You never know when it's the last time you do something, until it is too late.

SO that was some pretty awesome three-month rest.

Lyn says I am busy for a jobless person.. Haha. I am (was), indeed!

Germany

For the first two weeks I actually went for a holiday with Jer to Germany. That was really an ADVENTURE. It all started last year when Ain just texted me to say there's a promotion going on for Lufthansa, so I just booked the tickets the same day. I probably have already decided on leaving the blood bank then.

I then told Jer, who was pretty depressed that day due to work stress, that I am quitting my job and planning for my trip to Germany. And she said she wants to join me and go Germany! Booked her tickets as well within the same hour, I think. No wonder I love her.

So.. that went well.


March was supposedly the start of Spring, but the temperature was still -5 to 0 degrees in Germany. And somehow we got hit by blizzard during out stop-over in Frankfurt, and our connecting flight got cancelled.

How exciting right?!

All I could think of at that time was how lucky I am that Jer is around with me :))

We had to either wait for 10 hours for the next flight, or switch our flight to a train to get to Tubingen. We decided to take the train, cos' we were freezing and we don't want to stay in the airport for so long!

Turns out we did have to stay in the airport for quite some time still, because they decided to transfer our baggage to the next FLIGHT, when we already told them that we are taking the train. Which resulted in us waiting by the belt and running around the airport/train station for more than 6 hours to get our luggage.

I concluded after the trip that Frankfurt might not belong to Germany because they absolutely do not have the qualities that fits the German image. Late trains, cancelled flights, wrong platforms, careless and inefficient service. This is not Germany.

It was fortunate (or not) that we took the train because the subsequent flight also got cancelled!

We finally reached Tubingen at 5pm, instead of 9am. Super tired from all the dramas, but still have enough energy to get my BB prepaid and some H&M shopping!!


The rest of the trip was really fun, although traveling did take a toll on our bodies and half the time we were really cold and grumpy. But nothing beats meeting up with a friend studying overseas, and walking along new streets in a new city/country.

First snow experience! view from Ain's window.

Ritter Sport Museum at Stuttgart

Visited the famous Disney castle, Schloss Neuschwanstein, in Schwangau

Munich City

Got lost in the humongous Englischer Garten, Munich.

Englischer Garten

Englischer Garten

Pictures taken from a viewing tower in Munich.

Berlin's Brandenburg Gate

In the middle of the Holocaust Memorial, Berlin

Not forgetting the Berlin wall!

 

Visited the East Side Gallery, another part of the Berlin Wall.

First Snowman! :)

Also went to the wealthy Hamburg city!

Visited the grand Hohenzollern Castle in Stuttgart, the only castle still owned by the Hohenzollern family.

And that's a nice picture of the three of us at Hohenzollern!

************************************

BABY-SITTING

After the trip, I just bummed around at home. And a few days later, I started babysitting for my pregnant sister. It was so enjoyable playing with my niece! Good practice for the future too, haha.

I mean I used to always think some moms are really crazy that they can differentiate what the baby wants. Cos' the baby is just going like "meh meh meh." or "maaa maa ma maaaaa", and they will go "OH..She is very hungry. She is asking you to feed her milk now".

I mean, what are the possibilities that your baby wants you to cook chicken rice for her?! of course it's either she's hungry or sleepy or uncomfortable right?!  The sounds that they make all just sound the same to me lor.


BUT, after a few weeks with her, hahaaha....I can really tell what she wants, or what she is trying to say. Or at least I think I do.  She just go "shhh shhh shhh", and  I know she wants me to sing Wheels on the Bus. Or she will go "daaahhhhh" meaning Twinkle twinkle little star. Or "shhherrrr" meaning Treasure!

Like how freaky is this! And I am pretty sure it doesn't mean anything if she says this to other people cos' it is really just baby talk.

But yeah, OK, I get it, have to reserve my judgement next time when I see babies go "bababa" and the mom goes "daddy please go and get some barley for her, she wants to drink barley, hot one,without barley, no ice "

************************************

TUITION
Started tutoring again! It is damn far lor. But I think I kinda like traveling around different parts of Singapore, often, just for the fun of it and familiarizing myself.

