You just can't get enough of some people on mrt...

Numb nuts #1: People who sit spread-eagle like they have enlarged and heavy balls, thereby blocking other passengers from taking a seat...



Solution: Give them a swift kick to the balls before the balls grow and fill the carriage.

Numb nuts #2: People who SIT BESIDE ME spread-eagle like they have enlarged and heavy balls...



Solution: Where did I put those darn pliers???

Magic

There's something about working this late into the night with the howling wind and endless rain shaking and beating on my window panes respectively.

Along with a hot steaming cup of Milo and Corinne Bailey Rae singing softly in the background, this experience is just magical...

Timetable

Timetables like this make school abit more tolerable.

The mid-sem papers are almost over...

And this is the only sign lacking in the examination halls.

-

Though I seriously doubt anybody would follow it...

Sydney

Arrival in Sydney - 6th Jan 2008

Arrived in Sydney in the late morning and went straight to the scholars house. After abit of unpacking and some tanning for Rui, we went to the city, which is a train ride of about 40mins away.


The trains look really old school.


2 stories. Hmm.... accessibility doesn't seem to be good. This is apparently one of the older trains. The newer trains just have nicer chairs and air con.


First sight of the city skyline.


One way of advertisements. They have these lorries carrying banners and driving around. It was definitely attention seeking.


Guess what we are looking at....


Really excited!!


Channel 7!!


They were filming the evening news!!

Too bad we were too lazy to wake up early to catch them film the Morning Show. Coz the camera will be able to catch passerbys, and sometimes the hosts will come outside the building. No chance to wave at the camera. Haha. Thanks Sil anyway for helping us find out where 7 is.


The Sydney Hospital. Looks a wee spooky.





We wanted to go see some Sydney Festival stuffs that was going on, but were unable to find the place. We either got the venue or the date wrong. Anyway, Sil then decided to bring us to see the Sydney Opera House and Harbour Bridge, and decided to cut across the Botanical Gardens.


Finding our way around. We had to pass by the Woolloomooloo Gate. Cute name right?


Lovely water fountain.


And brave Rui went to take a sip out of the water fountain.


Thousand of bats hanging up on the tree. Tricia, HuiHui and I were damn terrified, but Sil and Rui were quite excited. I was most worried about them pooing on me!


The oldest tree in the Botanical Gardens.


Spot the Cuckatoo. Lotsa cuckatoo in Australia. Just saw a whole bunch of black ones gathering just outside Rui's house the other day. It was really noisy as the leader was calling others to join them.


This alien looking bird is all over Sydney. Not sure what it is called.


On the way towards the Opera House.


It does look abit like Hong Kong yeah?


First sighting of the Opera House!








I love the pinkish sky. This is around 8 plus and the sun was beginning to set. I love late sunsets.





Harbour Bridge!


Would like to dine there someday.






Harbour Bridge after the sun sets.


On our way to the Rocks.


Pancakes on the rocks!!


Mushroom and ham thingy, tandoori chicken pizza and potato gratin.


Sinful desserts! Pancakes!! Yes, the one of the right is chocolate flavoured pancake!! With chocolate ice cream, chocolate sauce and strawberries!! Yum!

Updates

Tricia, HuiHui and I signed ourself up for a 6 weeks course on Cardio Salsa, and we can't wait for it to start! 1st April come quick!

Weather in Perth had been erratic the past few days. Temperatures in the early 20s or late 10s, with really scorching sun, so that it's both hot and chilly at the same time. Gave me a headache for 2 full days!

~

Bought myself Cleo (Aussie version of course) magazine, and it has 50 Eligible Bachelor too! *swoons. Worth the AUD$7! And topics are really ermm... scandalous and explicit. For example, Power Lesbians talk about all the celebrity lesbians, with Ellen Degeneres right at the top; and a sealed section of the ultimate guide to online pleasure, with an example of what a cybersex session really looks like. Gosh! Really interesting though.

~

House-mate 3 is crazy/cranky. It's so cold and he keeps turning the air con on full blast. I came home from lunch yesterday and he was sitting in the living room, with the air con on full blast, in his jeans and sweater. And he was sniffing and coughing. I think he is having MENopause. Or severe longingness of ex-Housemate 5. Apparently, he got deported back to SG coz he forgot to renew his visa, and he can't come back to Aus in the next 3 years.

