{SOMEWHERE OVER THE RAINBOW.}

Saturday, February 03, 2007

title:{Fest La Vie '07}

Fest La Vie was on the 29th and 30th of January, held at the Central Forum. It was a BLAST! as it was the first time I see a "bazaar" flooded with so many people. After 2 months of the painstaking planning process, the 2 days just zoom past so quickly that it ended before I could really feel that it actually happened. Though the entire planning and execution of the event was really draining, it was also great fun with the company of the FLV committee, especially my programmes cell with karen, dabai and cheonghua! I definitely enjoyed myself thoroughly, so much so that I had withdrawal symptoms after it.

The entire event was great! Exhibition side was very well-received! There were nice pushcarts for the vendors to sell all kinds of food that were not oftenly found in NUS. From kebabs to waffles to tako and fried ice-cream. My favourite has to be the waffles. My breakfast and lunch on the 2 days of FLV. Sad but they are really good.

I'm so glad that the auction took place smoothly with only minor hiccups here and there. My greatest fear had always been that there would be not many people and people do not participate enthusiastically. Luckily, everything was fine and the crowd was responsive. :D A big our auction hosts, Jeff and Austen, for the smooth auction as they are the ones up on stage who get the auction going and persuade people to bid and place higher bids! The other programmes were great too! Impressario was fantastic! Those contestants were really quite good and I think I'll go watch the finals! haha. Jasmine Tye and Paul Twohill could really draw crowd. From the time that they were doing their sound check, people were already coming in to wait for their performance to start! NTU band was great too! The female vocal was quite powerful. It's a pity I couldnt catch them on the 2nd day. Not forgetting voices and dhoppers from CAC, our own NUS performers who came down to perform at the event. :D

I love my wonderful programmes cell! Thanks for being such fun-loving, crazy and childish cellmates who simply can't stop banging each other, doing stupid things like tickling, calling nicknames, pinching and even meiya tie quan. And of cos, thanks for the hardwork put in for the 2 days that make the auction such a success! :D Programmes outing next wk!!! Think of where to go. (:

There are so many moments during the entire event that I want to remember for as long as I can, especially the classic guest of honour moment. Come to think about it now, I really missed FLV, despite the pathetic amount of sleep we have, the number of meals we skipped during the 2 days and the week before, the agony of ppl pulling out for performance, the hiccups faced, the mad rush of work during the 2 days. EVERYTHING. It's really rewarding and I would want to do another event like that again.

Programmes rox! FLV rox! PRU rox! (:

2/03/2007 10:43:00 AM;

Monday, October 09, 2006

title:{SCOOP!}

Surprise! I'm blogging again within such a short span of time! haha.

Mooncake party on friday was great fun! Lovely company at the esplanade! The only spoiler was the hazy weather.

That's us with our pretty lanterns! :D

Today was fun too! Met up with xinn, jasmine and hwee ngee at bugis to have beef noodles. YUM YUM! It's really good! Also, I hvnt seen them for sooo long. It's really good to catch up with them and know that they are all doing really fine. I'm meeting xinn and jas again tmr to go back SN for orange bowl, 肉丸面线 and ice tea! YAY! I miss SN food!

After that, went town to meet karen, minghui, giles and da bai. The guys actually wanted to shop, but in the end we ended up watching SCOOP at cine. It's a GOOD SHOW! A british comedy. Lots of dialogue. But it's really damn funny. Woody Allen is cute and Hugh Jackman is shuai! haha. OH and i must say. It's the first time i can catch those dialogues without subtitles. haha. Had fun!

Spend the entire day out again when i'm supposed to catch up on my work. I'm lagging behind maths lecture by 6 hrs! Lagging behind for a lot of things. I shld really stop being so slack!

Quite pissed abt some stuff. I hate hving to depend on someone for sth which I know how to do, yet I can't do cos I'm not allowed to do so. It just dont make sense. It's like someone set a premise that you can supposedly step into, and then after that keep you out of the premise. I wish I can just do things as I wish. It's a small matter. But i'm just unhappy about it.

