Happy Birthday To Me!

You know, some people hate celebrating birthdays, or think that they aren't anything special. But I love, love, love birthdays! Especially mine, of course.

It's such a happy time... A celebration of my being, of aging gracefully another year, of gaining another year of knowledge and experiences. How can it not be glorious?

And it started off on a great note. I had gone to sleep early cos I only slept 2 hours the previous night, thanks to last minute changes to my project. At 12 midnight, my mum and sis burst into my room, and I thought they had gone nuts. Geraldine starting saying fire! fire! and I was CONVINCED she had lost it (she later claimed I refused to wake up to my mum's gentle prodding so took a more extreme stand). And there he was, my darling baby holding a piece of Oreo Cheesecake that he had made for me cos I had mentioned it before.

So in my dishevelled, bleary, post-lack of sleep bad skin self, I could only grin like an idiot. Awww.... love my brown cow. Bless his current cooking life phase.

So even though there's the incessant drilling outside my house, the still slightly-groggy feeling from weird sleeping patterns, and the need to study for my exam tomorrow, they ain't gonna rain on my parade.

Happy Birthday To Me! xoxo

Let The Celebrations Begin!!!

Well, it's that time of the year again. When the special one (moi) turns 2-2 on the 24th. I luurrrvvveee my birthday week... a week long of (food) debauchery and celebrations. Love it love it love it.

And if anyone wants to show me some love, here's my wishlist... Muahahaha....

Sigh, bad thing is, I have an exam on Friday, so no fun for this poor girl on Thursday. :P

Beijing Finale

Well, we've pretty much reached the halfway point and by then, the old people were getting pretty weary. They would seek out benches and sit down at every available place; the poor guide, she was left with the task of throwing the whole itinerary away or plodding ahead regardless of the old people. Oh well.

These are some photos from day 4 and 5. Day 6 didn't offer many things to take pictures of, so didn't add any photos. Besides, I sprained my ankle on the 6th day, so only bitter memories. -_-'''

We saw the Olympic Countdown Timer, walked around Tiananmen Square. That was exciting, seeing how there are plainclothes detectives who have been trained in foreign languages to listen in on conversations and haul away anyone if they even mentioned anything bad about China, Mao or the other M-word - massacre. Yes, even tourists aren't spared.

Also went to a theme park. Don't know why it was in the itinerary when the average age of the group was 50, and they didn't allow people over the age of 50 to take certain rides. Duh. But I went on this super scary ride (see above). It's like the ultimate Viking ride. The thing hits a perpendicular and it truly felt like I was about to get flung out of my seat. Not only does the ride go from side to side, but the round thing spins 360 degrees continuous. Nausea-inducing. My knees were shaking when I came down. Hiak Hiak.

We had to change hotel on the last day and checked into this spa resort that had a sauna in the room. Yup, there was a freaking sauna in my room. Muahahhaaha. But the hotel service was beyond lousy and it was quite a heinous experience on hindsight. Totally not worth the time and effort.

Erm, things are a bit choppy cos I'm in class right now and the TA is sitting behind me. Oops.

This Takes The Cake...

Oh.My.God. You have to watch this. I nearly died from rolling off my chair in laughter. To be fair, I'm sure they had to interview thousands of people in order to find these few gems. But still. STILL.

Watch at your own peril. And no... I know smart Americans. It's just fun to laugh at them sometimes. :P

Disclaimer: No malicious intent was erm, intended, in showing this clip.

Someone Finally Wants Me!

I'm employed, I'm employed, I'm employed!

Now I can stop feeling sorry for myself and think that I'm useless and worthless as a potential employee. Yes, Ms Chan is rejuvenated.

Well, I was hoping for this 6-month internship at Starwood Hotels and Resorts but they are taking forever to come back with a reply. So in the mean time, I applied to another company, Global Brands. They are a relatively young company, founded in 2003, with 14 global offices. Their main line of work is to promote and manage their brand partners' products and promotions and their partners include FIFA (woohoo!!), PGA, Warner Bros., Bum Equipment and Marvel. When I was at the interview, I overheard one of the employees discussing about the promo posters and signboards to be used for the release of the Harry Potter movie, what would work, what colours are more appropriate. So exciting!

So what am I doing? According to my supervisor, the company has absolutely no electronic Human Resource tracking system, and their employee records are mostly still in paper form. That's where I come in. I have to create a HRIS (human resource information system) to track all their employees globally. Things like personal information, compensation and benefits packages, private information etc. etc. etc.... Basically, I have to communicate with all the employees, get the information (because even then there are missing gaps), organize and devise a workable system so that future employees will be more easily managed.