Sometimes I feel like I don't really know Singapore, cos' just a few months ago I still though Pasir Panjang is near Bukit Panjang. SIGH............

But yeah! Tutoring is good practice for future too! And it is really quite fun =D

************************************

I took up Spanish with Nicole!!  HOLA! ¿Cómo estás?

It actually started in Germany when we met a Spanish girl and a Mexican girl in Munich, and I was discussing with Jer the language we would want to learn if we have the time, and we both agreed on Spanish! (of course she have already learned Japanese, so Spanish is after Japanese for her)

German is just too difficult for me, and it just sounds nicer, than speaking it.

And somehow, fate or destiny caught up, and Nic texted me to see if I am interested to learn a new language.

Awesome...

So.. yar lor, español it is! Getting really confusing these few weeks! I wouldn't be able to understand if i watch a show in spanish for sure, haha. It would be awesome if i could stay in Spain or S.America to just live IN the language. :)

************************************

DRIVING! 

Like for goodness-sake, finally!

I had to go for an eye test (due to my lazy eye) just to apply for a PDL. 

The first time I wanted to learn was before I went to UQ, and I failed the test immediately cos' they require me to have a doctor's letter. 

Like OMG. ultimate fail, you all can not win me. It's not even the basic theory yet, and I failed the APPLICATION process. Bet you guys didn't know you can fail even before applying, haha!

So the 2nd time was this year. I already got my doctor's letter from NUH eye clinic when I was still working in NUH. But this time, BBDC said that the letter must be written within 3 months, and they actually want to see "fit for driving" in the letter. My doctor wrote "eye sight is good". Not good enough for BBDC apparently, Sigh!

SO.. I had to go and see the eye doctor again, get her to write "fit for driving" and go back BBDC. 

This doctor, being a doctor, is damn rubbish. Even after telling her that I need her to write "fit for driving" exactly, guess what she wrote?

"Eyesight meets the criteria required for Level 4 license"

Literally wanted to bang my head against the wall. 

Anyways, I went to BBDC again to try my luck, and fortunately they accepted it. HENG AH!

So, I got my PDL.  YAY!

Reallly, HAISH... it's not even an actual license and I already have to go through all these shit.

But so far, driving was fun. Hehe. My instructor is really good and very patient with me so far. Hoping for one-time pass! Really can not afford to, and don't want to, apply for PDL again!

************************************

NEW JOB

Got a new job after a few difficult interviews. I have started for almost a month actually. 

It's funny how fate works.

I was happy with just a diploma initially, cos I really have had enough of studying after going to SP.

But without working in Quest, I wouldn't have thought I would actually want to get a degree.

If I haven't went to UQ, I wouldn't know how enjoyable studying is, and there is indeed a difference between studying and learning. 

And the classic, if I haven't worked in the blood bank, I wouldn't have know I am blood type B instead of type-O, like what my mom have been telling me for the past 24 years. 

I actually had an epiphany on this, and that people can only say and tell you what you are, but you may not be it!
 

I feel like I wouldn't trade anything to change my past now. It's perfect the way it worked out now. The people I have met, friends I have made, friends I have lost, friends I have kept close..

I actually don't think I would ever want go back to the lab again. At least not a Singapore lab.

I can't remember when was the last gel I made, or ran. 

I can't remember the last time I held a pipette, or the last time I did streaking. 

You never know until it is too late right?

maybe i will never wear gloves again, or hold a test tube . 

maybe i will never touch an electrophoresis tank again. 

Maybe this is what it's like to be growing up.

PASSWORD

For the first time in my life I have a 15 character long password!

at least 1 caps letter,
more than 8 characters,
a number,
and a symbol.

I can not believe it myself.

2013 thus far.

Yea.. I realised I don't blog as often as I used to, which I should, especially since so much have happened since the last entry.

And also because I think blogging is healthy :)

*************************

I got engaged! Last year, before it ended.