10/09/2006 09:17:00 AM;

Wednesday, October 04, 2006

title:{MLE sucks}

I really can't stand MLE. The moment i take out the stupid textbook to read, I feel like sleeping, or will start stoning subconsciously. STUPID mle test tmr. Hope I can pass.

On a lighter note, there will be a mooncake party on friday with the usual gang. Even though I dun like mooncake, I think it's gonna be fun. I'm looking forward to it. :D Hvnt played with lanterns and candles for years alr.

Back to MLE... ZZZZZ

10/04/2006 04:32:00 AM;

Monday, August 28, 2006

title:{back in ACTION!}

I should stop lazying around and start blogging! haha.

Orientation was 3 weeks ago and it was great fun! Had great company and some fun games. Helio even won best og! :D School started 2 weeks ago. So far it's been quite fun, but it's getting busier with tutorials starting this week. Oh man I hate tutorials! I've been late for lectures so frequently for the past 2 weeks such that no one expects me to be on time anymore. Shocked everyone when I reached school 15mins earlier today. waha. I was so happy to be early lah.

Went to visit hq at SGH today. He is hospitalised for stomachache but still does not know the cause of it yet. After talking for a while, we left the room after his mum was gone to go find a place with both an available powerpoint and wireless network for our dearest hq to do video conference on karen's laptop. Apparently there's only a place with wireless network at SGH which is at the polar cafe. The shop actually has an available powerpoint, yet they said they do not lend powerpoint to customers. So unfriendly lah. So we were like looking for powerpoints everywhere and testing if the place is near enough to tap the wireless connection from the polar cafe. We even went into a shop opposite polar cafe to borrow their powerpoint. That lady was v nice. Even though the shop was small and cram, she still lend us her powerpoint and let us do video conferencing in her small shop. In the end, we realised that we could not access to internet because we did not login to the connection, and not because the wireless network connection was weak, so we went to the lobby where we sat and video-conferenced for 3 hrs. haha.

It was quite fun walking arnd SGH like idiots and trying out every powerpoint even in the middle of a corridor. waha. And video-conferencing is fun! There are some very nice ppl at SGH and some really nasty one. Was really irritated by some of them. Ask me and karen where to find powerpoints, we can tell u where are all of them at block 6. We are experts alr. waha.

OH YAH!! GILES SHANZHI LIM is sooo stupid to actually believe that karen is hospitalised! waha. He even badmouthed me on msn without knowing that i'm there. YOU ARE SOOO DEAD!! haha.

Get well soon HQ. haha.

8/28/2006 09:03:00 AM;

Friday, July 07, 2006

title:{I want ITALY to win the World Cup!}

Finally, after a long month, the world cup finals will be played on monday morning - Italy vs France! It will definitely be an amazing match and I can't wait to watch it!

The Finals is going to be such a great showdown. It will not be an easy match for both Italy and France. Italy, though has unarguably the best defence in the world, lead by the best defender in the world, Cannavaro (I really think he's the best. He's my favourite player!), lacks in their strike team that consists of players who are not really in good forms. Hopefully, that has changed after the last match when Del Piero scored the second silver goal, and Gilardino's shot that almost went in but hit the bar. Besides, Italy has defensive players who can play offensively and even score goals, like Grosso and Zambrotta, and also a goalkeeper, Buffon, who hasn't conceded a goal to the opponent teams.

On the other hand, France has very spirited and determined players who have played very well in every single match after their first round, even though they are a graying team. They have a superb midfielder, Zidane (also one of my favourite player!), thrice the world player of the year, who is still playing like the best, despite being 34. Thuram is also a defender to look out for! He had played alongside with Cannavaro and Buffon in Parma, forming one of the best rearguards in the world. However, Henry is a player like Del Piero who performs at club level and not on the international playing ground. Furthermore, Barthez's goalkeeping can still be eccentric at times. He has shown it during the last match with Portugal.

The last 2 international matches played between the two teams during France'98 and Euro'00 ended up in Italy's defeat after the penalty shoot-outs. The French team may still be almost the same, but Italy has become a different one. I'm really excited to find out how will the match in 10 july turn out to be! A battle between my two favourite players. WAHA!

Hopefully, the champions will be Italy! I really want to see Cannavaro lift the world cup trophy on his 100th cap and probably the last world cup that he played.

