琴棋书画 :) WORLD of MATH and ECONS (:

2012 CNY

2012-01-28T21:05:00.000+08:00

this year's CNY felt quite short! not enough time to enjoy holidays. ahha

went back to my mum's hometown to visit our relatives/ cousins! and this is my cousin's daughter! so cute!! :) hahaha her expression is so funny! and there're so many fireworks in my mum's hometown! so cool laaa... totally have the festive mood!!

今年的华人农历新年感觉好短哦！不够时间享受~ 哈。初一回了我妈妈的家乡拜年。照片里的小bb是我表哥的女儿。超可爱的表情！哈哈。还有我妈家乡超多超多烟花！很酷啦！很有新年气氛。

blur...

2012-01-11T18:03:00.000+08:00

this is the last semester of my university life at NUS!! :)
mixed emotions~~ and i actually didnt read the announcement in ivle properly, which states lecture only starts next week for lak1201, and then i went to school for nothing! -.- too excited for school har. i feel like doing something different for my posts in 2012, so here it comes, two languages in one post.

这是我在国立大学的最后一个学期！高兴。但也有一点不舍。心情会有一点复杂。还有我竟然没有把学校网站的通告读好，汉语课下星期才开课，我却糊里糊涂的去学校报到。白跑了一趟！回家时还大塞车，搞得我回到家已经差不多要八点了。也太吧不急待想上课吧。太兴奋了。2012年想做一些不同的，所以开始用双语写部落格！

Roses are Red

2012-01-07T09:59:00.003+08:00

roses are so pretty~~ not for me! but from me keke.
got them from B1 of Westmall.

Royal Caribbean Cruise Legend of the Seas Day 5

2011-12-13T11:37:00.001+08:00

Day 5 - 9 Dec 2011
had to leave the ship by 10.30am. so woke up early at around 7am for breakfast. didnt exactly eat a lot, just had the usual veggies and fruits, and scrambled egg, pastry and bao!

various carvings on fruits!

and on the last 2 nights we had an animal towel-folding on our bed.
this one is a dinosaur.

and this is a pig!

so sad! ended the days of no-technology! ;( i miss the food too.

Rates for Balcony 5D4N Isles of Southeast Asia Cruise
$819 x2
$490 x2 (3rd & 4th person half price)
= $654.50/pax

Royal Caribbean Cruise Legend of the Seas Day 4

2011-12-13T11:15:00.002+08:00

Day 4 - 8 Dec 2011
There was no more stopovers and we were on the way back to Singapore from Phuket.
there was rockclimbing activity for the kids, and quite a lot of kids were queuing up! i think cruise is really a great family holiday especially for those with little kids. or for couples too. friends maybe not that much? i dont know.. ahha at least i will say most of the activities are family-oriented.
decided to go for a run in the morning again, so i skipped breakfast! did 3.13miles in about 33mins, and then cooled down to 3.61miles. was about 39mins in total. felt better.

then there was this mega sale of items worth $99.90 going at $19.90, boxes containing watches/ pens/ wallets in one set for guys, and watches/ necklaces/ earrings in one set for ladies to choose from. and so many people were looking through the boxes, opening and closing of boxes, that's the only sound you can hear with the massive crowd all doing the same action.

so we went for lunch after my mum ended her shopping (for some 2hrs)..

vegetarian sandwich!

salad again, with fish

and fruit tart~

and another piece of whole-grain bread :D

yea after that we went for this Flip Video Competition, which there are 12 challenges that you have to complete and video them, and there are points for each challenge completed, there must be six in a group and participants must be aged 18 and above, so there wasnt enough participants and the event was cancelled! but the Cruise Staff still gave people who came a Royal Caribbean camera pouch as souvenirs. yea! haha and the Cruise Staff recognized us, since she happened to see us quite a couple of times, haha and she thought i was under 18. anyhow, my mum requested her to take a photo together with me haha.

after that went to the photo gallery to buy photos! the photos were very expensive! only the ones taken at Phuket and Port Klang were $9.95, the others taken on board the ship were at $19.95. sooo expensive. gosh, but i thought the one of my sis and me taken at phuket was not bad, and the background was beautiful, so i asked my dad whether can buy, so he said ok, and yay! and met peggy along the gallery too haha. the ship was so huge that i only bumped into her a couple of times! so much of a coincidence right! to happen to book the same cruise on the same dates! :D haha

USD9.95 photo

then afterwards, we saw this hula-hoop competition again (for adults this time) at the Centrum. our Cruise Director, Gordon was super humorous! haha the things he said are just so amusing. anyway the finalist was from Minnesota, US, and she was with her husband on a honeymoon. she's good!

and so after she won the longest-you-can-spin with 2 hula-hoops, the Cruise Activities team extended the game to see how many hula-hoops the finalist can do. she just have to maintain at least 3 consecutive spins without any hoops dropping and then more hoops will be piled on. so they did in sets of fours, all the way till 16, because the previous batch of cruisers did till 15! so just want to break the record~

and so funny! afterwards, they presented her with lots of presents, all the Royal Caribbean souvenirs basically, from pen to luggage tag, to keychain, to tumbler, to cap, to bag, etc all the souvenirs only available on board and not for sale, and then lastly the crown, and she was bestowed upon like a queen. super hilarious.

yea and then the Cruise Activities team sang us a goodbye song. aww. so sad!!

afterwards, we went to the upper deck to play golf. the view was really great! and very good weather.

then it was dinner time! bread of the day :)

Scallop Risotto - Delicate sea scallops enhanced by the charred sweetness of corn, served over a creamy mascarpone risotto

Garlic Tiger Shrimp - sauteed in garlicky herbed butter and accompanied by seasonal vegetables (dad also ordered this)

Raspberry Panna Cotta - Full of raspberry flavor, this light Italian dessert is served on a crunchy almond butter cookie

my dad's choice of dessert (which my mum looked and wanted, so my dad gave it to my mum) and cause we are allowed to ask for more, can eat till you're full, I got another of this cause this just looks good, and it was indeed very delighting!
Sugar-free Chocolate Mint Cake - Layers of moist chocolate sponge cake and silky sugar-free chocolate mint mousse

My mum's appetizer: Minestrone - A hearty tomato soup, filled with vegetables and pasta, sprinkled with Pecorino Romano cheese

My sis's main course: Chicken Marsala - Sauteed chicken scallopine nestled in Marsala mushroom sauce; served with buttery mashed potatoes and fresh vegetables

My mum's main dish: Vegetarian Chili - Full of vegetables and slightly spiced, topped with grated cheese and sour cream, served with jalapeno corn bread

My sis's dessert: Warm Chocolate Cake - Warm chocolate cake complemented by milk chocolate sauce and sweet roasted pears (this choco cake was very thick! cannot eat too much, very sinful)

and the team of waiters/ waitresses and assistant waiters/ waitresses sang us a farewell song (and then there was encore ahha!) so they sang another one/ two songs. and cause people kept saying they wanted more, the in-charge said, if you want more, come on the cruise again! ahaha funny.

after that, we went for this Copy Cat Game Show, and participants must be above age of 18, and there are only two teams of three, which you volunteer to join, so the teams are randomly formed. at the beginning the atmosphere was quite dull because there was the cheer, and nobody was that enthusiastic to keep cheering (especially being the quiet and not attention-seeking singaporeans). so for the first round, each team had to send in one contestant, and the first task was to make a martini, where there was the professional bartender who did the job for 14 years. so he demonstrated how to do it, and the contestants have to follow his steps and do the same thing.

for the second round, the two contestants (another pair) have to mimic this napkin-folding demonstration, of which the Cruise Staff folded a water lily, it was not easy man.. and there was some time pressure there. so both contestants couldnt quite get it, and tied.
for the third and last round, the Cruise Staff demonstrated line-dancing and the last contestant of each team has to copy and dance the same way as she did. and it was super amusing to watch cause the dance was difficult, so many different steps and eventually both contestants just end up dancing how they like to. haha very funny.
after that, we headed to the That's Entertainment Theatre to catch the "Swing City" Performance at 9pm, starring The Royal Caribbean Singers & Dancers and the Legend of the Seas Orchestra in the vibrant song and dance show from the Swing Era! Followed by Cruise in Review video and a Special Finale with representatives from all the Officers, Staff and Crew of the Legend of the Seas!
somehow, I felt that tonight's performance was not as fantastic as the previous two nights! hmm... maybe it's the pre-arrival syndrome :<

haha and we saw our Favourite Cruise Staff again! this time my sis wanted a photo with her. hehe
afterwards, we went to watch "Knights & Day" the movie featuring Tom Cruise & Cameron Diaz which they screened that night in the lounge. erm the plot was like not-much plot.. typical Hollywood action film!

Royal Caribbean Cruise Legend of the Seas Day 3

2011-12-12T21:57:00.001+08:00

Day 3 - 7 Dec 2011
Cruise was scheduled to arrive at 1pm at Phuket. Patong Beach. However, unlike Port Klang, where there is a port for the ship to dork at, we had to take a tender boat out to the beach because the Thai government did not want to ruin the beach line of Phuket. The beach was an attraction for many tourists to enjoy water activities as well as for suntanning etc. yep, so no port! pretty cool experience! 9.30pm was the last tender of which we have to be back by then cause the ship will set sail. so we had half a day at Phuket.

Breakfast! :) at Windjammer Cafe. Buffet! I had scrambled egg with shrimp...

wholemeal bread and banana muffin...

and after that i had fruits! so healthy ahh.. ha

and i found bagels!! :D i love bagels! had more scrambled egg...

my mum's choice. she likes asian food, like noodles etc, there's noodles and congee everyday too for those who likes asian food. but the asian veges like kong xin cai are not very nice. the salad is really good though.

then we went for a Early Riser Trivia at 9am. we love trivia!! this time no other persons joined, and the Cruise Staff called Gina, a South Korean (whom became my Favourite Cruise Staff), carried on with just my family! haha and then at the end of it, she gave each of us a Royal Caribbean Travel Pouch, which was really cool! very useful :) and unique. ha and then later in the day and the next day we saw her again, and decided to take photo with her cause she's so cute, friendly and pretty!

headed for a Bingo session after the Early Riser Trivia, and for USD23, you get four games, each game with 6 sets of 5x5 numbers, (this is 3 sets of 5x5 numbers for the first game). my dad decided to just join in for fun, cause Bingo was the THE game onboard, and my sis wanted to play. yep!

