road up the hill, we realised we missed the Repulse Bay stop after 2 stops away... And we were at Stanley Market again! -__-
The weather was so warm! It was crazy.. we walked past this shop and saw some quite nice sun-dresses... so 3 of us bought one each.. of the same pattern, just in different colours! :) I got the orange one, SH got pink and Thunder got green... :P
Since we were at Stanley, we decided to go to the places we missed the other time we were here..- The Murray House
This building houses the Maritime Museum which we did not go into .. cause need entrance fee.. and not that interested in marine history anyway... it also has some restaurants in it... the building itself faces the sea... very nice view... blue sea, white clouds and green hills... with colourful boats bobbing in the water... :)

Behind Murray House, we saw a sign that sells Thousand Years Well.. so, we decided to walk in to explore...

The huge tree just beside the temple and the well is below the temple... Then we realised there were HUGE mosquitoes everywhere! and they were feeding on us! So, we RAN out of that place... We could have scared some tourists who wanted to go have a look..

Very nice cafes along the Stanley Market Road... this is the place we often see in HK dramas... very nice! especially this blue building called the Boathouse~

End of Stanley tour and we decided it's time to go up to The Peak.. at this time, we realised there is not direct bus from this part of the hill! We have to go all the way down to Central/ Wan Chai again and come back up to The Peak! how ridiculous... -___-

We took a bus down and then waited for another bus to go up... the bus stop is at a junction leading to a traffic light.. so, many vehicles stop right in front of us while waiting for the traffic light to turn green... while waiting, I was busy looking at nice cars that passed.. HK has very nice cars! Then, I saw a nice sporty blue Mercedes... As usual, I peeped at the driver and guess who I saw! Chan Kin Fung! If you watch HK dramas, you would know who he is.. But his car sped off too fast, I could not even asked Thunder to take a photo!

After waiting for the longest time, the bus finally came and we went up to The Peak.. tired and hungry.. had McD -___- cause it's the cheapest food around...

Went up and took a lot of photos! The night view was very beautiful! But there were sooooo many people around.. all fighting for a nice spot to take photos..

More photos taken in the building...
Me with HK nightview~
In the building...
Left The Peak at around 10+pm.. reached CUHK but missed the last shuttle bus.. Walked back to hostel again! o_O