Yeah, yeah, I know what you are thinking. Sounds like bloody data entry. Hey man, I'm not so proud and arrogant as to think that I'd be doing executive work as a lowly intern. Everyone has to start somewhere and since I don't have any experience in HR, nothing is above or below me. So I just hope I don't screw up. Seeing how this position is for someone meticulous and with an eye for detail....

Yes, I've managed to bluff my way through many data entry jobs. Even for my last Finance project, I came up with the model, but my team mates had to pore over the numbers cos erm, I'm not that careful. Hahahahaha!

Besides, this means I'd get to see what my supervisor is paid and if she gets a little something something, if you know what I mean. Ah, what power.

I start work on the 28th May, I end summer school on the 26th, my birthday is on the 24th. Hmmm, no break for this lady.

Trials and Tribulations of Life on the MRT

Singaporeans are vicious, vicious people. Drivers whine all the time about the bad traffic on the road but until you've been traumatised on the MRT during peak hour, you ain't seen ugly.

Aside from the usual assholes who block the entrance and pretend not to hear you say "Excuse me" until you practically yell in their ear; bastards who read newspapers (the big Straits Times, not Today) despite passengers being pressed chest to chest and hence inevitably whacking everyone around him/her with the stupid paper; jerks who lean on the pole and leave a whole group of passengers to wobble precariously whenever the MRT jerks; the poseurs who choose the "speaker" option on their phones and blast emo music and ignore the death glares directed at their way . I hate these people.

I hate going to school in the morning. Seriously. It is possibly the most horrifying experience EVER. I attempt to take the through train that goes directly to City Hall instead of having to transfer at Jurong East. Sometimes I manage to hop on the earlier train at 7.34am, but usually I'm stuck with the 7.44am one. Bad choice. By the time the train gets to Bukit Gombak, people are semi-pressed against the door. I feel really bad when I take advantage of pockets of space and squeeze in, but when there's really no way, I give up. But yesterday, when I made it into the train, this stupid guy used his stupid back and pushed backwards, creating some space for himself. But seeing how he might be caught by the closing train doors, he squeezed behind me and effectively squashed me between his belly and the train door. I was stuck in that position, my back against his belly, face against door, until I reached Jurong. Dickhead.

I fervently hoped that my trial was over but noooooo, the train gods have to test me. I was standing next to this Indian woman and we were near one of the poles. She was standing 3 seats away but STRETCHED her hand across the space and held on to the pole with a death grip. Was it because she was falling? No. It was to block me from accessing any seats that might suddenly be available. She was basically reserving 3 seats and the probability that someone would get up soon. Bloody bitch. We were near the door so more and more passengers kept pressing into the cabin and squashing me, but she obstinately refused to move despite space in the middle opening up. Arrrgh!!! In frustration, I pushed past her to the empty spot and STILL, her death grip persisted. The only consolation I received was that she left before anyone stood up. HAHAHAHAHA, the gods have spoken, bitch!

And another thing we're all guilty of is profiling. We all do it. In a bid to get a seat, you assess the people seated and attempt to make a guess as to who would get up soon. The ones dressed in suits --> headed for town. The ones dressed not so well --> most likely destined for the industrial parks and suburb offices. And people with laptops? Dover / Singapore Poly. That might explain why people refuse to move once they have zeroed in on a potential target. The belief that a person was going to get up soon.

Me? I'm equally culpable. One time during the peak hour on my way home, I zoomed in on this Indian/Bangla-looking dude. I know it's stereotyping and racism, but I usually associate the Banglas with 2 locations: Jurong West (bad) and Outram (good). Good because that means they are leaving soon and I will get the seat. So when I saw that this Bangla was dressed quite well, I thought perhaps he was going to Little India for a little R&R. So I stood in front of him. When we arrived at Outram, a Chinese dude 2 seats down got off. -_-''' I never said it was a science.

But the ultimate gross act has to be people who think of the MRT as a grooming station and attempt to groom themselves in PUBLIC. The nail clippers, nose diggers, hair pluckers. Argh, argh, argh. And how do they pluck hair? Easy. Take 2 10-cent coins, use said coins like tweezers and by positioning hair follicle between coins, tug until hair comes free. Of course, remember to fling body waste around the cabin because the other passengers DON'T MIND.

Fuck. I truly hate these Singaporeans/foreigners. See, I'm not racist. I just hate motherfuckers who don't have respect for public property, regardless of race, language or religion.

Check out my Slide Show!

Beijing - Part 2

Ok, I'm a bigger procrastinator than I thought possible. Day 3 of 9.