The Bingo Counter. and there is my Favourite Cruise Staff at the counter again! haha

after that, we went for lunch at noon so that

i love love love pastries so i had them every meal!! so many varieties to choose from!
chocolate mousse and blueberry cake

then i took the smoked salmon sandwich as well! yea yea bread~~

my meal-ly dosage of veges and fruits

my sis's meal

and so we're arriving at Phuket!!

taking the tender boat away from the Legend of the Seas ship

We arrived at Patong Beach!

we had booked a land excursion tour (onboard the ship) which was USD25/pax.

and we went to the Promthep Cape which overlooks the Andaman Sea and Hai Harn Bay.

Four-faced Buddha

Wat Chalong Monastery - Phuket's largest and most sacred temple. best known for its gold leaf encrusted statues of three former abbots. i enjoy going to temples, cause it makes me feel good, am a believer of Buddhism!

Cashew Nut Factory. Our tour guide, Sally, well-versed in Thai, English, and Chinese, explaining to us the process of making cashew nuts.

lotsa different flavours of cashew nuts for you to try!

then we headed to this place which sells handicraft (like diamonds, gold etc etc) which we had to make an appearance, you know those promotions, before heading to the last stop - Central Shopping Mall. the things in this mall is pretty expensive!! like shopping at Orchard Road. didn't need 1.5hrs there actually.

the traffic back to Patong Beach was really heavy!! cause of the bad road structure. only one lane! and it was a main road, the only route that you can use to get back to the beach.

the night life begins.

back to our boat! we did not shop at Patong Beach, cause it was getting quite dark (was around 7.30pm), and the weather was too hot. Sally said the goods in Patong Beach were all imitation, including human beings! ahha she meant those ah guas.. haha so funny. nothing's exactly on my shopping list, so it was alright. she also mentioned that there are two kinds of Thai massage available, one is those with big fat women doing the professional massage without oil, and the other type is the naughty naughty kind. haha Sally is very engaging! haha

by the time we settled down and had dinner it was almost 8.45pm. I felt quite dry and still a bit full from lunch, so I ordered Greek salad for appetizer.
Greek salad - Ripe tomatoes, crisp cucumbers, slightly salty feta cheese and olives tossed in red wine vinaigrette

Tomato, Basil and Mozzarella Calzone - Baked golden and served with cherry tomato and garlic confit salsa

Low-Fat Apple Cake - This wheat cake is topped with apples and served on an almond biscuit

My sister's pick: Cream of Pumpkin - Candied walnuts and a dash of sour cream

Shrimp & Mahi-Mahi Tempura - Lightly coated in tempura batter, fried golden and served with stir-fried vegetables and chili-lime plum sauce

Chocolate Brownie Sandwich - Dark bittersweet chocolate mousse wedged between layers of chocolate brownie

after the dinner, my dad and I went to watch Burlesque (by Christina Aguilera) that they had for us. we watched the last 1hr because by the time we were done with dinner, it was already 1hr into the movie. heard a lot about the movie, but realized it's not my type of movie.

Dancing Under the Stars Music + Dance + Buffet through the night by the poolside (at 10pm). of course I did not queue up to get food again (this is not the way to get fat man!) but all the food looks really good!

so many people enjoying the festive atmosphere~~

and so that concludes the third night. it began raining not long after I took photos and was people-looking that it started raining! and the emcee said the rain ain't stopping them and they're going to party on. I went back to my room, so I had no idea how long the party continued for/ how huge the rain was.

Royal Caribbean Cruise Legend of the Seas Day 2

2011-12-12T10:56:00.001+08:00

Day 2 - 6 Dec 2011
and so we arrived at Port Klang at 8am. we can get off the cruise and go to KL for a tour, of which the cruise will leave the port at 4pm. but being sleepy-heads, we didnt get up so early. and after i woke up, i still felt quite full from the day before and decided to go to the gym to run! haha. feels good afterwards. really guilty to keep eating non-stop!

Port Klang, KL

the gym room! there were quite some treadmills. ran for 33mins, clocked 4.84km and then cooled down to reach 5.63km. yea~~

so i kinda skipped breakfast and had lunch. buffet!

what my sis had

after which, we went down to Port Klang to walk around and have a look.

the centre was quite empty! not as happening as harbourfront centre. there was a big Christmas tree outside

i think the scenery outside is pretty nice! lots of greenery and flowers, but other than that, really nothing to see -.-

went back to the ship

and i still cant believe that one round around the ship is 1.6km!

the casino haha! which was erm quite empty

there was the hoola-hoop competition for kids by the poolside.

after that, we went for Afternoon Trivia Challenge, and there were 2 other groups there. It was quite tough man! only got 6/15 right :| haha! nevertheless, still managed to learn quite some things!
and today we had to wear formal for dinner! but some diners really didnt bother. singaporean's under-dressing again!

bread for today

Escargots Bourguignonne - Tender snails, drenched in melted garlic-herb butter and baked to perfection

Golden Sea Bass - Pan-seared and served on a mound of creamy black olive polenta, and accompanied by Spanish sofrito and fried capers

Grand Marnier Souffle - With each bite, this warm delicacy melts on the tongue to release a hint of slightly bittersweet orange liqueur

My mum ordered this. Stir-fried noodles - With abalone, shrimp and straw mushrooms and tossed in abalone sauce.

My sis's choice of dessert. Cherries Jubilee - Warmed, dark red cherries laced with Kirsch; generously ladled over vanilla ice cream. (haha! my sis really lovess ice cream)

after that, we went for the Captain's Welcome Abroad Reception, cause there's free champagne given out to all guests! :) and then headed to the That's Entertainment Theatre again for Production Showtime - Invitation to Dance, basically a dance performance. Very enjoyable!! :)

after the performance, we went for the Finish That Lyrics Game Show, and erm all the songs that they played were the 70-80s man. there were quite a lot of people there, and so we were given this answer slip which we had to write on, and then after that, exchange to mark. The only song that I knew and could get the lyrics was some Madonna's song. So pathetic...

Royal Caribbean Cruise Legend of the Seas Day 1

2011-12-11T20:34:00.001+08:00

Day 1 - 5 Dec 2011
can check in at about 11.30am, but we went in at about 12.30pm, room was only ready at 1pm, there was lunch buffet provided at the Windjammer Cafe! and so we began our "eating streak"!

At Harbourfront Centre

Legend of the Seas~

Buffet lunch. I took the pasta, veggie, grilled fish, apple strudel and a mousse.

as well as coleslaw and fruit salad! i love western food hahaha so Americanized.

view from our room. we had a balcony!

can see the cable cars!

the swimming pool

the mini golf course with 9 pars

daily programme sheet! this is for Day 1.

there was a muster drill exercise at 4pm, and we had to go to the starboard (right; for odd nos.) or port (left; for even nos.) for a short safety briefing.

there was another ship beside our ship docked at the port. very huge also!

after that, we went to see AGAIN. pizza + fries! that's life. and not long after we went for dinner :O

Romeo & Juliet Restaurant Dining Room

we get to choose what kind of bread we want before every 3-course dinner!

Vidalia Onion Tart - Sweet Vidalia onions combined with nutty Gruyere cheese, then baked in a buttery crust ; served with leek fondue and sauteed red peppers

Grilled Mediterranean Quesadilla - Melted Monterey Jack cheese and vegetables sandwiched in a warm flour tortilla; served with a tomato- cilantro salsa (all the descriptions sound really good)

Savarin - Luscious sponge cake soaked in Grand Marnier syrup and finished with fresh fruit and mango coulis

My Sister's choice: Shrimp and Corn soup

Stir-fried Chicken in Lemon sauce - with green beans, mushrooms and steamed rice

Sugar-free vanilla ice cream

then we went for the Welcome Abroad Showtime (at 9.30pm) at That's Entertainment Theater, hosted by our Cruise Director, Gordon (he was really good! funny, charismatic, passionate!), and The Royal Caribbean Singers and Dancers, Legend of the Seas orchestra and starring the Award Winning Magic of Duck Cameron with the Aerial Artistry of Duo Volgyi.

Bikram Yoga

2011-12-11T16:51:00.001+08:00

bought the Groupon for 4 sessions of 90mins bikram yoga at Harbourfront Centre for $29. first session today! went with my brother. he was the only guy! ha. and i think the class was quite small because it was 1pm and it's lunch time. the class after that at 3pm is packed!

it was super tough man!! very hot (~ 40-45degC.. bikram yoga is hot yoga) and you totally sweat non-stop and get v stinky. and it was intense and fast-paced man! i thought yoga was supposed to be slow. and there was quite some challenging postures. difficult~ and when it was like 50mins i almost cannot take it anymore! 1hr is just nice, 1.5hr is very long! but it was good experience! and good for the spine, good for the life, good for the body. yea very tiring!!

this is the link: http://www.bikramyogasg.com/

2011-12-10T13:01:00.001+08:00

《那些年，我们一起追的女孩》小说写得真好！一口气读了120页.

Favourite Cruise Staff

2011-12-09T20:54:00.001+08:00

my favourite staff on the royal caribbean cruise :) her name is gina (hyunjin yoon)! from south korea. ha she was the one who gave the early riser trivia on Day 3 (which only my family went) and then Day 4 met her again haha for some Flip Video competition, which was cancelled cause not enough people! and so took a photo with her! erm after that kept seeing her around the cruise haha she's so cute and pretty! hai. dont think i will see her again. hu...

