One Week

One more week and I'll be leaving for Taiwan. I think it's a trip that I deserve after all the hard work I've put into earning money in the past two months. I met up with Terence, Daniel and Sern Hong on Tuesday and we have a rough plan of the itinery already. I wouldn't have been able to contribute as much if you guys hadn't left a few notes to lead me in the right direction, so thanks for all that!

Fantastically enough, my SCI orientation camp happens at the exact same time that I'm in Taiwan. I'm pretty disappointed, but there's nothing I can do. Anyway, I'm really looking forward to the trip and going with the people I know so well. It's crazy how well we know each other, and I guess it's that kind of bond that keeps us together. I hope everything'll be smooth-sailing and that it'd be the best holiday I've ever taken!

I've been too busy lately. Part of me loves the fact that I have to be every where at once. However, it's tiring, and even my body's been reacting negatively. I usually wake up at 630AM to surf the net for an hour before work. Now I turn off the alarm, wake up at 8, and reach work 15 minutes late. I hate it.

I've been feeling tremendous highs and lows lately, so it would actually be good to settle down and not have so much excitement. But that's me. Saying one thing and doing another. Always waiting for the next bigger wave to come crashing so I can do a more spectacular surf.

The only way to beat death is to embrace life. Every second of it.

Star Pupil

Barely 4 months into the job and I have 6 students already. Like any teacher, I have my favourite student, and it's no coincidence that she happens to be the one who requires help in the subject I love most - A Maths.

I love the rapport we have. I'm quite crazy when I teach her, especially since she doesn't feel that she has a teacher-student relationship with me; I'm more of a friend. So she tells her mother that she wants to kick me out of the house in my face, asks for a break to delete some random friendster comment, while I constantly brag about how brilliant I am, and snigger when she makes silly mistakes. Of course the opposite is also true - she tells me the reason why I have the right to teach her, even if I might not be very good, is that I'm better than her, and I tell her constantly that she's good enough to tackle the questions I throw at her.

I enjoy looking at her intently with impatience evident in my eyes, which causes her to panic and demand for me to shut up even before I say anything. I think I've perfected the look that says, "Are you sure?", "Do you seriously not know how to do that?" and "I give up!". I use it to great effect and it keeps the students on their toes, although she'd usually react by saying, "Can I kill you?"

My entire tuition session has too much drama already.

I did feel that I went a little overboard when I jokingly exclaimed that she was retarded ( which she took it as it is, a joke), and was stunned when I realised that her mother was at home!

Well, for most part, her mom kinda likes me. I guess it's because I show dedication in what I do. I never seem to be able to stop when the time is up, and usually go on teaching for half an hour to an hour more, until she's so tired that she can barely understand the question that she's reading. She called me a sadist more than thrice during today's lesson!

There's nothing that makes the job easier than having a motivated student, and when one has the freaking 'O' levels looming closer every day, questions of discipline fly out the window. It's really different from coaxing a Primary 1 kid to do a problem sum or motivating a Primary 6 kid to finish his homework. With a Sec 4 kid, she's old enough to know what's at stake, and also mature enough to mark her homework and know what she's capable or incapable of doing.

She's really smart, as I told her mother after the first lesson, but she's got to make up for lost time. It helps that I have a sister who's exactly the same age, so I know what she's going through. Also, coming into contact with students make me feel much younger than I am, and I realise that time is ticking and as I grow older, the tougher it'll be for me to relate to them. I am loving every moment of this job and it helps that she tells me that she understands it much better when I explain it.

It helps that I had brilliant maths teachers during the course of my upper secondary school and junior college education. I had a terribly lousy one when I was in RVHS who drove me to desperation in the face of maths that I used to scribble Maths Makes Me Mad on every other page on my maths textbook.

The job pays me very very well too, so I usually put her needs above the other students. I'll be sad to see her go in 3 months' time, but till then, there's a lot more bickering to go!

Soundaholic Presents...