He finally got around to get a ring and proposed, and I thought it was sweet because he's all into the 'process' and he really did it! :) I mean, I wasn't surprised that we are getting married, but the proposal and the day he chose to do that really surprised me. And the fact that he found it necessary to propose, get a ring, kneel down on one knee and ask me to marry him, really consoled me cos it made everything seem more real, somehow.

And also how he managed to find time to buy the ring, choose and pick up the ring without me knowing, is impressive. hehe.

okay.. don't get carried away, it was a simple proposal..

Of course I was really bummed that he got the ring size wrong because the first ring he got me 6 years ago when we were still in our honeymoon period, was a prefect fit. And so naturally my expectations were high. but it's... something, still..

Umm yeah, I'm getting married. There's that.
And so now I have "my precious" just sitting at a corner of my shelf.. looking really pretty. :))


Had to start the wedding planning, and so far it is just one scary experience for me. First was the location scouting, and then the banquet planning, which was SOOOO OMG. Seriously the money you give the hotels for a wedding.... not worth it. And I say this after contemplating for a whole 3 months.

You're getting married lor, not robbed.
Why must Singapore always make the happiest things in life so darn expensive?! Food, music, cars, houses, WEDDINGS.

Ok I mean, I'm sure every girl grew up thinking having a banquet is equivalent to getting married and that it is just customary. We dream of wearing a poofy dress, walking down the aisle, doing yum-sengs and drinking champagnes.. everything looking so grand and golden and lots of fun and beautiful.

I would get really happy thinking about it, really.. But then my stupid brain will start thinking that I made everyone pay over $100 for my wedding.. (and how slumpy-looking our house will be because we don't have enough money for house renovations and we will probably be spending the next 30 years of our lives paying back our loans with interests.. )

This is what happens right? Give over $100 ang pow to the wedded couples, which eventually goes to......? THE HOTEL. Essentially you're just forced to pay for the food. Of course I'm sure most of them would be glad to.. But you know, I don't condone extortion.

And I haven't even gone into how much Gardens by the Bay is charging for the venue. Just the venue. Geez... Even if I got money also not like that spend one lor.

I guess I would gladly do it if getting married wasn't so commercialised in Singapore, sadly..

So when he asked me if I wanted a wedding.. I said I don't need one. I've changed my answer a few times for the past 3 months, hahaha. But eventually, my answer was the same. Haha, he wanted to kill me a few times I think.

I mean if you're having a wedding, good for you! Cos' I'm sure it will be memorable, definitely. I can still remember Thomas' and Lyn's wedding and it was exactly what we've always dreamed of, dresses and music and dance.

I mean if I regret it one day... at least we'll be richer regretting it, hopefully. haha! But right now,  I don't want to kill myself over it.

So now that I've put my mind into it, we're just gonna have a ROM reception and the date is all set and I'm pretty excited! :)

*************************

Left the blood bank!

There's always this mixed feeling whenever you leave a place. And I felt the same feeling when I left BTS and when I left Quest. That some thing which I have spent so much time with is going to be just history soon.

Anyway, I'm glad.. It was the right decision. And just to clarify..and remind myself next time.. I didn't quit, my contract ended. hahaha.

Went for two weeks trip to Germany to visit Ain shortly after my last day at BTS. Saw snow for the first time in my life. Played with snow..Experienced temperature below zero. Traveling is tiring, but it was fun :)

So at the moment I'm just jobless.
And waiting for the reply for my phd application (no high hopes though).

It's weird though, cos' I can sleep for 12hrs still. HOW TIRED AM I?!

*************************

and just a tiny achievement i would like to remember.. I saved my first $10k! I mean it's probably not much, but it's a tiny achievement for me, amidst all the loans I have to pay and my trip to Germany, hehe. Happy!

But of course all these will disappear shortly into all the wedding expenses, and my jobless status. But I'm still glad I managed to save..

But money is never enough... and i need to earn more.

LANGKAWI

Alright! Time to upload some photos.