那些年，我们一起追的女孩

2011-12-01T13:53:00.001+08:00

星期一终于和宥心看了这部超级轰动亚洲的戏！我觉得拍得好好噢。九把刀完成了当导演的梦想。好厉害！真是让人回到那些天真幼稚的高中日子。在新加坡，票房也是超夸张。从预映到星期一都已经有差不多三个星期，电影院还爆满！第一次遇到这种事情。所以坐到第二排去。还好啦，没有很吃力。
现在的我想买原著来读！

有几句话我喜欢，觉得很有意思。印象比较深的是这一句：
“我想成为一个很厉害的人，这个世界因为有我所以有一点点的不一样。” 九把刀真的做到了哦！欣赏！人生就是不停的战斗！
其他的要看书才可以准确的写出来。这几天就去买 :)

我想，每个人都有那些年，即便不是爱情，也一定有过曾经疯狂过的回忆。那些疯狂，那些幼稚，那些“我不可能作的事”都会让人激动、回味，但随着年龄的增长，我们都不能再做那些笨蛋、傻乎乎的事了。转述柯腾所得最后一句话：“我可以继续幼稚下去吗?”
因为天真，所以笑了。

2011-11-26T23:01:00.001+08:00

realised that i havent been blogging about running. haha the number of posts under running has been stagnant for pretty long! not cause i havent been running! i just didnt blog about them! anyway for this sem, managed to do at least one run per week, the norm is two times per week, everytime 30-31mins! today did 33mins run, kinda changed the route that i did a little, instead of inside my condo, i ran to bukit batok nature park, because the slope in my condo gets slippery everytime it rains, so i cant run properly inside. and cause of exams, the last run i did was on last friday!! no wonder today cant move v fast, leg a bit heavy.

in terms of running, i think im pretty happy this sem!! :) managed to run quite a bit every week hehe.

ANTZ

2011-11-26T14:53:00.001+08:00

zZz im getting bitten by ants (those really small tiny ones) EVERY day. argh. no idea why this room has so many ants!!

2011-11-24T19:21:00.001+08:00

I THINK I SHOULD GET OUT OF THIS "LIMBO IN AMERICA" STATE SOON. ITS GOING TO KILL ME LIKE THIS. TOTALLY DONT KNOW WHAT TO EXPECT ON RESULTS DAY. 20 DEC. WISH ME ALL THE BEST. (im scared)

2011-11-21T20:20:00.001+08:00

wow super shag after today's paper. omg... argh cant finished the paper AGAIN. always like this. hai. zZz. wah siannnnnn.......... the paper (time series) was okay but no time to do!!! NO TIME. im old. nevermind. one down. three more to go! hwaiting!!!

2011-11-16T13:16:00.001+08:00

Interview with Girls' Generation

i like the way they answered the questions! :) full of their personalities, v true to who they are.

and wahh how they've changed!!

what can be better than doing what you like? it's the best when you can live your dreams ^^

that's what i always believe in too: do what you like and you will excel.

and try not to do things as a means to achieve its ends. at the end of the day, if you don't achieve what you've set out in the first place, you will question why you have done all those things in the first place, and regretted. life is too short for regrets!!

source: http://www.complex.com/music/2011/11/interview-girls-generation-talk-fame-k-pop-and-world-domination/page/1

yoona is missing from this first picture.

2011-11-15T08:59:00.001+08:00

super happy that sun yan zi won so many awards!!! hahaha was kinda expecting her to win many many, since she's local and of course Singapore will support her "kid" right! hahaha i dont care about whether its bias or not but its a fact that she has the capability! shi2 li4 you know (argh i cant type chinese on this computer).and so she won 6 awards in total for the Singapore Hits Awards 2011 :D

and this is the first time you can see her with a ring (on her finger) during her performance. totally got the "im already married/ taken" feel. AHH!!!. totally so happy to see her on TV haha waited soo loongg to see her on TV again!! sun yan zi's still skinny as ever!! love her!!

2011-11-12T20:47:00.001+08:00

yesterday 11/11/11 was the last day of school for AY11/12 Sem 1. omg felt that this sem passed superr fast!! what a nice numerical date. haha palindromic! anyway went to U-town for lunch with mingfong! first time eating there! haha ate korean food at Hwang's cafe, the name doesnt sound Korean at all, and cause it was newly opened, so they gave out free pancakes!! :) nice!! i like! haha and i ordered bibimbap cause i didnt want anything spicy, $5 for NUS students. not bad! but i have eaten better bibimbap haha so it was still ok. but i really liked the pancake. haha and was just telling mingfong how tough my mods were this sem, and she said it was the same for her. ahh year 4 is tough!!! haha i think its tougher than A levels, ahh. ok back to mugging.

2011-11-07T16:54:00.000+08:00

november has always been a stressful and depressing month, because this is the month of exams. ARGH ): revision is not progressing well because i'm stuck at so many parts. i dont understand my modules!!! they're really tough this sem. hai.

STRESSED!!!
i see a high correlation between the two labels "NUS" and "pekchek".

-cue SNSD jessica's STRESS!-

Get great abs: best foods for women

2011-11-06T20:27:00.001+08:00

Low fat dairy

As most of you are probably already aware, cheese is the enemy of our waistlines. But it doesn't have to be. You should still eat cheese and other dairy products such as milk and yoghurt, but make sure you switch to a low-fat variety.

As well as strengthening bones, low-fat dairy products are thought to help you rip through fat reserves. Research carried out at Purdue University found that those who consumed three cups of low-fat milk a day gained less weight over two years compared to those on low-calcium diets.

Peanut butter

Another reason why protein is so fantastic at burning fat is that the body requires more energy to process it than it does carbs and fat, so you burn more calories in the process. As well as being tastier than David Beckham in a pair of swim shorts, peanut butter is essentially liquid protein, and it's a top choice for a pre-workout breakfast.

Leafy vegetables

Low in calories and fat (obviously), green leafy vegetables such as spinach, kale and lettuce are packed with fat-burning fibre as well as an endless list of vitamins and minerals.

Fibre (just like protein) has the added benefit of making you feel full, so they are a great way to bulk up your diet and keep you from craving carbs or sweet snacks - which are the enemy of your stomach.

source: http://lifestyle.xin.msn.com/en/health/healthy-eating/article.aspx?cp-documentid=5387891&page=11

hmm.. i dont really eat peanut butter cause its "zhua" i.e. heaty, otherwise i endorse all the other food! very healthy i like :) this marks the end of the -great abs- series!

Lunch with the Dean

2011-11-06T11:39:00.000+08:00

NUS organised a "lunch with the dean" session for scholars. so last wed, 2 Nov, I had the honour of being invited to the free lunch :D (doesn't that sound so "elitist") the lunch was good, this round of lunch was for students majoring in physics, math/ applied math, quantitative finance, and statistics. there were around 30 of us. the majority was physics students, much more than i had expected because somehow i had the impression that the number of physics students is around 30-50 per cohort, a very small class. i mean physics is like such a pure science on its own, applied physics will be equivalent to engineering science. so maybe i kinda underestimated the number of students majoring in physics.

nevertheless, the food/ buffet was really good! had lots of variety, fried rice, egg, fish, chicken, veg, fishballs, and one kind of dimsum-looking dish. and there was dessert too. what i found slightly/ quite depressing was the number of singaporeans there, the majority was actually ASEAN scholars, from malaysia, indonesia, and vietnam, and they make up 60-70% of the scholars who attended? ARGH. where has the "majority" gone to! man. that's sad. its like in the US, its okay if you're the minority, i mean, you're a foreign student there, of course you're the minority, but back in my home country, this is happening too! this is perhaps why the problem of not having a "sense of belonging to Singapore" exists. where do we belong!! not here, not there. outcast-ed bunch of souls.

and not trying to insinuate anything here, but i do ponder about the rationale behind the lunch session. this initiative is something new, started in 2010. and it seemed that some feedback/ suggestions brought up by students in the previous session still have not been improved on, the efficiency of the management and the amount of paperwork to be cleared definitely something to look into? and so i shared some of my exchange experience in the States, on their curriculum and grading system (which are much more transparent). and "its impossible" to be done in NUS was what the professors said. no leeway for negotiation at all :O i understand the difference in societal culture and values and why certain things can/ cannot be done, and sometimes it needs time for things to be implemented, but at least consider our feedback?? totally questioning the purpose of feedback here.

if resistance to change is great, i guess having a feedback session is just pointless.

Get great abs: best foods for women

2011-11-05T10:27:00.001+08:00

(ok i've decided to spam a little more updates on this series because its going to take ten days if I just post one food at a time! here's four more foods!)

Nuts

You weren't expecting that, were you? Nuts have a reputation for being eye-wateringly high in fat - but in fact they are another source of 'good' fats and nuts such as almonds and Brazils are the perfect snack to carry around with you.

If you feel hungry during the day, eat a handful of nuts to fight cravings and prevent muscle loss (other snacks such as chocolate, crisps and biscuits contain dreaded trans-fats - the worst possible for your waistline).

Olive oil

It goes without saying that you should be cooking with olive oil rather than other, unhealthier fats such as butter or vegetable oil. Olive oil actually encourages your body to burn fat and reduces your cholesterol, which means your heart benefits too.

Just one ounce of olive oil contains almost 90% of your daily recommended amount of monounsaturated fat. If you are hard enough, down a shot of olive oil once a day - your stomach will thank you for it.

Beans

Most beans (and we're talking about the likes of kidney, lima, fava and edamame rather than canned baked beans, which can be high in sugar) are full to the brim with protein, as well as dietary fibre (good for your digestive system) and iron.

To get the full benefits - make sure you cook them thoroughly, as this makes it easier for your system to properly break down the proteins essential for keeping your muscles toned and your waistline slim. Legumes, such as lentils, are another great source of protein and vitamins.

Whole grains

Your body still needs carbohydrates (every meal should include a fine balance of protein, carbs and fat) so don't cut them out of your diet altogether.

If you want a flat stomach, then you need to stop eating processed carbs like white bread, pasta and white rice. Instead, swap them for fibre-rich, unprocessed whole grains, including wholegrain bread, pasta, rice and cereals to stop your body from storing fat.

source: http://lifestyle.xin.msn.com/en/health/healthy-eating/article.aspx?cp-documentid=5387891&page=8

On a sidenote, my mum has always been using olive oil to cook :) and ever since I came back from the US, I dont really find myself in need of rice. :O haha and yes! i love whole grains!!^^ nuts and beans~~~ kinda lotsa food to eat from too!