Before I start anything, I'd like to wish my buddy Jian Hong a very happy 21st Birthday! Okay, on the the music.



Fergie - Big Girls Don't Cry
"I hope you know, I hope you know... That this has nothing to do with you." Fergie has got one of the most recognisable voices in pop music right now. Her face is kind of iconic too, but I've always thought that she looked a little tranny (I'm not trying to insult her because I think she's fab) but her recent video Big Girls Don't Cry completely changed my opinion. She looks great (whoa, that ass!) and very natural in it. Naturally the song has secured a Top 5 placing on the Billboard Hot 100, making it her 4th Top 5 single from her superb debut The Dutchess. She's certainly one of the most consistent artists with solid singles to churn out. Now if she'd only release Clumsy as the next single, it'll be another easy Top 5 for sure!



Lil Mama - Lip Gloss
I have never seen a rapper with moves this cool so it was with great surprise when I got to see Lil Mama in her debut video, Lip Gloss. The song has been causing waves for quite some time but I've been trying very hard to resist its appeal, always thinking that her success is nothing but hype. But Jive has an amazing way of getting its artists out (Nsync, Britney). The track is very catchy, with a thumping bass and a loveable chours. She's only 17! Her video's got references to pop great Britney as she dances in the school coridoor and then there's a line with "Upgrade U", lifted from a Beyonce song. She's certainly a talent to look out for - in fact Avril liked her rapping on the Girlfriend instrumental so much she invited her to do a remix of it! It's crazy!



Rihanna - Shut Up And Drive
When I get started on the ladies of pop, I can't stop! The first Soundaholic entry featured Kelly Rowland, Kelly Clarkson and Gwen Stefani. This week we have Fergie, Lil Mama and Rihanna. Rihanna will find it almost impossible to top Umbrella, but she's giving it a try with her second single Shut Up And Drive. You get a feeling that she's not really talking about a vehicle here. I suppose it's more along the lines of "riding an English mare" that the French King said to the English King while referring to some minister's daughter in Tudors. Oops, it's a little out of point, but with lyrics like, "I'm a fine-tuned supersonic speed machine", "My engine's ready to explode" and "You look like you can handle whats under my hood", you just can't help but think dirrty. The video is terribly bland and predictable. Anyway it seems that she's going for momentum on this album because there are songs way better than this one that deserve to be released such as the stellar Breakin' Dishes (her management should be shot if it doesn't), Don't Stop the Music and Lemme Get That.



Madonna - Frozen
I don't know why I'm introducing a song that needs no introduction but this song brings back a fond memory. I was about to call in to Power 98 to make my first request ever and was shaking nervously. Rod picked up the phone and I asked for this song, Frozen by Madonna. At that point of time I had just started listening to radio and she was already on to her second single, Ray of Light. It was 1998 and I heard on the chart countdown that the previous single, Frozen, was amazing, and there was no other way for me to hear it other than a) buy the CD (I was a poor P6 boy) b) request on radio. There wasn't piracy by means of the internet then! It's a good 9 years ago but the song still sounds as brilliant and as fresh as ever. IMO, it's one of her best singles ever, and even her costume was memorable and iconic. There's a hopeless MADTV parody of the video you might wanna check out here.

The Brightside

The number of people who turned up was less than we expected
But it was enough.
The topics that we had to talk about were the same as always
But the content was endless.
The freshmen camps are a month away
But our enthusiasm for them were already alight.
The frisbee got stuck atop a tall tent
But we managed to get it down.
The lack of a volleyball made us felt like the odd-ones-out
But Sern Hong went to 7-11 to help us buy one.
The volleyball games weren't perfect
But the company was.
The sun was roasting us cruelly
But I got a good tan in return.
The sand was so hot that I was jumping around like an ant on a hot wok
But it gave my mind the release it needed from daily mundane tasks.
The warm, salty sea-water wasn't the least inviting
But there was a couple was making out in it.
The hunger was driving us crazy
But Carls' Junior was worth the wait.

















More often than not, I feel lonely in a crowd
But with you guys, it feels like family.