This will be the winning squad of Germany 2006!

God bless Italy.

7/07/2006 12:10:00 PM;

Tuesday, July 04, 2006

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Arrival Hall at Chiang Kai Shek International Airport

7/04/2006 10:46:00 AM;

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freego bus that took us to our hotel

7/04/2006 10:45:00 AM;

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our hotel - royal castle

7/04/2006 10:44:00 AM;

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Ximenting on a sunday night

7/04/2006 10:41:00 AM;

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me and rj at xmt

7/04/2006 10:41:00 AM;

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the platform of the taipei cityhall mrt station

7/04/2006 10:40:00 AM;

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Cashbox KTV which looks like a hotel from the inside

7/04/2006 10:40:00 AM;

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happening XMT

7/04/2006 10:40:00 AM;

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Sun Yat Sen Memorial Hall

7/04/2006 10:39:00 AM;

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sign telling where we were from and where we are going

7/04/2006 10:39:00 AM;

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the interior of the metro

7/04/2006 10:39:00 AM;

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me and karen

7/04/2006 10:39:00 AM;

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rj karen and me in the train

7/04/2006 10:39:00 AM;

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Statue of Mr Sun Yat Sen

7/04/2006 10:38:00 AM;

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changing of guards at sys memorial

7/04/2006 10:38:00 AM;

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sun yat-sen memorial

7/04/2006 10:38:00 AM;

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me and karen inf front of sun yat sen memorial

7/04/2006 10:37:00 AM;

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the tallest building in the world - taipei 101

7/04/2006 10:37:00 AM;

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the mall at taipei 101

7/04/2006 10:37:00 AM;

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NYNY shopping center

7/04/2006 10:36:00 AM;

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xin guang san yue

7/04/2006 10:36:00 AM;

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wufenpu

7/04/2006 10:36:00 AM;

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at wufenpu wholesale garment center

7/04/2006 10:33:00 AM;

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karen with her shopping bags!

7/04/2006 10:32:00 AM;

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rao he night market!

7/04/2006 10:32:00 AM;

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zha jiang mian

7/04/2006 10:31:00 AM;

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red bean ice!

7/04/2006 10:31:00 AM;

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hotspring at yms

7/04/2006 10:30:00 AM;

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yms taken from the bus

7/04/2006 10:30:00 AM;

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the bridge at leng shui keng that will lead us to the waterfall

7/04/2006 10:29:00 AM;

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our hike to the waterfall

7/04/2006 10:29:00 AM;

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the narrow road

7/04/2006 10:29:00 AM;

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the waterfall

7/04/2006 10:28:00 AM;

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us and the mini waterfall

7/04/2006 10:28:00 AM;

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evening sky at danshui

7/04/2006 10:27:00 AM;

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the bridge at dan shui fisherman's wharf

7/04/2006 10:27:00 AM;

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the harbour at dan shui

7/04/2006 10:26:00 AM;

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rows of seafood restaurants and bars

7/04/2006 10:25:00 AM;

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rj taking pics on the bridge

7/04/2006 10:24:00 AM;

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indoor shilin nm from the platform at the metro station

7/04/2006 10:22:00 AM;

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me and karen at Chiang Kai Shek Memorial Hall

7/04/2006 10:20:00 AM;

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National theatre at CKS Memorial Hall

7/04/2006 10:19:00 AM;

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one of the building at CKS Memorial Hall

7/04/2006 10:19:00 AM;

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me and CKS memorial Hall

7/04/2006 10:19:00 AM;

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ding tai feng!

7/04/2006 10:18:00 AM;

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our queue no at ding tai feng!

7/04/2006 10:17:00 AM;

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ding tai feng xiao long bao! yummy!

7/04/2006 10:14:00 AM;

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smelly tofu at gong guan

7/04/2006 10:13:00 AM;

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advert shooting at ximenting

7/04/2006 10:11:00 AM;

title:{taipei trip}

Even though i'm super lazy to blog nowadays, I still have to blog about my taipei trip with choo and rj! It was very fun and definitely memorable despite it being just a shopping trip. To me, it wasnt just the trip itself that was memorable, the research on the cheapest hotel and flight, the booking of flights, the research done for our itinerary, the tedious planning before the trip also made it worth remembering, as it was the very first trip that we did everything ourselves. haha.
There was many first time in this trip. Simple things like checking in luggages at the airport, checking into the hotel were things that I've never done before as they were always left to my relatives or the teacher to do it for me. I hv to say I'm excited even by doing small things like that cos I've never done it before. A small new experience. waha.