Get great abs: best foods for women

2011-11-04T14:59:00.005+08:00

Mackerel and other oily fish

Don't be fooled into thinking these delicious fish, which are full of omega-3 fatty acids, will make you put on weight rather then lose it.

They might contain significant levels of fat, but these are indisputably 'healthy' fats that work with the high levels of protein to increase muscle mass and stop your body from storing fat on your waist.

They also protect your immune system, so you can keep exercising without feeling run down or ill. You should aim to eat three portions of oily fish a week.

source: http://lifestyle.xin.msn.com/en/health/healthy-eating/article.aspx?cp-documentid=5387891&page=4

Get great abs: best foods for women

2011-11-03T22:22:00.003+08:00

Lean meat

Power to the protein! Meats like turkey and beef are full of the stuff, which makes them adept at building muscle and strengthening the immune system, but you need to make sure you buy as good a quality meat as you can afford (go free-range or organic) and always look for the leanest cuts of beef, such as rump, topside or fillet.

Beef is also full of those fat-destroying B vitamins, which is an added bonus.

source: http://lifestyle.xin.msn.com/en/health/healthy-eating/article.aspx?cp-documentid=5387891&page=3

Get great abs: best foods for women

2011-11-02T19:08:00.002+08:00

For my info!! :) i shall put up one tip a day.

The bulge stops here. Doing 200 crunches a day is not enough to give you a washboard stomach - you also need to eat the right foods that will burn through stubborn fat and promote lean, mean muscle growth.Protein-rich foods play a particularly important role in helping your body to build muscle and stop storing fat, and you should make sure that every meal or snack includes a dose of this magic nutrient while also sticking to a balanced, varied diet.

Here is our list of foods that will give your natural fat burners a turbo-boost and give you tight, toned, to-die-for abs.

Eggs

A veritable protein-powerhouse, eggs make the perfect breakfast or post-workout meal as they stop lean muscle from being broken down, while their high level of vitamin B12 has the opposite effect on fat cells (B vitamins also give you energy, so you'll feel super pumped when doing sit-ups).

If you are worried about your cholesterol, you can cut out the egg yolks and still benefit from the high-protein content in the whites. For ultra-convenience, we love liquid egg whites after we've pounded our stomachs in the gym.

source: http://lifestyle.xin.msn.com/en/health/healthy-eating/article.aspx?cp-documentid=5387891&page=2

2011-10-23T12:03:00.000+08:00

想要分享一件有趣的新闻.我说这是天意！好人有好报！应该是上天将救济的任务托付给这位妇女，因为上天知道她乐善好施，所以让老虎机发生奇迹！"她虽拉中大奖，但仍语重心长地劝诫公众只可小赌怡情来减压，不可沉迷赌博。一旦她得到那笔奖金，她会将部分金额捐给慈善团体如慈济、仁慈和NKF等。"

金沙拉老虎机中大奖风波老板娘聘律师追41万

（2011-10-22）

刘丽仪

素食摊老板娘拉中老虎机大奖41万余元，但金沙赌场却以老虎机故障为由，以约26万元的跑车“替代”。老板娘不服，昨天正式委托律师发信追讨，以法律途径争取公道。

在芽笼经营素食摊“观音斋”的朱云萍（50岁）于星期二在金沙赌场拉老虎机，拉中红利现金41万6742元1角1分，但赌场经理却表示老虎机发生故障，她赢得的大奖应该是跑车，若卖回给赌场可得现金25万8962元。

　　朱云萍昨天在金沙赌场赠送两晚免费住宿的贵宾客房内受访，她坚持立场，只接受自己所赢得的现金，其他一切免谈。

朱云萍说：“我只拿我应得的，赌场多给我一分钱，我也不要，但少一分钱我也不会妥协。”

回想当天“赢奖”经过，她受访时仍觉不可思议。她说，星期一晚上为慰劳辛苦多时的员工，特地开车载他们到金沙参观，自己则开车离开。

隔天早上，朱云萍开车到赌场准备载员工上班，却在经过一台老虎机时被吸引，于是停下来试试手气。她请教一旁的印度男子老虎机的玩法后，就放入50元。

大约15分钟，她看到老虎机突然出现一串的数字，当场愣住，旁边的人就涌到她身边不停地道贺。朱云萍不知道到底赢了多少，反而是身旁的人告诉她赢了41万。

当她仍震撼当儿，赌场的经理却表示老虎机出现故障，她所赢得的其实是一辆跑车。

朱云萍说：“虽然我的英语很差，但我还分辨得出cash（现金）和car（车子）的不同，一个是四个英文字母，另一个是三个英文字母。”

当时一旁的人更大声鼓噪，她也坚持只要所赢得的金额，不接受跑车。担心工作人员把赢奖记录“清洗”，在场的一群人还主动协助站岗，不让任何人接近老虎机。

　　虽然赌场经理过后在双方无法达成协议下，建议她向赌场管制局求助后就离开赌场，但朱云萍不敢贸然离开，一直站在老虎机前，因为她不能拍照，担心没有任何证据证明自己赢奖。

　　她说：“最后有五六个在场的马来西亚人主动留下联络号码，表示愿意当我的证人，我才敢在僵持三小时后离开。”

　　朱云萍过后除了向赌管局和警方报案，也正式委托朱时生律师代为向金沙赌场索偿。她昨天也接到赌管局人员的来电，表示调查在进行中。

　　问及是否担心得不偿失，她表示对这起纠纷很有把握。她说：“我不在乎耗费多少钱和时间，这是原则问题，我一定要讨回一个公道。”

　　她虽拉中大奖，但仍语重心长地劝诫公众只可小赌怡情来减压，不可沉迷赌博。一旦她得到那笔奖金，她会将部分金额捐给慈善团体如慈济、仁慈和NKF等。

　　另一方面，朱时生律师受访时说，这相信是本地第一起追讨赌场奖金法律诉讼，律师楼已准备好给金沙的信件，星期一将寄给对方，要求赌场付现金41万6742元1角1分给朱云萍，并在合理时间内回复。

赌管局证实接投诉

金沙调查不愿置评

　　据了解，朱云萍拉中大奖的老虎机最高奖金只是5万元。赌管局发言人证实，游戏机投入服务之前，必须由合格的独立试验室进行测试，以确保符合当局的要求。

根据赌场管制法令，赌场业者和赌客如果有无法解决的纠纷，提交赌管局后，赌场检查员会作出裁决。之后，业者如果没有异议，必须在15天内缴付款项。

　　赌管局发言人昨天受询时证实接到投诉，目前正在进行调查。

　　滨海湾金沙发言人则说，由于这起事件仍在调查中，因此不愿置评。

*leeyee@sph.com.sg

source: http://www.zaobao.com.sg/sp/sp111022_023.shtml

2011-10-21T16:12:00.001+08:00

i like snsd's new album!!! (all except their 1st hit song- The Boys.. sounds so weird!!! not the style i like) i wished this was their 1st hit song: Lazy Girl~~~ haha love Jessica's voice at the beginning!!! :D

2011-10-15T09:47:00.002+08:00

hai. life sucks when you cant do what you want to do ): no more soshi concert for me.

2011-10-06T20:52:00.001+08:00

joined this Are You Ready story writing competition organised by MMD, CPFB. haha pretty interesting because im like a totally kskp kid ^^ basically wrote a story on how you came to realization that managing one's finances is important and how you do it, and last week was the crazy voting week! with sunday being the craziest because the votes of other contestants shot up so high high high! and fast fast fast!! and i spammed my friends' wall and facebook message them to vote for me! hard work kinda paid off since i managed to garner more than 500votes. amazing! ahha amaze myself! am currently in the 4th position with the votes taking up 40% of the score. 60% will be contributed by the judges. am awaiting results~~~ keke

Here's my "Are You Ready" Story...

Sinceyoung, my mother has always taught my siblings and me that “thrift is virtue”. Underher teachings, we learnt to spend only on our needs, and not our wants; andwhen buying what we need, it is important that we compare prices acrossdifferent shops, if possible, to enjoy the best bargain. She reasoned that ifconsumers can get what they want at a lower price, they are penalizingthemselves when purchasing the same good at a higher price.

My motherhas instilled in me the strategy of getting the most things with the leastamount of money at a young age. This has proven to be useful as I find myselfready to manage my own cash flow, which was apparent when I went to the US on astudent exchange programme. When planning my travel itinerary, I made sure thatI scanned as many websites offering quotations on prices of plane, bus or traintickets, as well as accommodation (without compromising the quality ofservice), as possible to ensure value-for-money.

Even thoughsaving money can be painful at times, looking back, I do pride myself inscoring the best bargains. One of my “achievements” includes travelling fromPittsburgh to Toronto for just US$2.50! It was a pretty ridiculous experiencebecause the entire journey took me about 13 hours on the bus: approximately 4 hoursride from Pittsburgh to Harrisburg, and 9 hours ride from Harrisburg toToronto, with a 3-hour in-between transfer gap. Had I chosen to fork out 100times the amount of money to buy an air ticket, it would have been a sweet 3 to4 hours plane ride and I would also be relieved of the hassle of handling two hand-carrybags piled on top of two luggages, which added up to a total of about 60kg. However,just the thought of saving about US$200 made me happy, and I chose to forgocomfort!

Therefore, Ibelieve that the ability to distinguish needs and wants builds the foundationto managing one’s wealth. To me, happiness comes in the form of amount of moneysaved and not the amount earned, which could never be enough if I do not knowhow to control my desires. I am very thankful to my mother who had brought meup the “thrifty” way, and I learnt to cherish the things I have as theyencompass the hard work put into research behind-the-scene.