~

School starts next week and I'm not really looking forward to it. Have to try to break into circles of cliques again. One good thing is that HuiHui and I are joining a Year One class, so all of us do not know one another! =)) Hope all goes well.

Bedtime Snacks that Help You Sleep

One of the best natural sedatives is tryptophan, an amino acid component of many plant and animal proteins.

Tryptophan is one of the ingredients necessary for the body to make serotonin, the neurotransmitter best known for creating feelings of calm, and for making you sleepy.

However, the trick is to combine foods that have some tryptophan with ample carbohydrate. That’s because in order for insomnia-busting tryptophan to work, it has to make its way to the brain.

Unfortunately, all amino acids compete for transport to the brain. When you add carbs, they cause the release of insulin, which takes the competing amino acids and incorporates them into muscle…but leaves tryptophan alone, so it can make its way to the brain, be converted to serotonin, and cause sleepiness.

Serotonin-producing bedtime snacks should be no more than 200 calories and should be eaten at least 30 minutes prior to bed.

Here are a few great ideas:

Bedtime Snacks for Adults
--6-8 oz container of non-fat, flavored yogurt topped with 2 tablespoons low-fat granola cereal
--Sliced apple with 1-2 teaspoons natural peanut butter
--3 cups low-fat popcorn – sprinkled with optional 2 tablespoons parmesan cheese

Bedtime Snacks for Teens
--One cup healthy cereal with skim milk
--Low-fat granola bar
--Scoop of vanilla or strawberry low-fat ice cream

Bedtime Snacks for Children
--1/2 cup low-fat vanilla pudding
--1/2 banana with 1-2 teaspoons peanut butter
--One cup skim milk with a bunch of grapes (or other fruit)

Source: Yahoo Health

In other news...

Some nimrods, numbnuts of my very friendly Muslim neighbours gave or bought them something like this unintentionally:



So guess who gets to keep it??? =)

Forget the Yahoo Health expert. Shameless, self-proclaimed expert and highly accomplished sleep guru Shaun recommends a laid back life style, a low work and high play diet of activities and a healthy daily dose of quality chocolates, ice-creams or the equivalent to sleep soundly at night, everynight. It also makes one oblivious to whatever events happening within the surroundings during the attempted shut-eye sessions. Works equally well during the day as seen and testified by many credible eye witnesses, classmates and coursemates throughout Shaun's not-so-illustrious education years.

Sleepless? Try it today!

Leaving yet again

Am at the budget terminal now waiting to board the plane. My first time using the free internet.

Fun.

I'm not looking forward to the weather in Perth.

Bye for now, Singapore.

The decisive force...

Ever wondered what made up the decisive force???

Ranks in the S*F

Warrant Officers, Specialists, and Enlistees

REC - Really Enduring Camp in Tekong
PTE - Physically Trained Expert after Tekong
LCP - Lowest Confident Personnel in camp due to inexperience
CPL - Cannot Play Liao becuase you are a senior NSF
SGT - Saying Goodbye Thank you, because you are at the end of your service
SSG - Showing Social Grace by asking people to call you staff instead of sergeant
MSG - Must Say Good no matter what your commanders so that you get your 1st epaulette on your shoulder faster
MWO - Must Watch Out for noobs making mistakes and make them sign extra
SWO - Still Waiting Orders because you are somehow still lower ranked than commissioned officers even if you have loads more experience than them

Officers

LTA - Listening To Advice because your officer-commanding told you to do so and you cannot disobey
CPT - Call Please Thanks, too busy with work, no time to reply
MAJ - Must Always Joke so that people in SAFTI MI will recognise your "Leadership" and send you to command
LTC - Later Then Confirm because you have too many meetings to attend
COL - Content Over Leadership since you have already commanded so many people
BG - Better (be) Gone, so that someone can replace you...
MG - Media Glamour, especially if you are Chief of Army, pictures always taken for mass media purposes
LG - Last Game, nowhere higher to go. (Too bad Singapore do not have a 4 star general!!) Perhaps you can into Singapore administrative services, the place where you can go into politics.

That and more over here. Click it and laugh out loud!

SIGH...

I want another holiday...

Bliss....