Taipei - 25 Jun'06 (Sun) to 29 Jun'06 (Thu)
We reached the airport at around 5.30pm in taipei. By the time we passed the immigration counter, whatever you call it, it was arnd 6pm. We saw Chen Weilian. He was queuing in front of us to get our passport stamped. Took the Freego bus to our hotel at ximenting. We happily queued to board the bus without buying tickets. It was until Ruth came to ask us if we had gotten our tickets that we realised. Luckily we can just buy from the person there and need not go find the counter to buy it. Reached the hotel at arnd 7pm. The room was small. By the time we put our luggages there, we hv to step over everything to get arnd. However, it was clean and hv all the necessities. We went for dinner at some taiwan fastfood restaurant that sells bake rice near our hotel. Then it was shopping at xmt. XMT was a shopping heaven. A very happening place. The whole place was brightly lit with the colourful billboards and signboards of the shops. I really like that place, the whole atmosphere there. We went to to this cashbox ktv at arnd 11pm after we were tired of walking arnd. This ktv is really huge! It is a whole building by itself. When we were there, we even thought it was some high class hotel. It was not, but the service there was as good as that you get in a hotel. The staff there will bring you to the room. Excellent service. Another amazing thing is that they even hv a toilet in every room. We sang till arnd 3am before we walked back to the hotel. Quite scary to walk back at night liddat in an unknown surrounding, just the 3 of us, girls. By tt time, XMT was like a dead city. Tired as we might be, me and karen still catched the very entertaining holland vs portugal till 5am before we rest for the night. haha.

The next morning, we woke up at arnd 9.30am. One good thing abt free and easy trip is that you get to sleep till whatever time you want! haha. We just grabbed some timsum from a bakery, which we thought were substandard, and left to begin our day. Sun Yat Sen Memorial Hall was the first stop. It was nth impressive. We were quite shocked to see that there were hardly anyone there, only pple taking a shortcut to the other side, even though it was a tourist attraction. Sun Yat Sen was supposed to be the father of the country, but the building, the architecture was nth majestic, not impressive enough for someone who is given such high regards in a country. Feel quite sad for him really. Another thing, I feel that it's better to hv a tour guide when visiting such historic places to tell the story and explain the significance of the artefacts displayed. Going there on our own seems boring, it is only a place for photographs. After that we went to taipei 101. We did not went all the way to the top to view the surroundings. I dunno why we dint, but i think it will be better to view at night. So we just shop arnd the mall for a while. And left for NYNY shopping centre which was nearby. Again we just walk arnd and bought the very yummy mister donut at the ground level before we left for wufenpu.

Wufenpu is a garment wholeshale mkt. It was a HUGE place, almost like a big maze. You can never go back to a place that you hv been before cos you wont know how to go back. We bought a lot of stuff there. Cheap but on the downside, we can't try the clothes that we want. Nevertheless, it was fun to walk around. We went to Raohe Night Market after that. It was the first night market in taipei. By the time we were there, we were too tired to really shop around there and we were carrying too many shopping bags. We just had our dinner there. Red bean ice and zha jiang mian. I like the zha jian mian. As for red bean ice, i prefer the ice kachang in singapore. After dinner, we just walked the entire night market without buying anything and went back to the hotel. Took bus back that night. We took the metro all the time. In taipei, they have stands for all the buses, so you hv to stand at the particular bus stand to wait for the bus and hv to walk out to flag the bus. We let a bus or 2 pass cos we dint know and just stand there and wait. It was until we did some observations before we knew how to take the bus. waha.