We visited the Ming Tombs and climbed the Great Wall on the 3rd day of our trip. The Ming Tombs are similar to the Egyptian Valley of the Dead, with the remains of 13 Ming emperors that ruled China from 1409 to 1644 buried there. The Ming Tombs were ravaged by the Red Army during the Cultural Revolution to show that the royalty was overly decadent even in death. Hence, all that remains of the once magnificant crypt are replicas. Such a great pity; so many national treasures lost. Also, part of the treasures were pillaged by the marauding French Army. Which brings about the biggest tragedy of all: a lot of China's art and historical artifacts can be found in Western museums, and the China tourists have to go out of China to view such artifacts.

The other amazing thing about the Ming Tombs is its architecture. With the high arching walls, voices are carried all around and there's a coolness that permeates the place. One of the highlights is this amazing door that used to guard the entrance to the Emperor's tomb. It is incredibly heavy and almost impossible to move; apparently, one tomb was blast open unceremoniously because the soldiers couldn't move the door. But there's this catch in the door that when fitted with a key, swings the doors open with amazing ease. More Chinese ingenuity.

But definitely, the day was meant for the unforgettable Great Wall. Seriously, seeing the pictures and being there are 2 complete events. The structure stretches for miles and miles, and covers the mountain. We only climbed one portion, but I was out of breathe by the time I reached the top. However, I took 25 minutes to scale that portion of the Great Wall and hence, am immensely proud.

But the thing is, I was nearly humiliated by this old dude in my tour group, Mr Ng. Now, Mr Ng is 70+ and definitely no spring chicken. No doubt, he got a headstart and was like 2 flights of steps ahead of me, but he was relentless and kept pushing forward. Tirelessly. And there I was, huffing and puffing away, and he was like taking a bloody stroll through the park. So to avoid being outclimbed by an old man 3 times my age, I summoned my energies and overtook him in the end. I know, I know, beating an old man ain't no glorious thing...

But I took a picture at the top of the Wall to celebrate being the 1st 2 people up the Wall.

You know what? When I reached the final 10 steps, I felt like Rocky running up the Capital Building. I nearly burst into the Rocky theme song. I was THAT proud.

Beijing - Part 1

It has dawned on me that I posted photos only from the 1st city (out of 6) that I visited in Vietnam way back last year. Hmmm, guess I grew bored from the sorting, arranging and uploading of photos. Hope this Beijing trip doesn't end up with the same fate. Anyhoo, it was only a 6-day trip and fingers crossed that I'd make it to the end and not lose interest before that.

Going on organized tours has never been my thing cos you're restricted by your fellow tour members, and I've never felt that way as acutely as this trip. When the average age of all participants is 50 (and that's after taking into account an 18-month old toddler), I had the sinking feeling that there was going to be a lot of resting, waiting and general lack of a spring in the step.

Not to be catty, but I was so right, and then some. Didn't realize senior folks had to go to the toilet so many times a day. Shall never take my ability to hold my pee for 14 hours on a train in Vietnam for granted ever again. The horror of a gross toilet can sometimes overcome any urge to relieve oneself.

But having said that, the trip was fun enough, the older folks friendly and jovial; pity the way we were rushed from historical site to historical site. I felt like before I could soak up the culture, I was being herded off to the next destination. The cattle associations are intentional because that was exactly how I felt amongst the thousands of people we encountered at each place. Simply madness.

The flight on Air China was uneventful; the piping of Chinese music into the cabin at the start and end of the flight, coupled with less than appealing stewardesses made me sleep all the way. However, the food, I must say, was better than I thought it would be.

Pardon the shakiness. Was experiencing a long bout of turbulence. And yes, the flight was cold, as evidenced by the poor ang moh guy in the background.

We finally arrive in Beijing after 6 hours, and had to endure a very abrupt landing because the runway is damn short!!! Here, I must caution all visitors to China. In order to prevent hundreds of people from cursing at you, please be aware that there's this arrival form that you must fill up before you can clear immigration. The forms are available at a counter before you reach the immigration checkpoint. Please do not be one of those stupid, inconsiderate assholes who arrive as a group, do not have the arrival card, and hold up the queue for 30 minutes because they are stupid and stand at the counter filling up their stupid forms, instead of moving aside and letting other people pass through. So there. Be forewarned. And I'm sure those people got a massive earache from all the cussing I did.


A long bus ride ensued and I got my first glimpse of Beijing. If you can't see the picture clearly (I was taking through the glass ok), the facade is all crumpled on purpose, like it has been hit by a train. Maybe the Chinese think it's artistic....

The atmosphere in the city is electrifying, to say the least. It seems like the entire city has rallied together to get the place spruced up and ready for the Olympics. You can see it everywhere; massive construction, souvenirs and memorabilia being hawked at every corner, even our China tour guide had an Olympic pin on her jacket the whole way through. Apparently, the government has passed an order declaring that all work not related to the Olympics has to be postponed and the workers have been redirected to Olympic projects.

