Remembering e old times
Back to my old neighbourhood & went past my old hse as I went with my mum to kakling’s place. More catching up and of course talked about the old times :P It was a place full of my childhood, pri school and kindergarten memories. It was a rather old neighbourhood already but the many decades old flats had been upgraded and the central area with all the shops, hawker centre and coffee shops had also been renovated. My primary school building had been demolished long ago and rebuilt. Now it is a totally new and colourful building.
Met up with some of my pri schoolmates the following day, a few days before X’mas. It was like ever since so many yrs ago that I’ve last seen them! Calvin was the only one from my p5/6 class who managed to turn up, while the rest of them were from other classes, hence couldn’t remember who they were at first. Hahaz but slowly their faces somehow became more familiar to me and discovered that I was in the same class with a few of them in lower primary. That felt like such a long time ago! From Fish & Co. in Suntec, to esplanade then to Marina Sq where we did some shopping and ended the night with supper at a jap restaurant where they serve really yummy ice-cream :)
Magic of Love
It was held at the expo this time round. My 1st live magic show ever! All the tricks looked so convincingly magical but they always kept me wondering how they were made possible. In magic, like what the play kept mentioning, things are never what they seem to be. It’s just all about illusions. So what’s the secret behind them???
However, it wasn’t just a magic show also but of one about sharing love or rather to them, of God’s love too. I was truly touched by the sharing of their personal life stories. Once again, there was the calling of new believers. As compared to the Hillsong Concert in Suntec which wy brought me to in late Nov, this spread of faith was definitely via a different approach. In a way, it gives me the feeling that Hillsong connects more with youngsters as they liberate and inspire them in a way. Thx a lot hsiu huan for inviting me to the show! glad to meet up with jy too after a seemingly long time ever since I last saw her (:
Kuching!
The day after our class bbq at joel’s hse was the day we set off for -- kuching!
Stayed at Damai Beach Resort – a 45 min ride away from the airport! Haha definitely had an “exhilarating” ride on the way there on the wet round with the taxi driver speeding through even around bends and overtaking every now & then, once overtaking 3 vehicles at one go!
Though the resort is far from city, but it’s a nice place to relax and chill out:
by the beach ~ beach volley, soccer, captain’s ball, star watching, tanning (arghz turned at least 2 tones darker :p)
by the pool ~ monkey, water polo, the tititi game, head balling, swimming
in the room ~ bridge, blackjack, heart attack, asshole daidee, mahjong, scrabble, cup noodles, chips, whole bottle of tequila, cable tv (can’t believe we were actually entertained by some kid’s comedy and WWF on the last night :p)
Attractions ~ cat museum, Sarawak cultural museum, zheng he park, civic centre, Mt Santubong, waterfront park, ktv, tua pek gong temple, shopping for handicrafts & factory produce e.g. pepper! Thx to the taxi drivers who drove us around & kinda act as tour guide for us for e 2 days. Touched by their friendliness & service :)
Yummy food! ~ xian cao sarsi, ABC/ white lady & some other unique drinks, belachan bee hoon (their belachan is black instead), rojak, wu xiang, soon kueh (hee salty ones),kolo mee (which we still dunno what kolo means), laksa (taste very diff, like curry & much less coconut), hokkien mee (finally tried the black kind – the malaysian style heez & have to admit it’s not bad!), hor fun, xing zhou bee hoon, char siew chee cheong fun (soft & silky rice rolls!), wanton mee, bread toasts, & last but not least seafood! Once beside the sea & another on a rooftop food court which feels like being in Marina South.We defintely came back with more stuff, in small & big bags. Stayed over in chin’s hse for the night which ended up with more daidee and crapping :p Thx guys for the great company & great fun!!!
Didn’t realized that I’d been updating for quite some time already. Hols have been packed and fantastic so far :) Feels great to be back and being able to catch up with frens here after not seeing them all this while :) Finally got to eat all the local delicacies & I mean the authentic ones! Hahaz how I miss them. Definitely couldn’t bring myself to eat any pastas or pizzas while here. Yes heez have to admit that I’ve gotten quite sick of them. There’s another big difference here as compared to melb – late night shopping! :D Shopping can be continued even after dinner now instead of rushing to finish browsing through all the shops before the sun sets. I guess Spore hasn’t change much except now there’s the new Vivocity and Cathay Cinema. Hahaz k shall try to jot down some stuff happening during e hols.
Finally saw for myself the newly opened Vivocity ~ Spore’s largest shopping centre. Somehow, it doesn’t seem very very big to me and felt that its size had been ove-exaggerated. Maybe because it’s long and spacious plus some shops at the upper level are not opened yet. Oh but there’s Boost (from Aus) there. The 1st branch in Spore! Hahaz. The night view is pretty. Nice walkways to overlook Sentosa, the cable cars and ferries. There’s actually a shallow pool on the rooftop for children to play in! But it’s not a real pool though coz the water’s rather brownish (haha wy said it’s more of rainwater instead =P) Watched “Battle of Wits” in the new GV cinema. Andy Lau! Haha haven’t watched such an intellectual movie for a long time. The theatre has the high comfy seats which reminds me of those in Melbourne Central.