The next day, we went to Yang Ming Shan. This has to be the most memorable place that we went to in Taipei. There was a map there where we reached that shows the different places that we could visit and the route that we could take. At first we naively thought that we can follow the route and walked from one place to another to all the 12 stops. We forgot that this is a MOUNTAIN, nth like the bukit timah hill in singapore. So we walked to the stop number 2 which is the visitor center. This hike took us abt 30min. By the time we reached the vistor centre, we were sweating all over and quite tired. It was then that we realised that it was impossible to walk to all the places, and we found out from the staff there that there's actually a bus to bring us to whichever place that we want to visit. As we can't visit all the places in just a few hours or even a day, we chose to see a waterfall, 绢丝瀑布 and asked for directions. The person told us there we have to get to 冷水坑 by bus then crossed this bridge and walked a short distance to get to the place. So we set off for the place. The bus journey alone took after 20-30min. Along the way, we saw beauty of nature - the mountains, and the cloud floating next to us. V beautiful. 冷水坑 was quite high up in the mountain. The place was quite cold even though it was summer. The walk to the waterfall was SCARY! We were in the middle of the jungle most of the time, and we did not know when we would reach the waterfall. Along the way, there were sounds of insects but no sound of waters and we dint see anyone except the 3 of us. The pathway was narrow and rocky. If we were to fall, we will definitely be dead. I was so afraid we will meet snakes or anyone twist their ankles or sth. Luckily nth liddat happened. It took us abt 2 hours before we reached the waterfall. A mini one. Furthermore we were blocked by a wire fence and couldnt take photos properly. So disappointing. We were expecting to see a huge waterfall, sth deserving after a 2 hours hike. Nonetheless, it was a great experience.

It took us another 45min to walk to the nearest town from the waterfall to take a bus. We left YMS at 5pm to go to danshui. Danshui was a town with colourful history but unfortunately, we didnt hv the time to visit those places. We only went to the fisherman's wharf to catch the sunset, but we were too late. Despite that, the place was still very beautiful. I wish we were there earlier. The sunset would be breathtaking. We also visited the danshui old streets to find 铁蛋. There are alot of exciting things there. Food and local specialities mainly. We went to the famous store especially for 铁蛋, yet the person was so unfriendly. That was the first unfriendly experience we had in taipei. Everywhere else we went to, the people were so friendly and helpful, and the services were excellent. That unhappy experience still did not spoil our good impression of taipei. We also bought hand made mochi from a store there. V yummy!

We then left for shilin night market. The NM that we hv been dying to visit and it really did not disappoint us. The first thing that we headed for when we reached there was the XL 鸡扒 at the indoor NM. It was soo gd. Huge in size and superb in taste. The meat was very tender and the seasoning was good. 100 times better than the one we hv in singapore. The one is singapore is so dry and i dun like it at all. We went to the outdoor NM after getting our chicken. From then on, we forgot about dinner. All we did was shop. It seems that we forgot about how tired we were from hiking. We were so energetic. haha. We walked around until 11plus but we still did not cover the entire place, yet we couldnt afford to spend anymore time there as we would miss the last train. So we left and decided to come back again the next day.

We tried to wake up a earlier the next day as it was the last full day we had in taipei. The first stop that day was Chiang Kai Shek Memorial Hall. It looked tons better and more majestic that the Sun Yat Sen Memorial Hall. Even the metro station is different from the rest that we visited. I don't know what contribution that CKS made for taiwan, i only remember him to be not a v gd person. Anyhow, the place was pretty. The architecture was similar to the royal palace in china and that of the building where the gates were somewhat reminds me of japan. Taiwan is very much under the influence of these countries. We took some photos there and left for lunch. The weather was too unbearable for us to stay there for too long. Lunch was at di tai feng! Before lunch we went to the bank to exchange currencies. It took very long, 3o min for us 2 customers. Not very efficient perhaps cos it's lunch time, but the staff were still friendly. When we reach ding tai feng, the queue number was at 50plus and our no was 97, however it dint take too long before it reached us. Only abt 40min wait. You can imagine how popular that place is. We could tell that there were many tourist like us there, from japan, china, western countries and singapore. The service there was fantastic. We were given first class treatment. Food was of course fantastic too, but we find it abit too oily for us.