Is being woken up by the phone ringing, and then hearing your voice on the other end (sounding as sleepy as me).
~
Is seeing you with a bouquet of flowers when you come and pick me up. Even though you told me there would not be flowers coz they are a waste of money during Valentine's day. And I agree so.
~
Is you telling me there's 7 roses coz that's my favourite number.
~
Is knowing that you stayed up till late to wrap the flowers yourself, and even got pricked by the thorns.
~
Is having lunch at NYDC, sharing delicious mushroom ham thingy, baked rice, MY favourtite blueberry elephancino, and MY favourite boo boo cake. Notice they're all my favourite?
~

Elmo and Cookie Monster were having their date there too!
~
Is sharing nachos with extra cheese while watching P.S. I Love You, and tearing together whenever the letters come.
~
Is you fulfilling my whims, and going vivocity to find BoostJuice.
~
Is going to Daiso hand in hand, marvelling at the weird things they sell there.
~
Is sharing Shihlin Ji Pa and Mee Sua with crayfish. Yum! And even though you could not really take chilli, you allowed me to tell the auntie "yes, abit of chilli" to both of them.
~
Is sharing a hot fudge sundae while looking at half the world go past.
~
Is you telling me I need to lose weight while lovingly patting my tummy. And then letting me eat so much good food, coz both of us are such hardcore foodies.
~

Bliss is being with you.

Happy Valentine's Day!

Gerrad: Forget about the title

I can't agree more, Gerrad. It's useless to look back. The title is out of reach. I'd be happy if Liverpool can qualify for Champions League.

-

If Liverpool wins the title I'll eat the Liverpool poster off my wall.

-

Sigh it's looking to be another disappointing season...

Global stock markets lost US$5.2 trillion in January

NEW YORK : Global stock markets were walloped with a collective loss of 5.2 trillion dollars in the month of January as investors scurried for cover in the face of economic uncertainty, a report showed Friday.

Standard & Poor's, a US credit rating agency that manages a number of global stock indexes, said 50 of the 52 main global equity markets lost ground in January.

Emerging markets fell an average of 12.44 percent and developed markets lost 7.83 percent to register one of the worst ever starts to a new year, S&P said as it released its global stock market review.

"There were few safe havens in January as 50 of the 52 global equity markets ended the month in negative territory, with 25 of them posting double- digit losses," said Howard Silverblatt, a senior analyst at S&P.

"High volatility, quick turnarounds in both the market and investor sentiment, and drastically lower stock prices prevailed throughout the month."

All 26 developed equity markets posted negative returns in January, with 16 losing at least 10 percent of their value.

The only markets to see gains were in Morocco (up 10.17 percent) and Jordan (up 3.11 percent).

Turkey was hit hardest during the month losing 22.70 percent followed by China (21.40 percent), Russia (16.12 percent) and India (16.00 percent).

The decline in the United States was comparatively mild at 6.07 percent, but German shares slumped 13.7 percent and French stocks lost 12.3 percent. British share prices gave back 8.8 percent in January and Japanese stocks lost 4.5 percent, according to S&P, which calculated the figures on a US dollar basis.

- AFP /ls

Source : CNA

SIANZZZZ...

Dear Pandora Visitor,

We are deeply, deeply sorry to say that due to licensing constraints, we can no longer allow access to Pandora for listeners located outside of the U.S. We will continue to work diligently to realize the vision of a truly global Pandora, but for the time being we are required to restrict its use. We are very sad to have to do this, but there is no other alternative.

We believe that you are in Singapore (your IP address appears to be ***.**.***.***). If you believe we have made a mistake, we apologize and ask that you please contact us at pandora-support@pandora.com If you are a paid subscriber, please contact us at pandora-support@pandora.com and we will issue a pro-rated refund to the credit card you used to sign up. If you have been using Pandora, we will keep a record of your existing stations and bookmarked artists and songs, so that when we are able to launch in your country, they will be waiting for you.

We will be notifying listeners as licensing agreements are established in individual countries. If you would like to be notified by email when Pandora is available in your country, please enter your email address below. The pace of global licensing is hard to predict, but we have the ultimate goal of being able to offer our service everywhere.

We share your disappointment and greatly appreciate your understanding.

Sincerely,

Tim Westergren

Founder

P.S. For more information, please see our Frequently Asked Questions on the topic.

Just remembered that I could find out similar types of music that I would fancy and I found this... All good things must come to some end. Haiz...

Happy Chinese New Year!

Let the feasting begin!!!

Happy Chinese New Year!!

Hope all you readers get lotsa ang paos and good luck the the new year ahead!!

Enjoy the reunion dinner!!

Wheeeee!! Steamboats!