2011-10-01T20:30:00.003+08:00

keke i like this photo ^^

2011-09-21T15:18:00.000+08:00

Yellow Ribbon Prison Run 2011 was AWESOME!!

this is the 3rd year the Yellow Ribbon Run is organised, but it is my first time running it! heard lotsa good comments about the organisation of the run, and the novelty of the route, and so i decided to sign up for it. its the first and only run that i will be running this year and fortunately a very great experience to sum it all up. the reason why i only signed up for one race this year is cause of all the exhorbitant prices the organisers are charging for sub-quality races in terms of race management and goodie bags etc. yea.

signed up this run with liyi and we went for the 6km fun run, because it is cheaper than the competitive 10k run, and since we wont win, no point paying more. ($25 for 6k, $30 for 10k). and we werent prepared to do a 10k so yea.

there were shuttle buses running from expo to the starting line itself, and i think a lot of people did not walk further down the queue to find out that actually the line is segmented into more sections, so that more people can boarded the buses in queue behind, which explained why the queue stretched all the wayyy into expo hall.. omg. fortunately my dad let me off at the bus stop and i saw how the queue was formed, so even though my friend was late, we managed to board the bus pretty quickly, because we walked to the front.

there was quite a jam as we were nearing the drop-off point, because roads were codoned off, and some people drove there i guess. yea.. so we arrived a little later than we were supposed to and the 6km fun run was already flagged off. but no worries, cause our timings were tracked by the running chip.

the race itself was good, because even though there were quite a number of runners, there is still space to run, pretty ample space to run comfortable without having to weave in and out of walkers. managed to keep to a pace of about 6min/km all the way so am quite happy with that. and the supporters/ cheerleaders (some secondary school kids) were very enthusiastic! cheering and drumming all the way. very good spirit! not like other races where the volunteers totally just sit down on the ground not doing anything. one thing that is not so pleasant might be that for the first part of the race, we had to run beside the traffic, so breathing in the exhaust fumes coming from the cars/ buses is pretty bad. :\

did not stop at any water points because wasnt necessary, and i think 6km is a really comfortable distance for me since every time i run on my own i will clock roughly 5-6km, so the run was enjoyable :D training is important!! and in fact, the last km was shorter than it should be i felt, because 6mins wasnt even up for the last km, and the route already ended.

and after the race, the carnival was super good as well! so many activities, and every runner (be it 6k or 10k) has a finisher medal!! and also the shoe bag~ shiok ^^ haha and then i took 2 bananas, and there were games too, music, exhibition etc. the weather was hot, but am thankful that i already completed the race, found some shade to hid under while waiting for baggage to be transported from the starting line to the finishing line. the baggage came in several batches, according to the time you arrived, which i thought was very organised as well. and they had a lot of volunteers to help with returning the baggage, everything was conducted very efficiently so the queue to collect our bags was very quickly dispersed.

then there was shuttle buses from 10am to pick us back to expo also. on the whole, very well executed and planned out. and the results were out the next day!! super efficient~~~ my timing was 34m3s :D ahaha happy.

2011-09-06T19:05:00.001+08:00

went for blood donation today.. haha decided to try new things whenever i can (the spirit sustained from after going on exchange) and yea so i signed up for it and went for my first blood donation attempt! ok i added the word 'attempt' because it really was.

yea so first station was filling up this form on your particulars, medical conditions etc. next stop.. registration by HSA officers.. they will scan your ic and then give you a sticker saying "be nice to me. this is my first donation" if it is your first donation. the sticker is very cute!! and then the third station was medical examination.. it was just taking blood pressue and pulse rate actually.. and i realised my pulse rate was very low!! 76. i think its good right. lower pulse for athletes is a good thing. (?) and then the officer also went through the questionnaire which you first filled up at the first station.. like for questions that you ticked Yes.. and then fourth station was prick one of your fingers (which i dont know is for what also), think they will check your blood (after that?) then the last station was to draw your blood. so i went onto the chair.. and the officer use that blood pressure pump to increase the pressure in my veins and ask me to squeeze a ball at the same time also.. yea. then after that the nurse/ officer (dont know how to address her position la! haha) hit my skin at the bend of my elbow there.. but like still cant really find my vein... she said my vein too small.. then ask me to try my right arm.. so she tied the air pump thingy to my right arm and did the same thing... and then....

eventually didnt make the cut to donate blood... vein too small.. told the person that when i had to draw blood for health check up also got this problem.. cannot find the vein.. then the person laughed and said.. body check-up only draw 20ml, this one draw 350ml, your heart will stop and you will faint!

interesting experience. i learnt something new about myself today ha~

2011-09-04T23:10:00.000+08:00

times have changed: in the past, i eat to run; now, i run to eat.
ahha ya! one of the things i dont like growing up BLEAH.

2011-09-04T16:56:00.000+08:00

had my 2nd session of pilates last fri. and wah everytime after pilates the whole body will ache for like a few days.. today still aching!! but i like the feeling ahhaa shiok. feels good. its like your body did some work. and according to news report, it is best if we were to exercise for at least 2.5hours on average per week. ahah so pilates was like 1hr, and i will run twice per week.. one over the weekend, and one time on one of the weekdays. am liking my schedule! :) it makes me happy when i can do what i want ahha. work-life balance :D haha will be different when start working!

i think im enjoying pilates. its a good workout for the body, every part of the body is working equally ahah so thats great.

its week 5 next week! so fast! and i think first half of the sem is always pretty chill :) dont quite know what i've been doing for the past few weeks either gosh haha

2011-08-27T18:23:00.001+08:00

first time voting! :) went with my grandma and my dad to the polling station pretty early about 8.30am. went there to vote before eating my breakfast (kinda immediately i brushed up) cause my grandma had to go to help out at my aunt's shop. haha it was pretty funny! cause my ah ma says her hand shaky, old liao ma. yea so mrs wong was telling me that she can actually ask the volunteer to help cross if necessary. haha so we got the volunteer to help her, but i think the volunteer only kinda guided her? how to cross properly? didnt do it for her, so she had to draw the X herself. then very funny! my ah ma showed me her polling card after that to ask me if ok or not, the cross is big and clear and within the box, very good. ahhaha i told her v nice. haha totally so not secret anymore, and i think there were other people beside her and she showed it across them to me, funny la.

feeling privileged to be able to vote!! :D excited to know the results!

2011-08-23T23:09:00.000+08:00

AHHH i can totally feel reality hitting me. school work is piling up and omg can totally feel the stress kicking in!!! ): i see a very high correlation between NUS and pekchek tagged in posts. HAI. there is really such a huge HUGE difference between exchange and studying :\ suckyyyy.

anyway i dont know why i think its my FYP that's causing me to lose hair. my FYP prof was just saying that his team some of the people are losing hair including himself. OMG. and i think research is really like very difficult to progress... how to have a breakthrough... omg. so tough.. killing me...........

and i feel so dumb. always cant seem to understand the journals online one!!! ok this is such a negative post. i cant wait for my project to be DA GONG GAO CHENG!

2011-08-12T21:46:00.000+08:00

woots!!! i finally finished updating on my one-month long trip!!! *CLAP HANDS* and school has started! somehow i kept falling asleep during lesson. gosh i hope i can get into the school mode soon.

Day 28 Last Day in SF

2011-08-12T21:44:00.000+08:00

28 May 2011
flight was slated to leave at about 12.15am 29may from SFO to JFK. had to catch the plan from JFK back to SG because of the round trip ticket that my parents helped to book from travel agency. anyhow, round trip tickets are cheaper as well, so had to fly back from NY. aiya, anyway i really dont like JFK airport.. its like so not NY, so not first class. and i had to spend about 11hrs there because i arrived at the airport early morn and my fight back to SG is like about 10hrs later. crazy wait man... was suppperrrr tong ku. no internet, nobody to talk to, so tired. not enough rest. so many luggage to look after. so many luggage to lug around if wanna go toilet. faintz.

so how did i spend my last day in SF! shopping~~~ and there was great sale because it was near some public holiday and yea so there was great sale. and so many people shopping. but the weather was pretty bad.. it was like almost raining the entire day.. only got better in the evening.. and i was already so tired from the almost one-month long trip and i found shelter in McDonald's or Burger King, to stay out of the rain. didnt buy anything but it wasnt that packed so i found a place to sit down and people-watch. and rot away my time.. think i was just staring into space or watching people walking along the streets for 2hrs. one super impressive skill that amazed myself is that i can do NOTHING for super long hours. madness.

so with all the shopping, my luggage nearly couldnt contain everything and they were packed to the max. super heavy also. my arms nearly broke from the weight. and in the morning, liang had to help me carry down my super huge luggage because that darn lift in the hotel had to break down on that day. -.-

bought lotsa bread to tide me over the next day that i'll spend at the airport and airport food is super ex. so in total this costs $3.20. damn cheap right. omg. there's like so many bread la. looking at this makes me feel like eating all these again. ahhh!!

my breakfast. from the bakery shop again! :D

its like 奶黄面包. super niceee.

and i think old navy gives me free "cocoa pebbles treats" for every $10 i spent. i cleared finish my walmart bread and this for lunch. super kiam to the max. haha i love old navy! their sale is really SALE. and i always bought a lot ahhaha. spent about $40 on old navy. got two pairs of slippers, two tops, one denim shorts, one track shorts. GO GOOD DEAL har. <$40 can get so many things.

my dinner! $3.75. nice! eat all the cheap and nice pizza in the US i can before i fly back to SG.

http://hxmeworld.blogspot.com/2011/06/ive-been-back-for-2.html so this is my blogpost on when i touched down in SG! on 31may. lost 2 days cause of time zone difference and flying. ahah time FLIES.

Day 27 Gilroy Premium Outlets

2011-08-11T22:45:00.001+08:00

27 May 2011
went to Gilroy Premium Outlets for shopping... and it was sooo far away from SF... omg. it was like a 3h journey of bus + train + bus + bus. oh well but we set away the entire day for last min shopping. and i decided that i spent too much and i have to think about my luggage space and i've still got one more day of shopping the next day, yea so consciously saving $ and saving luggage space. the Caltrain in SF was very comfortable! and speedy and convenient. the train ride was worth the experience tho i didnt get anything from the outlets! ahha but my friend got some stuff so thats fine!

and when we reached the train station and transfer to take the bus, the bus driver was totally dissuading us not to go to Gilroy and ask us to go back cause the journey is ridiculous. he was very nice! he gave all of us a free ticket and kept asking us to think about dropping off and heading back to the direction we came from. ahhaha and i think Gilroy is kinda famous for its outlets, cause when we said we wanna go Gilroy, the bus driver said, "you're going there for shopping huh" haha. yea we didnt give up and made it to the outlets eventually. it was one crazy long journey. haha and liang's friend joined us for the day. liang has a lot of friends and connections in the US which is great! haha
actually it would have been much more convenient if we were to go on a weekend because the train will stop at Gilroy as its last stop, however as its a weekend, i guess the human traffic is not as much, so they stopped earlier at San Jose and we had to catch a bus from there to Gilroy, which is about a 2h ride.
the San Jose Caltrain station!