After a satisfying lunch, we left for yuanling shoe street, a entire street selling shoes. Interesting to walk around, but most of the shops were selling the same thing and more for office ladies. So we went back to XMT to check out jimmy wallets at FE21, a departmental store, and taiyang bing for us to bring back home. The jimmy wallets were really pretty, but the designs were not what i'm looking for. RJ bought like 3 there though. She loves them. After checking out taiyang bing, we left for Gongguan NM which is situated opposite the National Taiwan University. Hence the things there were mainly for the students. As usual, we walked around and ate dinner there. 臭豆腐，盐酥鸡，韭菜饺子. The food was not bad, but not fantastic. Went back shilin NM again after that. Our feets were really painful at the end of the day. We could hardly walk. Yet, when we saw filming equipment set up at XMT on our way back to the hotel, we went back to watch again after dumping our shopping bags in our room. Some yuyan guy, the one acted in ai qing bai pi shu, and another girl which we dunno, were shooting an ad. Went to a convenience store to get juice and drinks back to the hotel like every other night we were there.

Thursday was our last day at taipei. In the morn, we checked out of our hotel and rushed to do some last minute shopping at XMT. Most of the time was spent finding a shop that we went to on our first night to get jimmy bookmarks and other really nice stationaries. We also bought 凤梨酥，more mochi, even nicer ones than the one at danshui, and cup noodles. We went back to the hotel at 2 plus to catch our bus to the airport. By the time we reached singapore, it was almost 11pm.

All in all, it was a really fun trip with rj and karen. We had a great time together. Had some funny encounters, scary ones too. Taipei was a lovely city. The people there were wonderful. Before I visited taipei, I had the impression that the taiwanese are rowdy and loud. However, my impression of them definitely changed after the trip. They were very friendly and very willing to help us when we asked for directions. I remember there's an ah ma, who sat beside me at the bus stop, told us that take the bus and metro rather than taxis as they are safer after knowing that only 3 of us girls were traveling. The people there are also very orderly. We were so impressed that they all keep to the right on the escalator and leave the left side for ppl who were rushing to pass. Another amazing thing about them is that on the platform at the metro station, even though they do not have lines to show ppl where to stand while waiting to board the train like singapore, they will automatically stand behind the white line (yellow in singapore case) and queue up in straight line, only boarding after everyone alighted the train. Very impressive. The only thing that I dont really like is their motorcycles which could drive on the pavement in front of shops. Besides, even when the traffic light turns green, some of the motorcycles will still drive past. Quite dangerous.

I would definitely love to visite the place again if i have the chance. Next time, I'll definitely go there for a longer period of time so that there will be more time to visit each place.

7/04/2006 06:56:00 AM;

Saturday, March 11, 2006

title:{let it be?}

When I find myself in times of trouble
Mother Mary comes to me
Speaking words of wisdom
Let it be
And in my hour of darkness
She is standing right in front of me
Speaking words of wisdom
Let it be
Let it be, let it be
Let it be, let it be
Whisper words of wisdom
Let it be

And when the broken hearted people
Living in the world agree
There will be an answer
Let it be
For though they may be parted there is
still a chance that they will see
There will be an answer
Let it be
Let it be, let it be
Let it be, let it be
yeah, there will be an answer
Let it be
Let it be, let it be
Let it be, let it be
Whisper words of wisdom
Let it be
Let it be, let it be
Let it be, let it be
Whisper words of wisdom
Let it be

And when the night is cloudy
There is still a light that shines on me
Shine until tomorrow
Let it be
I wake up to the sound of music
Mother Mary comes to me
Speaking words of wisdom
Let it be
Let it be, let it be
Let it be, let it be
There will be an answer
Let it be
Let it be, let it be
Let it be, let it be
There will be an answer
Let it be

let it be - the beatles

So many problems unsettled already, yet more troubles are on their way. Seriously, I feel that these problems can be avoided if there's more communication between one another. I cannot understand why they are hiding the truth when she's going to find out very soon. What is the point of trying so desparately to hide something when it'about to be uncovered soon? They are siblings yet they are doing this to one another, wont it only cause more unhappiness?

sighh...

on the other hand, i'm sick of all the university application stuff. i want to finish it quickly, yet i keep procrastinating. still quite many things to consider, even though i noe wad i want to do alr.

3/11/2006 11:13:00 AM;