Decided to flood it here this time, fb can wait. Been pretty absent minded the past few weeks, I think age is really catching up on me, and I am sure I can never remember all of this, so I had better jot this trip down together with all the tiny details and pictures!. :)


Flew over to Langkawi for my birthday this year. Long story, but not worth mentioning I guess.

Anyways, first time to Langkawi!! ALWAYS wanted to go, more than Redang.  So I was actually expecting so much more. Didn't turn out very great after all, sigh.. I mean after you've seen THIS (from Whitsundays):

everything just seems to pale in comparison. But maybe it's just this beautiful in my mind, that you know, expectations are a little high from then on, and it probably wasn't even that nice in the first place!

How I wish I was a vampire then, then I can remember everything vividly.

So OK, our first mini-holiday together since we came back from Australia.. (trip to durian farm not counted!). After browsing through the photos, it's actually quite pretty! Like I said, my brain's perception is pretty screwed up then.

*****************

At the airport! 02 OCT 2012

Some display inside Terminal 2, huge teapots and teacups!

My travel bag! Been with me for all my small trips when i was in Aussie :D

We had an hour or so till boarding, decided to grab a kopi and watch kangxi for entertainment! Can't remember who was the one who introduced me to watch kang xi but i thank you from the bottom of my heart! Never fails to entertain me. hahaha.

Our flight!

hahaha.
just kidding.
siao ah, take SQ to Malaysia.
im not that rich.
YET.


we took Silkair! can't believe it's damn cheap. the tix was about $130 or so each, but the airport tax was $160!

And so we board the plane. It was super empty, less than 30 pax definitely, but there was an artiste who sat on the same flight as me! So the trip started off pretty well, hehehe. :D

off off here we go.

..tadah! managed to grab her before we all alight. :P i dont really care my face is fat, just woke up from 30min sleep okay..

So, she lives in Langkawi, and probably flies to Langkawi often. YAY i like her so much! Can't believe I actually saw her. She's exactly like how she looks on TV, which is awesome and pretty, and I get to spend 1.5hr flight with her so I was damn excited!!

Ok, I have very little luck when it comes to bumping into big stars. So far i've seen Christopher lee, huang biren, gurmit singh, vincent ng and xiaxue (she's famous too right?), but it was only a glace, or from a far. With her I really need to take a photo! otherwise I'll probably regret it my whole life I think cos' I doubt I'll ever go to Langkawi again..

Btw the current 9pm show is really good! They do act well together, her and christopher lee. But I can not stand dumb people, so I hope she brighten up soon? (in the show).

***************

And so we reached Langkawi...
Contrary to popular belief (and photos)  Langkawi is actually not all sand and beaches okay!
It's not resorts and snorkelling.
not 蓝天白云, AT ALL.

It's Malaysia. It is a piece of land, with solid ground, shops, museums and malls.


It was 8pm when we reached our resort. We call it the 城堡/castle. Cos' looks just like it. You'll see!

Our first food was tom yum seafood at a nearby place, outdoor, halal and very malay. Hmm.. I'm not very good with describing food.

*************************

And the sun rises! 03 OCT 2012.

view from our room

The bed and breakfast sucks! Horrible ttm.

Don't ask me what's LHOOQ.
And for this, I quote xx and kk, "don't ask me a question what Google can answer"



Day trip: Island-hopping!
can't believe i threw away my awesome rainbow top, only to buy another rainbow top.

in the van to the jetty

At the jetty!

In the boat. Island hopping starts!

the you-cannot-imagine-how-famous-this-thing-is eagle statue.

Actually it's not that bad cos the water cleared up when we went further away from the shores/civilisation.

First stop! Beras Basah Island.

I don't know who are they.
Some Chinese peeps.

 

Or what we actually call, the monkey island.
IT IS FULL OF MONKEYS!

We had one hour here and it was OMG-freakin' long.
the snorkel shop wasn't open so we had absolutely nothing to do except walk the beach and sit at the jetty.

Ended up taking pictures of a fly!
See how bored we were.

More monkeys..At the same place.
never bluff you right?

Very poor thing cos the monkey's foot was stuck in an aluminum can drink!