Caltrain. very clean~~~

liang and her friend bonnie

on the train. so tired.

palo alto station.

view along the ride

and omg so shocked when i see this. so much rubbish dumped here.

went to eat at a thai restaurant recommended by bonnie! it was good!

i ordered pad thai :)

and today is my butties liang and cherylim last day in SF since their flight is near noon and they had to leave for the airport in the next morning ahh.. while my flight is like midnight so i got one more day to roam around in SF!!
liang~

cherylim~

Day 26 Napa Valley

2011-08-11T22:19:00.002+08:00

26 May 2011
got to know that sing ai was in SF and after popping her a fb msg, she asked me to meet her at her hotel! we're going to Napa Valley on the day! (totally not expected and wasnt planned in my itinerary.. so my friends went shopping while i joined sing ai and her family. it was an AWESOME side trip. ahhaha cause i never got to go to wineries nor vineyards before!! happy!) and her hotel was further than what i expected. i walked all the way and kept wanting to give up but didnt. great accomplishment!
on the way to sing ai's hotel along market street (market street is super longgg)

sing ai! :D

strawberries growing on the ground!

and apple tree! so funny sing ai was saying people come here to look at wineries and grapewines, we come to look at strawberries and apples. hahaha

so good weather!!

had our lunch here at rutherford grille! quite a long queue man.. gotta wait like half an hr.

sing ai's beef burger

my veggie burger :D it was soo good.

rutherford winery

we got to try 1 white wine and 4 red wines! (for free)

and i decided to buy one of the red wines since my parents liked red wine and it was cheap. US$36! haha sing ai said can never get this kinda prices in singapore one. so i just buy keke. she's the pro.

went to v.sattui after that. and we gotta try some wine too! this place is very commercialised! many people buying over here. and some of the prices are cheaper, some more ex, some v ex. depending on the grade i think. i dont know how to judge but i think their wine are really good.

all the wine barrels!

on the way to (i forgot the name) but its supposed to look like a castle!

sheeps!

so beautiful view

on the way back!

went to MOMA after that! since it closed at 8PM on thursdays.

one of my favourite painting. so simple. hahaha.

Day 25 Golden Gate Park

2011-08-11T21:20:00.001+08:00

25 May 2011
went to California Academy of Sciences in the morning. it was a rainy morning man.. and pretty cold. i like the public transport in SF so much! there're so many bus lines and so many buses that we could take and the frequency is high. so efficient.
this is along market street!

signs on the bus! and so cool. bilingual too!

arrived at California Academy of Sciences!

see the gloomy weather~~~

many sea/ marine creatures! exotic.

then we headed to De Young Museum which was just opposite, this was also included in the citypass. and we got so tired after the entire academy visit. it was sooo huge that we have no strength (& no mood) for this art museum already. -.- and since we're not that arty-farty, yea we kinda "cleared" this museum in 30mins. and we only had about 45mins left before the museum closed anyway.

look at the huge safety pin! haha coolest part of the museum.

and my favorite exhibit inside the museum.

walked around Golden Gate Park after that. the weather got so much better. see all the sunlight! haha this was the Japanese Tea Garden which you've to pay to get in. so we just stood at the entrance and took a photo with the background behind. hahaha

entrance.

so tranquil~~~~ man i love this place.

and people started feeding the pigeons, and there were so many of them. the entire flock just totally flew towards them as they start throwing food into the pond.

on the way back. the Academy of Sciences again! from afar.

headed to Little Italy for dinner. food was awesome. not too ex too! we ate salmon pasta :)

happy :D after a long tiring day of non-stop walking.

Day 24 San Francisco

2011-08-09T11:09:00.001+08:00

24 May 2011
SF is really my favourite city in the west coast!! :D love it over there. stayed near chinatown area so we searched for breakfast in chinatown. and we're loyal customers. after we found the bakery, we went there for breakfast for the next few days we're in SF. the bakery makes good bread!! and very fresh outta the oven too.

one egg tart for 80cents and one bo luo bao for 40cents. awesome.

so steep!! we wanted to see the coit tower but realised that we cant go into the area.. it was not accessible via this route after we walked all the way up omg -.-

coit tower in view. this was one of the amazing race tasks i remember. they had to climb down!!

headed to Pier 39 for the day!

since we bought the citypass, it included Aquarium of the Bay as one of the attraction. and it got the feel of the Underwater World in Singapore. dory!!

shark

and there're also some other land animals. cute cute small small kind. chincilla!

porcupine!

the pier! so many boats

so many chocolatesssssssss........ omg so sinful!

went to buy our lunch!

salmon! its about $6.

and then we went for the Blue&Gold Fleet cruise. included in the citypass too.

can see Golden Gate bridge in the background! and the wind was supppeerrr strong.

alcatraz island.

so many seals basking under the sun!!

so big and black

Fisherman Wharf! :D actually the entire area is fisherman wharf. there's many piers yep, but pier 39 is the most happening one. more things to see and eat etc.

then we walked towards Ghirardelli square. THE famous chocolate of SF!

we're given a free sample of the choc!

many trolley buses called MUNI along the streets. damn cool. haha can see people hanging at the side also.

our dinner was in-n-out burger! THE famous burger of West Coast. hahaha must try. damn good. i ate the veggie burger since i dont eat beef. it was good!

:) very cheap also!

on our way back, we passed by wet market in chinatown. interesting to see what we usually see in sg too! haha

Day 23 Stanford - San Francisco

2011-08-08T00:03:00.001+08:00

23 May 2011
went down (from SF) to stanford university!! omg so cool!! love stanford! the campus is so beautiful! and the weather was great that day. jc classmate clarence chio brought us around :) haha he was a good tour guide. very touristy place too. ahha

typical mode of transport - bicycle. i like.

palm trees everywhere! according to chio, he said the weather wasnt very suitable for palm trees to grow properly though... and the maintenance for the palm trees every year was millions. he said thats where all the tuition fees go to. hahaha

they've got a church on campus too.

some of their faculty buildings.

then we went back to SF, and siyu brought us to see the famous lompard street. it was the most crooked street in the world. or curviest. ya you get my drift. and all the roads in SF is like going up and down up and down, like so many crests and troughs!! sin curve.

can see the steep angles all the cars are parked at.

ok here we're at the "crookedest" street!

houses by the side of the street. very beautiful!

then we went to eat good food in the financial district area. its a place called tardich grill (California's oldest restaurent) recommended by wufan :) haha and since its siyu's last meal in SF before he flew back to toronto, we ate something more atas. the financial district area.

the bill wasnt very cheap. it ended up about $100. but it was cause their specialties were all seafood. and very fresh and good! yea like shrimp prawn salmon scallops etc.. yep! very filling also actually! it was a lunch+dinner kinda thing. omg looking back we actually save quite a lot on meals cause we combined two into one -.-

then we headed to the Golden Gate bridge!! the famous GG bridge that appeared in X-Men also where Magneto destroyed it. so cool.

and after taking photos, we went over to some stopover view point area to see sunset!! :D

liang~~

i love SF!

Day 22 Yosemite National Park

2011-08-06T21:22:00.000+08:00

22 May 2011
headed towards Yosemite National Park after breakfast! man i love this place. all the photos looked super good. cause of the scenery.

and i found my ideal car here!! AHHH!!

then we headed to Walmart to replenish our stock. i wished there's a Walmart beside my house!!!

<3 the strawberries. so big and juicy!!

hehe and all these at $1 each!!! so cheap!! AHHH

then we went to UC Berkeley to walk walk and look look around :) siyu's friend who's doing a PhD here brought us around. apparently it isnt a very big campus. and we kinda arrived Berkeley in the late evening. so it got dark pretty soon. in front of the University Library.

clock tower!

keke the upside down tree. because the branches look like roots

met wufan for dinner!

and the food was AWESOME :)

seafood baked rice

we wanted to just eat desserts actually cause they looked so good. so to have more space for desserts, our main course wasnt alot haha.

ROCKS!!

it was a good day because thats the last day that we're shifting hotels too. hahaha.

Day 21 Monterey Bay

2011-08-06T13:35:00.001+08:00

21 May 2011
we only managed to reach Santa Maria at about 3AM in the morning! since we departed from Pasadena at about 12+am only. madness right. so tired, but that means we kinda skipped breakfast again and we checked out of hotel at about 12pm. after all the washing up etc. it was a super long drive about 2.5hrs man. thumbs up to siyu who did all the driving! haha so today's plan was another long drive.. from Santa Maria, we're to continue upwards all the way to Oakhurst (cause we're going to go to Yosemite National Park the next day!! :)) Oakhurst was the nearest accommodation outside Yosemite National Park and one of the more affordable place to stay. its about 2.5hrs drive away from Yosemite National Park. but oh well 2.5hrs seemed to be the norm.

heard that Monterey Bay was v pretty so we just headed to take a look! and we ate Bubba Gump seafood there. can see the ocean from there! v good weather as well!

many seals!!

i thought this was cute.

my fish n chips;)

cherylim's fish

liang's prawn/ shrimp

siyu's prawn combo

v strong wind!

Day 20 Pasadena

2011-08-06T13:19:00.001+08:00

20 May 2011
headed back to Pasadena which is in LA, as we are on route to SF, up north. met liang's another friend who's studying at Caltech haha and he brought us to this nice restaurant on campus. apparently students/ staff have discount. and he treated us :D

red velvet!

then we went to Huntington Library and Botanical Gardens! i love nature~~ the weather was pretty hot that day. super sunny.

the desert section

so beautifulll...

