RAINing NIUNAI....

I get that a lot...
from Japanese asking me if I am nihon-jin, thinking that I am japanese, speaking to me in japanese, saying that I look like a Japanese... and many a times, customs officer in Seoul spoke to me in Korean, thinking that I am Korean and Taiwanese saying that I am no different from a Taiwanese...

suppose those are compliments, i always thought Japanese and Taiwanese are better looking people that south east asians... I get a lot of people saying that I look like a member of Energy, a taiwanese band, Niu-Nai.. and a few other celebrities too...

but the most recent to date, someone just told me i look like Rain, the Korean superstar.. wow!! thats like way cool.. im secretly happy actually..

i bought my blackberry... still trying to figure it out how it works... but worse of all i gotta retype all the contacts in... tedious chore... lotsa backlogs to clear too... sigh...

Dinner with Jasmine

Dinner with Jasmine...
its been a while since i saw her... so long that i 4got when and where i worked with her...

wanted to reach earlier to get my errands done and to buy my blackberry bold. but the shop closed at 5 while i reached at 530pm.. and i 4got to bring my IC and my staff pass to singtel, so i cant buy the phone... turned out that i got nothing accomplished... -_-

Jasmine came to find me after her lessons, she is so cute and i feel so comfortable with her. She looked a little distracted at times though cos of her assignments i guess prob cos she just had lessons so she is a little brain dead, not helped by the fact that tmr is full day of lessons for her.

small chats were exchanged and some jokes made.. it was fun to be in her company, i hope its the same for her too... we had dinner at Shokudo japanese pasta. She had to get a birthday present for her classmate's baby, so we went hunting for books... someone mistook us as couple and wanted if we are interested in taking wedding photos... haha.. livid but i think i wont mind a wife like her.. I shall tell you why...

We pop over to orchard after dinner at bugis... spent a good 2 hours in borders looking for the right kind of books for her classmate's 1 year old baby boy. ravaging, flipping, walking round and round Borders. SUper patient, despite the fact that she is tired, she just wanted to find the right book... her concentration and her patience, her sweetness... melted my heart :P

it almost felt like we are married and we are shopping for books for our baby... such sweetness... makes me feel like getting married... if the bride is her... i think i would be more than grateful :) wedding photos maybe?? :)

Johannesburg

actually, didnt intend to run this trip, but repeated failures to change the trip away left me with no choice but to decide to come here and hibernate.

oddly, its suppose to be summer, but its so cold that actually we were breathing out vapour during summer itself. seems like everyone planned to stay in for this trip, nobody wanted to do any sightseeing. this was actually the first time that i stayed in all the way cos its really been there done that, and its the first time where i actually lazed so much on the bed that my backached... :P

we met up for meals though, funnily, everyone bonded really well over the meals and we had a lot of fun talking nonsense and crapping over each meal... pity this wasnt a longer trip, a better place.. otherwise it would most certainly be even more fun...

went out with shan shan

reaffirmed the kind of girl i like... its really her kind and iris kind... why people lidat are married already???
sians...

Manchester - Edinburgh

after more than a year... finally came back to my beloved city of manchester... not helped by the fact that there was a colleague whom i absolutely dislike... nvm.. i was ready for war should anything start...

i got some really nice people to work with, minus him of course... i couldnt care less, as long as he doesnt step on my toes.. i wun be firing any missiles... im more looking forward to what i can do there in manchester... should i go Edinburgh or Lake District.. or I can catch the league cup game against wolves??

i brought the girls to the cottage restaurant which i like a lot on the day we touchdown... Man U vs wolves is that evening... was contemplating if i should go... in the end, the tram system was down.. and i figured that it would be pretty hard to get back, so i skipped the idea and watched in the room instead since there is a live telecast and next day early morning we are setting off to Edinburgh. I would say lucky i din spend the money to watch cos the game didnt cause much stir... and its rather slow pace... Man U won 1-0 thou :)

early morning, next day, we set off to Edinburgh, met a fellow singaporean on the train ride and she has been in manchester for the past 12 years cos she was studying there and decide to get a job there and got married there as well... quite a nice lady but deprived me from my sleep thou.. haha... Scotland is really cold as compared to Manchester, cos its more up north and there is a huge lake right next to Edinburgh so there is a constant supply of cold wind, which is not helping cos i only brought a thin jacket... never mind, we are not about to give up, carmen and catherine included since we already paid so much to come so far... we picked the major spots that we can cover in 1 day and set off first to the famous Edinburgh Castle... my first time visiting an actual castle... cos its pretty beautiful and amazing.. they actually have scottish guards blowing the bag pipe in old scottish kilt and uniform... we manage to take a few photos with him... very nice fella... :)