Feeding of monkeys is allowed over there.

2nd stop: Eagle feeding
It's basically just eagles. Feeding. FULLSTOP.

ok, actually it's A LOT of eagles.
feeding.
fullstop. 

Halfway out of eagle sea, our boat decides to go cranky and we were stranded on a jetty for about half an hour or so. We just looked at boats that drove past us, seriously.  At some point I became a little delirious and started going insane and telling random jokes that are NOT FUNNY. hmmmmmmmm.....

Stop #3

I don't like this place at all. the water smells funny (sea water mixed with pee and sunblock) yuck! Plus I had to climb up to this place, only to climb back down.. -.-

30RM. not bad at all!

Had this couple take a picture for us. See how nice i took for them, with the nice forest-y scenery and all!

and they took ours with us and WATER. for fuck i want to see the water for? Had to paddle over to them to pass camera back and froth some more leh! ugh....

And then we headed back to our castle.. (see! it's a castle right!)

little did we know they really dropped us right at our castle and not the actually jetty. Had to jump into the waters to reach our castle! 


We changed, and went to the "mega' mall to have lunch. It only took me 2hrs to finish walking the whole mall + lunch. Lunch was 30mins and 20mins were spent watching Real Steel on their TV. technically speaking, 1hr 10mins to finish walking the mall. how bout mega bored to death.

****************

Day three!
shall be remembered as the day awk forgot my birthday.
and i don't think it's the first time actually..


So, yep, another day trip.
There wasn't any one else for that day, so it was just me and awk in the car. Kind of like a private tour actually, lol. 

Told you bout the famous eagle?
YEP.
very famous indeed.
it's all over the island.

after some 20 over shots, finally got the angle that captured both of us with the eagle.

Headed off to see their underwater world.
wa piang.
if it's not in your package, you don't really need to be here.
not very interesting.

Red tail tin foiled barb. Nostalgic man.

some very cute small monkeys. i don't know what they're called, but they looked like small monkeys to me lor.

Adorable penguins! It's funny how they walk/hop around! :D

salamander! scientists love them!

white-tip shark. whatever.

lots of puffer fish. that's nice :)

the backside of the lobster. LOL.

puffers!

boxed puffers!

moray eel. which looks just like the ones at our uww.

more puffers!

Ive actually seen this fish before at dayang! poisonous..

And.. the highlight of our trip I might say.
The cable car ride.

Little did I know I would actually be UP there, THAT high.

The start of a scary journey!

Still didn't fully know what I was in for.

Seven wells.

WTFffffffffff.

Annoying face!

Seven-wells.

damn high!

Finally we reached the stop!

 

And to my horror, it wasn't the end.....

Yes this is THE TOP.
very Genting-like, haha.

there's nothing much to see anyway cos' it's all fogged and misty.

On the way down.. Look at how m-effing high la!

with wobbly legs, we wanted to go to a nice beach. Cos we HAVE NOT seen any nice beaches yet! We want to see postcard worthy beaches ok!

Not bad at all! :D

And.. dinner. decided to grab some Chinese seafood now. Zhi char. it's just tofu, veggie and prawn.

Yes, ONE PRAWN.

probably about 20cm big! We didn't believe it when the uncle said we only need to get one prawn.. And he chose the smaller one some more.

And.. we walked back to our 城堡...

Pretty sunset by the pool! (:

 our castle(:

Last day: Fishing!

Decided on a fishing trip for the last day, cos' they promised fishes. And we did!
(:

So.. we were expecting rods and lines you know...
Turns out, it was just the reels.
JUST the reels.
 like this.

Nevertheless, it was a pretty awesome 4-hr fishing trip where he brought us to the different fishing spots.

And here's our loot!

FISHIES!

heh heh. Proud to say I got at least 6-8 fishes okay!
got the hang of it at the last hour.
yayyy!!

But they were all quite small, totally different from what we had in mind.

All in all, Langkawi it totally NOT what we remembered or knew.
It would probably be an amazing place if we hadn't had those high expectations I feel.

And looking at those photos, it's actually not that bad, right?