YEA YEA!

hahaha apparently this is the temple of love hehe

so scenic! its v quiet also. nice place to hang out. but entrance fee is like $10 or $12.

then we headed to Griffith Observatory! can see the entire LA from here. nice place to hang out also!

sun dial!

went to the Planetarium to watch a show. but i kinda fell asleep halfway.. too tired but it was giving me a headache. dont know why.

man this car is so cute! got eyelashes haha

sunset

went to eat korean food that night! WAS FANTASTIC!! i love the korean food in the US. they're so legit. and lotsa side dishes!

yay pancake!!

seafood tofu soup.

we're happy (&hungry) people!

oh and then it was a long journey to Santa Maria, cause we wanted to reach SF on 23rd May, and Santa Maria had the rates we wanted for the hotels in the area. the Santa Barbara area etc was pretty expensive cause they were near the beach, but we didnt exactly have time for the beach la. and since we managed to get a beach experience at Santa Monica, and after planning and prioritising, we had to give the more beautiful beaches in SD and Santa Barbara a miss. RAHH. no time no money~~~ though i personally think we managed to cover a lot of places in this one month! and lotsa memories! very great experience. and lotsa good food.

2011-08-04T16:15:00.002+08:00

this is badd.... why is my weight climbing.... i think i eat too muchhhhhh.... cant resist eating!!

2011-08-04T15:03:00.001+08:00

read an article today in The Straits Times section, on Living. its titled Are you just a Facebook friend by Gary Hayden. pretty interesting read! cause there's mention of some theory behind friends relationships.

"The Greek philosopher Aristotle (384BC - 322BC) said friendships come in three varieties: friendships of utility, friendships of pleasure and perfect friendships.

Friendships of utility are formed between people who are useful to one another. An example would be the loose friendship that forms between business partners who do not socialise outside of business hours.

Friendships of pleasure are formed between people who share common interests or enjoyment. For example, they could be formed betwen the members of a badminton club or a bird-watching society, or between people who like to share a joke together.

Finally, there is perfect friendship. This is Aristotle's label for true and lasting friendships based on mutual affection and regard. In perfect friendships, people value others not merely because they are useful or pleasant, but because of their characters and because of who they are.
According to Aristotle, there is nothing wrong with friendships of utility and friendships of pleasure. They have their place. But they are vastly inferior to perfect, or true, friendships.
If we examine our Facebook friendships in this light, the first thing we notice is that almost all of them are either friendships of utility or friendships of pleasure.

Friendships of utility are, at heart, selfish affairs. We form them principally to serve our own ends. Clearly, many Facebook friendships are of this type. We amass "friends" simply because we enjoy collecting them, or because we wish to appear popular, or because we crave affirmation, or because we want to build support for our pet causes.
...
...
...
Perfect friendship, or friendship in its truest form, can develop only between people whose loyalty and good intentions towards one another have been proven over time.
...
We cannot truly love someone unless we know them and we cannot truly know them unless we spend time with them, face to face. So although Facebook can be a useful medium for maintaining and cultivating true friendships formed elsewhere, I doubt that it is, by itself, sufficient to create and sustain them - except, perhaps, in some very exceptional circumstances."

okay, somehow i couldnt find the original article online, so i just typed out certain paragraphs of the article. i agree with the writer to a great extent! (omg feels like im answering some GP question) so how many true friendships can one person manage?

and personally i think there is another type of "friendship" in Facebook that cannot qualify under all 3 categories at all, when people simply anyhow add people they dont know also. -.-" i dont do that at least, but im sure there're certain groups of people who just randomly go around adding people for fun. or just to stalk them omg. at least i dont mind being a "useful" friend of others, thats when at least you know you're still useful. at least im value adding to people's life!

Day 19 Las Vegas Premium Outlets

2011-08-03T22:48:00.002+08:00

19 May 2011
went to eat brunch buffet at Bellagio!! it was DAMN GOOD!! so much food omg. this is when i wished i had a bigger stomach or i can change stomach after one is full and on and on HAHA. im a pig.

then afterwards we went shopping at las vegas (north) premium outlets! man i love the outlets! its like the sale are so good!! bought clothes again! we spent about 2+hours there only because we had to travel 2.5hrs to Barstow for the night, and the next day will be a long one. and Bastow is a really quiet town. they told us the Internet was down the entire day apparently when we arrived, and were v sorry for the inconvenience. and so cant do the credit card payment method either. win. ahah

sashimi!!

and omg omg all the desserts looked sooo gooodddd...

i ate one of this!

and this! man i love chocolate eclairs.

i ate one cookie too.

i love strawberries! the fruits there were so juicy and the strawberries so biggg. i took a lot. many servings too.

and we had dinner at iHop. i didnt really eat cause i wasnt hungry at all. i mean after all that buffet, how to eat again! and i barely recovered from my stomach flu and hasnt been eating much at all for the past few days and to think so much at one go was too much for my stomach to take. i went to the toilet a number of times in the day also. PIANG. but the buffet was totally worth it. my weakest link is FOOD.

so this is what my friends had. looks good right~~~~ haha the pancakes looked quite sinful hehe.

Day 18 Hoover Dam - Las Vegas

2011-08-02T22:50:00.002+08:00

18 May 2011
as you can see, its already august and i'm still updating on my May vacation. how lag is that -.-
i still can remember what happened "today" because it is my twin's birthday! haha liang~~~

looking from carpark.. the hoover dam!

woah.. so wide!

hoover dam!

we've finally arrived at LAS VEGAS!!!

NEW YORK NEW YORK~

MGM

PARIS

Our hotel! Excalibur~

BELLAGIO

can see the (brooklyn? manhatten?) bridge

our dinner. manchu wok. food very expensive there! and we decided to eat simple to make it in time for LION KING musical!! :D

not cheap man! haha $64 with free upgrade to $98 (or was it $112) seat. it was the cheapest performance for the night we can find.

along the streets of Las Vegas at night!

Bellagio looked so nice at night!

musical water fountain in front of Bellagio. every 15mins.

took a car ride around Las Vegas~~ siyu drove :)

Golden Nugget

Wynn

The Stratosphere

Caesar's Palace

Monte Carlo!

New York New York at night

Circus Circus

our hotel at night!

2011-07-31T22:23:00.000+08:00

being overly obessive over something (anything in fact) is very bad!!! HAI. dropped into one of those pit holes again.

2011-07-30T21:00:00.000+08:00

bought a new pair of running shoes from BATA @ jurong point yesterday. omg. i think i keep on buying running shoes!! is like other people buy high heels, i buy sports shoes. but its so pretty! and last one left. it was on sale. didnt take long for me to make the decision.

new balance 310 :) $69.

2011-07-30T14:52:00.000+08:00

too much of reading up on SNSD recently made them appear in my dream too. so rubbish. actually dreamt of them appearing at some campus concert and then somehow i managed to sneak into their backstage room/ makeup room/ toilet and i asked yuri to take photo together (zi-pai) and then we took so many photos and then yoona came over to take my cam, and thought that she wanted to take tog with us, then she ended up using my cam to take photo of herself and then dont wanna return it to me. and then they understand english pretty well, but just cannot really speak a lot. what a dream.
here's two of my favourite, yuri and tiffany.

Day 17 Grand Canyon (South Rim)

2011-07-17T21:33:00.002+08:00

17 May 2011
went to Grand Canyon today!! wah really majestic! cant believe i was actually there before! its like one of the seven wonders of the world ya? so we covered niagara falls and grand canyon this trip! so awesome. it was really scary because you cant see what's below you. you cant see the bottom at all.

the drive to the Grand Canyon South Rim took about 3hours, and the South Rim is the most popular rim, i think it is because you can have the best view from there.

reminds me of the movie UP as well! because the house flew over to Grand Canyon as well haha!

we hiked a bit, climbed down the rocks to go down further but it was so scary! you've to figure your steps down slowly and carefully. cause once you lose your balance, that's it man.

cherylim, liang, me :)

we're sitting on the edge of the cliff!! so scary!! is like slowly slowly sit down.

:D liang, cherylim, siyu, me

so beautiful!!!! there were many different colours of the rock, due to erosion etc.

actually it was very cold up there! the win was sooo strong. lucky i brought my winter jacket along. i needed it in california as much as i need it in pittsburgh. so ironic. ahaha california's weather is supposed to be much warmer than that in pittsburgh. as you can see from this photo as well, im happy but tired aha.

liang! my twin :)

i like this photo keke liang took so well ahha.

i was lazy to climb further down cause all the layers of rocks looked the same as backdrop after a while, so im lazy to go down to take photo. and v scary also la.

so beautiful!! its great to have railings behind you to give you the support that you need.

and so it was another about 3hrs drive back and we dropped by Walmart to replenish stock on food. it was my first visit to Walmart too! cant believe i havent been to Walmart yet even though i've been in the US for like 5months. because Walmart usually out of the way, you've to have a car to get to Walmart, usually not located in downtown area.

a lot of Disney stuff too!! very cheap! but i didnt buy cause my luggage going to explode. and i still have like 10 more days to go, and more shopping places to go :\

it was a long day too.

Day 16 San Diego Zoo

2011-07-16T22:37:00.001+08:00

16 May 2011
went to the Zoo today! apparently its the top zoo in the world! and we saw panda!!! haha i dont know why i had the impression that i've seen a panda in real life before but when i told my parents, they were like super excited that i actually had seen a panda which is super rare. the zoo is really huge, and i actually feel that they have a lot of animals that Singapore also has. so actually Singapore Zoo is DAMN GOOD also! like we can compete with SD Zoo also la!

on the tram tour around the zoo!

giraffe!

i think this is a donkey.

zebra!

flamingo!

elephant!

polar bear!!

THE PANDA!!! there were three of them! and two of them were sleeping while this one was eating non-stop.

took the cable car down!

en route to kingman via Palm Springs!