next up was the walk up to the other end of the city to the Palace of Holyroodhouse... I was all wondering how come there is a palace and castle in the same place... so it later dawned to me that castle was during medieval times while the palace was actually built for the Queen's usage... tt pretty much solved the riddle rite? after the Palace, we took a bus to Lenith, where Britannia was finally decommissioned and parked at... Britannia was the Royal Family's mode of transport and was on many missionary sails around the world and hosted many world leaders in her time... Britannia sailed to Singapore twice before... then, i was too young to know all these... It was an eye opener to see how the royalties lived on board... it wasnt a fantastically big ship like star cruise.. but its comfortable to house the British Royal family comfortably...

after Britannia was dinner at this restaurant pub called newsroom before we did a bit of shopping and headed back to manchester, reaching the room at only past midnite...

next day was OLD TRAFFORD!!! been there before, just wanted to revisit the place again.. it was a toss up between old trafford and lake district... i decide to save lake district for the next trip cos im still tired from all the trekking in Edinburgh...

next visit to Manchester... Lake district is top priority... :) hopefully with my DSLR...

Things I did today...

woke up.. saw the market drop... watch the finals of US open.. Kim Clijsters beat C.Wozniacki 7-5, 6-3... was secretly rooting for Kim, cos it was a comeback for her after a long layoff and she disposes of the williams sisters along the way. but feel disappointed for Wozniacki cos i watched a few of her matches, and i think she got the potential too..

met candice, joanna and shiling for lunch in raffles place... been a while since i saw them, talked excitedly about candice's upcoming wedding in nov where we will all be flying over to shanghai to attend. and the things that they are planning to do there. but i pretty enjoyed the feeling of being around in Raffles place, i wonder what izzit like to actually work there, among all the high rise offices, join the morning rush crowd, fighting and jostling to climb higher.. i really wonder... we had fun discussing next year's holiday plans as well... to Hokkaido, to Bali... to visit Candice in London and maybe we can go tour east europe... but i already got plans to backpack with casey and serene... hmmm...

went to Dick's Beaumonde to get my measurements for clothes, discovered the first Etude House... grrrrrr.... informed roger and ruihan about it, ruihan's pretty concerned, roger has not much reaction, blaming hard luck i guess... we gotta act faster... got my measurements done but discovered that there are a lot of shop space for rental in shaw house... more than half the shops were gone.. i wonder why... changed money for my flights. chekced out the price of EOS 500D, 1350 for body and lens only... not too ex... i think i can get at cheaper price if i ask Eddie for connections, maybe some freebies thrown in i guess but no money now... 1 or 2 more months... din feel like going home, roamed orchard for a while.. realised tt i haven spent time alone in town for a long time already. cooped myself in Kinokuniya for a while... picked up a book about starting business in Chaos times... finished reading the book, interesting observations and some pointers which i think is very relevant. enjoyed reading and i finished reading a book today, cant remember when is the last time i picked up a book... actually i enjoy reading a lot... its just that i am lazy to pick up one... lotsa inertia... just like jogging... if i could, i like to wallow myself in books once in a while... i like spending time in bookstores... esp Kinokuniya... lotsa interesting titles to browse and look thru, i enjoy Kinokuniya more than Borders...

came home, wanted to go jogging, decided to sms ruihan to jog togehter, we did... around our neighbourhood... good pace... good jog... did quite a few things today... pretty eventful... quite happy... read and jog... healthy lifestyle... but i have a lot of work waiting for me... im changing my life...

380 training tomorrow.. sigh...

Change your life...!!!

finally got to do something about it after so long... just when i am starting to enjoy my work, getting used to wat i am doing, i am thrown into another huge challenge... shud be able to get on with it after a few scoldings i guess... but tts not the main thing...

the main thing is i have been meeting up with ruihan and roger to try to do something about our life... something to change our life and possibly something we can call our own...

its tough to balance and juggle so many things... mustn't lose heart.. MUSTN'T!!!! cos i want to change my life... I WANT TO!!! I'M NOT SATISFIED WITH MEDIOCRITY!!! its easy to sit back and relax.. i have the option to, definitely... too bad i only live once... so thats not an option for me...

CHANGE YOUR LIFE!!!!