When out with cons, saw a woman playing a gigantic harp in citylink! Unbelievable! Haha didn’t know that it is playable. Never imagine that it could be a real instrument.
It’s a pink x’mas at the new cathay cinema with a big pink x’mas tree! Met up with my dear st. nick’s frens there, ate Ben & Jerry’s & watched Dejavu which was simply thrilling & full of twists! We watched it in the grand theatre & gosh it’s so nice inside, with the curvy style designs on the walls of the theatre and the nice, high backrest comfy seats!
so pink!
Amusing advertisment heez esp the centre pic!
Took hayley’s car down to the food court in botanic gardens for dinner with shade and liyen who came over to spore. Hahaz didn’t even know that there’s a food court there. It’s in a newly built building & looks like many of us sporeans were there for the 1st time also. After which we headed to Island Creamery where we actually pasted our photo on the wall! Then we headed down to Geylang for supper but just couldn’t find a parking space. Hahaz at least both shade & li yen had a look at how Geylang is like in which they commented that it completely doesn’t even look like a red light district at all to them :P
can identify which is the photo we've pasted? 
Spent days and hrs moving and packing my stuff. Realised that I had much much more stuff than what I'd brought to melb! My room was still in a "warzone" state and only caught ~2hrs of sleep the night before flying off. Hmm my fault also hee if only I didn't watch "Borat" the night before. Gosh it's such a lame comical movie. Made us feel kinda retarded after that :P
The X'mas festive mood is everywhere around in the city and there's this cool display outside Myers with all the moving characters as they tell the story adapted from a children's story book called "Wombat Divine". All the moving stuff inside the window displays are so cute!
I didn’t get to have most of the meals in IH during my last week in Melb this year after eating out for several meals. It’s in fact my last week of stay in IH already yet somehow I didn’t fully realize it until the day I stepped out of IH to board the starbus [heez or should I say it's more of like a starvan instead] to go to the airport. It suddenly struck me that I won’t be:
walking through the gates of IH everyday, having my meals in the big dining hall with many others, taking the scheps lift which is infamous for its high frequency of being stuck (arghz I was once a victim of it :P), hearing the clicking sound of my magnetic key unlocking my door (it’s convenient as compared to the traditional key, but it gets demagnetized rather easily esp by the magnets in my bag & there’s seriously a problem with their coding system as evident from cases of keys opening others’ door!),
the frequent banging & slamming of the firewall door which cause my door to shake,
the sound of the basketball bouncing and the shouts from the court even after the lights have being switched off,
the tennis ball bouncing or the soccer ball being kicked around,
seeing the sun set among the trees from my window,
Rossi the cat every now & then, lamenting how fat and lazy it is & wishing for a house dog instead! hahaz
Or my beloved sink (couldn’t imagine my whole yr without it, saving me the trouble of dragging myself all the way to the toilet to wash up early in the morning :D), my long table, my big wardrobe, my big windows
Or the frequent hang outs/ crazy sessions in the “living room” (hmm heez as they so call it)
No more national nights, funky parties, formal dinners, café or playing for ih in sports (had great fun while training & playing for hockey & soccer :) & made me exercise too)
All in all, guess most important & to be missed would be the people, the communal spirit and the opportunity to come across different people, cultures, values. It had been an exciting and fulfilling stay. Friendships made, be it lasting or transient, had been an important part of my social life and support. It just feel so saddening that many of the friends you make are all ultimately going to end up in different parts of the world sooner or later after finishing their studies. That, inevitable but shall leave it till when the time for it really comes. In fact, it actually applies to the exchange students whom I won’t be able to see them next yr anymore :(
With the price hike (becoming unbelievably expensive), longer academic semesters and the hassle of looking for cheaper accommodation and moving out during the hols, I guess it’s time for me to move out. To try a different style of living, to learn about more new stuff, to hopefully concentrate and dedicate more time on studies (:p had to admit that I hadn’t being able to satisfactorily accomplish that this whole yr) Wonder how next yr is going to be like, being in a new living environment and having to face more demanding schoolwork. Shall look forward to settling in and managing my new apartment =P
Just can’t believe that ~10 mths of my 1st yr uni, my stay in a foreign land, in Melb, in ih had just gone by. 2nd sem seemed to pass so much faster than 1st sem. Everything just gets faster and faster. Sometimes simply wish for things to stop or slow down to give me time to appreciate, digest and organize.
Nevertheless, glad that I’m back in the sunny island once again. Felt immensely heartwarming to be in the bright and airy Changi Airport again and be greeted by the humid night air, seeing many blocks and blocks of HDB flats, road signs, coffee shops, public buses, which were pretty much what I saw on the way back in the taxi. Yes, so begins my hols back in S’pore!!!
p.s. I seriously think that I might be missing ih food next yr though.. esp brunch & the choc ripple cake! :P