Our tour guide, Long Jie, was very nice and chatty. Throughout the whole trip, she kept feeding us with ancient China history and for the most part, I found it fascinating. However, most of the group fell asleep promptly whenever she launched into another history lesson. Poor thing man. They only perked up when she talked about current day Beijing and it's practices. Also, things that we had to look out for. Like the beggars and touts that surrounded the tour bus whenever we disembarked, thrusting hands and merchandise in your face. And we had to be especially wary of anyone who got too close as they were all potential pickpockets. Yes, murder may have gone down in the city, but pickpocketing and robbings are still plentiful. And giving you fake money. Yup, very commonplace, especially for the bigger notes like the 50s and 100s. People get cheated all the time.

Our first stop was Wangfujing, this shopping district much like our Orchard road. You see shopping centres that range from Paragon to Lucky Plaza, side by side. And since they are government-run, the service is.... minimal. A common mantra in this city is "Start work on time, end earlier than stated". Simply because there is no incentive to work harder. You work less, you work more, you still get paid the same.


I thought those 2 guards in the 2nd photo were from the People's Liberation Army, akin to our Armed Forces. Turns out they're merely security guards; the equivalent of our Cisco guards. -_-''' And I was so excited at having taken a picture with them. was wondering why they were so friendly, though.

Fake flowers are also very, very common in China. Those next to my mum are fake, fake, fake. I suppose since China is so big, and flowers really do make a drab place look better, fake flowers make more economic sense, and they last forever too.

Wanfujing is also famous for its street food, which is simply heavenly. We only got to walk around for 1.5 hours which was a real shame because we didn't get to do much. I didn't get to sample much either because I had just finished a 10-course dinner. But if you do get a chance, skip the restaurants and head straight for the street food.

Day 2
The day started off brightly enough, but we were soon caught in a brisk afternoon shower. The weather was pretty cold when I went there, so the rain didn't exactly help. Despite the cold weather, the sun shone unbearably bright, which explains why I'm almost wincing in a lot of the photos.


And it's off to the Beijing Sports University first. Here's where they train all their future Olympic hopefuls. The training is of course gruelling but it's such a thrill to watch them perform. We caught a glimpse of the gold medal-winning female gymnastic team and even though they had not perfected their routine, they were still breath-taking to watch. Oh, and we got a tour guide for the school. She's a track and field hopeful, so I told her I wanted to take her picture just in case she got famous.

And yes, Chairman Mao is everywhere; busts, pictures, statues... the whole nation is still incredibly enamoured by him and it's evident in the differential way in which our tour guide mentions his name. Often in the same sentence with other greats like Qin Shi Huang (If you dunno who that is, tsk tsk; he's one of the great Chinese Emperors).


Next stop, Summer Palace. I really loved hearing the history behind Summer Palace. The Summer Palace wasn't anything great when Cixi's husband was in power. But she persuaded her son, Guangxu, to tell his father to use the money originally set aside for buying modern guns and equipment to fend off Western forces and use it instead, on upgrading the Summer Palace so that Cixi would have a nice place to live in. What a fillial son, eh? So Guangxu did as he was told and when the British came attacking, the Chinese military found boxes of sand instead of ammunition. So yeah, Cixi basically destroyed the Chinese empire and let Western forces in. All for a beautiful palace.

But the summer palace is lovely indeed, and is bordered by this long corridor that is adorned with thousands of paintings. The corridor runs along the Kunming Lake, and hence the royalty was ensured a jaunt along the lake even when it rained. How thoughtful.

Our last stop for the day was the Forbidden City. The grandeur of the palace was awe-inspiring. To think that the entire place was built without a single nail. Amazing.


Many of the buildings were undergoing refurbishing in order to be ready for the Olympics, hence we didn't even get to enter the main palace. But as we strolled through the palace, the guide was telling us about the history and practices that took place in the palace, which made the tour all that more interesting. The long corridors that signified how special the emperor was; even old court officials had to walk great distances, climb many stairs, simply to speak to the emperor. The fact that the emperor changed where he slept every night in order to confuse assassins; how the chamber maids would be locked up with the emperor so that no one could tell the whereabouts of the emperor. Was the royalty decadent? Perhaps. Thousands of people could be starving and the royal family was cocooned in the deepest boughs of luxury. But for someone who was purported to be the descendent of the Heavenly King, I suppose it could seem justifiable. Do you know that the Forbidden City has 999.5 rooms, 0.5 rooms less than the palace of the Heavenly King? This was to show deference to the Heavenly King and acknowledgement that he was still ultimately numero uno.

We ate a lot on the trip; it was only after the 2nd day that my mum told me we were on a gourmet tour, and here I was thinking that I was in China to soak up the history and culture.

Silly me.