Palm Springs! a super small city!

chasing the moon! arrived at kingman kinda late. i think by the time we reached kingman it was about 11pm. total journey was like 7hours plus from San Diego to Kingman, Arizona. longgg drive!!

there were lotsa wind turbines along the route as well! i included Palm Springs as part of the route because it was the starting scene of The Amazing Race Season 17 haha! the teams solved the first clue at one part of Palm Springs where there're lotsa wind turbines as well! so cool!

Day 15 Stay-in Day

2011-07-15T21:13:00.000+08:00

15 May 2011
decided to stay in the hotel cause wasnt feeling up to it to go outside and my dad gave me an urgent call from Singapore to skype him because he wanted to tell me to stay in and rest and dont go outside and take care of myself, dont let them worry. yep. didnt wanna spoil the entire of the trip as well so stayed in while my friends went ahead to legoland. yep! if there's a chance in future can always go there again. 留得青山在,不怕没柴烧。yea! so bathe early and slept early and had a muffin which my friend brought from the breakfast lounge for me :) really really v thankful for them keke.

so i just ate bread for dinner and this was the seventh day and so i decided to take solid food to boost energy also. time passes quite fast also. really tak boleh tahan sleeping late everyday.

Day 14 Seaworld

2011-07-10T11:15:00.003+08:00

14 May 2011
today is another long day! went to Seaworld, got the tickets $63.99.. had some discount coupon with us... if not its $70+ i think. quite ex! but its very cool. there was a few rides as well, not many, because seaworld is mainly many animal performances, and we went for all of them.. im not in the right condition for all the rides too. condition didnt not improve very much, and the diarrhea was taking its toll on me. veyr lethargic the entire day kinda too. this is when you realised the greatness of your travelling mates. haha my friends are super good to me la.. will wait for me to go toilet (many times) try to accommodate my slow walking also :\ and me not being v high.. unusual.

went to collect siyu's San Diego Pass first at a harbour before we head towards Seaworld.

bought SD Zoo ticket at the counter where we collected the SD Pass because they were selling discounted tickets.. $35...if not will be $40 if im not wrong. this is how we save $$ :)

our Seaworld tickets. i took the sesame street one ahha

seal performance.

shamu performance! so bigg! and the splash also very huge. there is this soak zone where you will get splashed by the shamu. we were near the splash zone but not in it also kena man. very strong.

one of the fews ride they have inside. this one will make you soaked man.

roller coaster ride. this one is quite scary i think. people were screaming very loudly ahhaha.

ahh the pigg!!! so cute.

animal performance... like dogs, cats, pig, birds.

dolphins performance. i was holding high expectations for dolphins lo, cause my fav animal then quite disappointing cause not a lot of stunts! apparently they said this is one of the few times they are showcasing male dolphins (trying them out), and female dolphins are smarter. which might explain why the stunts they do arent very spectacular cause they are the male ones and not the female ones that are performing :P and there were many stuntman performing also.. i think the humans did more stunts/ contribute to the performance more than the dolphins. -.-

back to seal performance! this one was a remix of all the performance they had and they wrote the script such that you can relate to all the other performances you watched and the seals kinda copied the other performances haha very amusing.

the seals had smiley faces on their body. so cute!

shamu finale performance again! they're really good!!

went to see those animal exhibits in between the timeslots of those animal performances. quite cool. there're quite a lot of those sea creatures.

this is the type of penguins that can stay on dry land. no need air con also can ha.

i not sure what is this blue blue thing.. but cant be blue whale ba.. cause blue whale is mega huge.. not possible to contain them at all..

starfish!

parrot!

seagull all over the place where people eat and dine. so scary. ahhaha

went to Vons supermarket to top up on our stash. they open till quite late la.. think they close at 12midnight. and i went to get a member's card also cause some things got discount with the card. hahaha their member cards all free one damn goood!

i bought this after my friends kept asking me to get baby food because its soft and can give me energy. see how pathetic my condition was. yea so i got this. its quite nice to eat hahaha

Day 13 Anaheim - San Deigo

2011-07-10T10:40:00.001+08:00

13 May 2011
liang's friend, who is also my friend now, siyu came today to pick us up and drive towards San Diego. we were so tired again, so we woke up late and checked out, waited for siyu and when we reached SD, we didnt do much, and slept early because we were going to Seaworld the next day. and i didnt have much energy because i didnt eat much, only just kept taking gatorade to replenish the fluids in my body.

what kept me going yesterday in Disney. two bottles of Gatorade.

bought two more bottles for today.

went to cheesecake factory for lunch. i had clam chowder soup, but didnt eat all the clam chowder cause only can take soup ): so sadddd one...

while cherylim, liang and siyu ate their sumptous lunch.

we're on our way to SD!! the sky is really beautiful.

the road trip begins!

we arrived at our hotel! Best Western :)

it looks really good, and i think in general the hotel inns in USA are really good, in terms of what they provide for the price... cant expect those sumptous buffet breakfast but the variety is still acceptable. and we're moving everyday, or sometimes we cant even wake up for breakfast so we had bread which we bought from walmart to last us as well

Day 12 Disney California Adventure Park

2011-07-10T10:24:00.002+08:00

12 May 2011
today was Disney day!! :) so happy! i love disney. haha happiest place on earth. despite all the diarrhea, didnt stop me from taking all the rides hahaha. and there was this ride that is super scary! gotta hold my sh*t man. hahaha -.- sorry for the details. hahaha anyhow the only disappointing thing of the day was that the World of Colors water fountain show got technical difficulties and stopped playing after 1min!! WALAO so sad one...... we chose to go to the Adventure Park cause the rides more thrilling and there was this performance la. disneyland didnt have fireworks that day.. so we opted for this. and the ticket was $76. and we were given this badge for visiting disney for the first time :) complimentary!! yay! haha

the wheel keeps changing the lighting at night. very beautiful!

went to the biggest Disney merchandise store. it was really huge, and everybody flooded there after the park closed. the queue was so long also. seemed like the power of Disney can never be underestimated. haha

ratatooee... looks quite weird hahaha

bought this for my mum cause she loves chip&dale!! so difficult to find you know... only left about 4 pairs.. couldnt find any chip&dale soft toys in the Orlando theme parks! its like they dont make them anymore... maybe the alvin and the chipmunks have replaced them...

and bolt is so cute!! lalala no marney marney... if not will buy hahaha.

the one-minute World of Color which we got to enjoy. it was so good. then it stopped after slightly more than one minute. RAHHH.

Lunch with Peggy :)

2011-07-03T15:18:00.000+08:00

lunch on friday (1 Jul 2011) was AWESOME!!! peggy :D ahah still ate ice cream after that. we had our own youth day haha!

and the dept that i was attached to, BPA, fed me a lot of food after that still! like egg soyabean curd, this magnum ice cream (i forgot to take photo before i started eating haha), and then pear. omg. totally was like eating non-stop kind.. and never walk around somemore. and went to watch transformers 3 at night! CPFB subsidized. so only $5 for the ticket ^^ and was eating chips and drinking iced lemon tea for dinner. how healthy LAAA. how to cut fat like this. all the non-stop temptations. ahhaha

Day 11 Los Angeles - Anaheim

2011-07-03T15:14:00.003+08:00

11 May 2011
today was planned as a slack day because we had forseen ourselves to be super tired by the end of the week in LA, so it was just planned for travelling from one part of LA to the other, which is Anaheim. and cause of my non-stop diarrhoea, we (my butties-liang and cherylim) decided that i should really go see a doc. so liang's cousin drove us to his campus (USC) to try to find a doc. he dropped us off at the university health centre, and when we went in, we wanted to register, and they said they only see students, so non-students cant, and asked whether we have insurance, and want us to call back to confirm that the insurance company will cover -.- gosh. so in the end we just asked them if they know of anywhere nearby that we can find a doc, but all the locations that she mentioned all so far out one! then we asked people around the campus, they also dont know, cause apparently i think it is not very common to see a doc over there. and we went to the dental school beside and asked for directions to the nearest hospital, and yea she gave us the map of the University Hospital. finally. we went to the pharmacy on campus first to see if they can recommend anything and when i asked if they have any med for stomach flu, they told us we have to see a doc to get the prescription. they dont know. apparently when i said i had diarrhoea for three days already, they just recommended me those glucose drinks and those pills that will stop the diarrhoea, but not if its a complicated case of flu/ bacteria etc. so i thought that i better go see a doc and not anyhow buy med. we had to take a shuttle to get to the University Hospital (and after asking people where to take the shuttle, and many dont know.. we happened to see it at the right place right time and boarded it, and there were two people heading for the same building in the vicinity, so they told us where to drop off, phew).

we went around the building asking for the place to see a doc, and apparently there isnt many walk-in patients. like the officers at the counters are a bit lost also when we said we wanted to see a doc... and just directed us to the adjacent building, and then when we went there, we were directed to the building next to it again.
anyhow finally we managed to get the right place and filled up my particulars. and i said i wasnt from the US, and am travelling around, from Singapore, they looked quite bemused also. zZz. overhead them at the counter asking one another also where is Singapore.. is it in Japan? China? :\ ya then when it was my turn, the doc said it was virus/ bug (stomach flu) after hearing me describe all my symptoms.. then my friends reminded me to ask if there're any prescriptions but the doc said no prescriptions, just ask me to go on a liquid diet for two days, then really soft food for two days, then after that the fifth day maybe can start taking solid food depending on my condition. wah no med one! and the doc was v nice! she gave me her namecard as well and said to call if i have any problems, and said she knows that it isnt easy to find a doc here, esp since im travelling. she also asked where we were from and she knows Singapore, been there before and liked it. hahaha a lot of people who've been to Singapore seem to like here. cool. then after i left, the doc called me back again, and said another unlikely case is that it could be bacteria infection instead of virus. then wrote me a prescription and said that if my cycle of vomit and diarrhoea repeats again after i start taking solid food, then i can get the med from pharmacy or target. if not dont need to use it. so nice.
so $55 for the consultation. better than expected. i was expected it to be $100+, $200+. heard about the exhorbitant rates of seeing docs in the US.

my dinner. i only drank the soup. it was nice lo. i wished i can eat the stuff as well!! all the barley ):