Sydney - Blue Mountains

8 & 9 Jan 2008 - Katoomba, Blue Mountains

We went to Blue Mountains for 2D 1N, and we really loved that place! The place we stayed in was a charm! We had the whole house to ourselves, with 2 bedrooms, a bathroom and a toilet. We even managed to wash our jeans there (it was muddy), as there was a washing machine and dryer (and detergent!). And it was walking distance to the Three Sisters.

After putting down our luggages at our accomodation, we went to explore. First stop was the Katoomba Falls Rainforest Walk. The weather was great, though abit hot for jeans.


Katoomba Cascades.


The trees provide good shade.






The first of the many pics of Rui monkeying around. =p



I'm guessing this is the Katoomba Falls (not very sure though). Rui went over the fence and nearer the waterfall.

While we stay behind the fence. Haha. Notice the rolled up jeans. It was really muddy, as it was drizzling.

Lotsa stairs.

The cable car which we took the next day.

Next stop - Echo Point (Three Sisters)

Along the route to the Three Sisters, Rui started climbing...

And HuiHui started doodling on the rocks....

Manly Tricia. Haha!!

The Giant Stairway caused us lotsa nightmares. It made us scared of stairs for a few days.

Very steep - Strong walkers only.

This is just the beginning.

Really really the beginning...

The rock behind us is one of the Three Sisters.

And no, we din manage to make it all the way down to the bottom. Apparently, the bottom is the falls. Hmmmm. We made it 3/4 of the way down and we were dying! Gosh. Never climbed so many steps before. And it was difficult coz the steps were uneven, and with my bad right ankle, it was a very physical as well as mental strain.

These pics were after we climbed up the steps...

Really really tiring!

I remembered we were looking for the toilets, and we finally saw a sign. And it says "Toilet - downstairs". It freaked me out so much! Luckily the toilet was closed and so we din have to take any more steps. Found another one down the road.

We like the letterbox!

On the way back to our accomodation, we passed by the chocolate shop, which was already closed. But it was a nice place for photos!

The cute thing about this place - the information centre.

During opening hours....

After opening hours! They even took down the i sign... Haha.

The streets...

Chocolates before dinner... Wheeee!

Then it was off to Italian dinner. All of us ordered a entree sized pasta, and shared a pizza. We had difficulty finishing the pasta!

A Tsunami (Lychee and ermmm vodka i think) at the end of a physical demanding day is super shiok!!

The next morning, we had to catch the 945 bus to bring us to take the rides.

The mist coming in.

We had a package which allows us to take all 3 rides in the Scenic world, visit a cave, and a free day pass on the Blue Mountains Explorer bus.

On the Scenic Skyway.

It was really misty/foggy! Can't see much stuffs.

Then the Scenic Railway. This ride is one of the most exciting ride I've been to, after so long!

The poor kid is going to be so traumatised by our screams.

Look at the steepness!

Before the ride.... Yeah, we took the first seats. Bad mistake!!! Haha!

The scary thing about this ride is that it was so steep, and you feel as though you are thrown into this tunnel with all the leave around. And it was going quite slowly.

We finally reached the bottom!!

That's the way we came down from.

The miniature version.

Then it was another short walk to the Scenic Cable.

Couldn't resist but take a sip. The water tastes like stone!

The view of the Three Sisters from the Scenic Cable.

Then it was an hour long ride to Lucas Cave, and the driver was going on and on... about what I'm not very sure... Oops!

The Blue waters on the way up to Lucas Cave. Yes, there was more stairs!

The very cool toilet.

The broken column.

These looks like keropok!

A mini version of the Three Sisters, and a Pope (on the left).

Lucas cave was really huge, and very interesting. Maybe can try the Lake Cave another time. And see the blue waters in the cave.

After 1.5hours at the cave, the driver drove us to this place to look for kangaroos. While the others are snapping away at wild kangaroos, we are......

1) taking pictures with these purple flowers, which look like lavender.

2) and playing at the playground.

She really is a monkey hey?

Then we saw this kangaroo bouncing across the flowers and stopped there. Nice!

Okie! This is the end of the Blue Mountains post. I really love that place. But it wasn't as cold as we thought it to be. So T-shirt and berms should be sufficient during summer. But be sure to wear proper footwear. I saw this Japanese wearing heels and climbing the giant stairway. Really take my hat off her. Would have liked to stay there for another day to explore Leura.