Grateful For Everything

Yeah, sometimes just taking time out to be grateful for the stuff that you have just puts everything into perspective. Wealth is something that you can never get enough of but health is something that we take for granted. So take a moment to think about how your body, to quote Baz Luhrmann in Everybody's Free (To Wear Sunscreen), is "the instrument you'll ever have". It freaked me out a lot when my colleague broke the news to me that her husband was diagnosed with colon cancer. It left me unsettled. I realised how fragile life is. I understand the importance of human relationships, which is probably why I spent the rest of the week keeping in touch with friends.

The time you have on earth only gets lesser as each day passes. This reminds me of a rather preachy post I wrote earlier in the month titled More More More. I'm not specially proud of it but I'm glad that it spurred some positive responses, so for those who found meaning in it, I guess we have some kind of connection.

I spent the week celebrating my good health. I went to taste good food at Ding Tai Feng and this chocolate place at the Esplanade on Monday, swam before teaching tuition on Tuesday, ran to Sembawang MRT station and back on Wednesday, played a couple of crazily intense games of badminton on Thursday and snuggling into bed early on Friday. Part of me exercises out of vanity, and I couldn't agree more when I read a Kelly Rowland quote on Life! a couple of weeks ago where she said that she worked out just so she would look good naked. The other part of me was looking for something to do during the time I would just spend staring into space if I didn't have things to do. The badminton game was so fun that I can't wait to go for another session with my colleagues again next Wednesday.

I had a good time catching up with all my friends, new and old. I met Sequeena at Simei MRT to get my backpack back from her after work, and we chatted for a short while before I went to meet Jie Yu for dinner.

There was a Sec 1/2 class outing organised for Wednesday, and I gave Junming a call. It happened that he had something on, and I already had plans that I was unwilling to cancel so both of us didn't go. This made me initiate a conversation with Jia Hui and Ben on MSN, just to find out how they were doing. They were my closest friends in class, and coincidentally, we are all going to NTU!

I talked to Chris on MSN as well. He's coming back to Singapore two days before I make my way to Taiwan! His birthday is on the 9th so he'll probably be planning a booze party for us (which I'm looking forward to) that hopefully I'll be able to attend when I get back!

Ming Boon also SMS-ed me about having a class outing. 03S10A is probably the only class that made me felt I was part of a class so the people who make it up are the ones I really hold close to my heart. I'll be really busy in the coming weeks meeting people and making preparations for my Taiwan trip. I think while scheduling my time to meet up with various people, I should also schedule some "alone time"! I probably only come home early once a week!

Ooh, and congratulations to Jie Yu for passing his driving test. I'll be looking forward to trips to cool places! Ahh, actually I'm grateful for being in the car of my friends who've ever driven me around before - public transport sucks. Weetz, Zhenhui, Shuming, Guo Fei, Fukang, TWJ... I hope the list continues to grow! Hahaha!

"Understand that friends come and go,but for the precious few you
should hold on. Work hard to bridge the gaps in geography in lifestyle because the older you get, the more you need the people you knew when you were young."

Anticipating

I had a rather weird thought when I first saw the NTU letter on the table at 6AM in the morning last Thursday. "Woah! This is it! My parents will never be able to ask me to study harder to get into Uni any more!". It doesn't mean that they won't nag though. They're already changing it to, "Study hard else you won't be able to graduate!". It never ends.

Anyway, I was delighted to receive the thing, but it just meant that I had some personal admin stuff to do. Till now all I've done is to read the "Admissions Handbook for Freshmen". I didn't understand everything, but it certainly made me aware that there's going to be a lot to pay for when I enter! Also, the fact that I've received the package made the fact that I'm going to NTU in 1.5 months seem more real. It's finally happening! And I don't even feel ready for it yet. I don't feel ready to be sociable and meet new people. I don't feel ready to move out of my house and to the hall. I don't feel ready to study. It's freaky.

I had a discussion with a group of friends awhile ago about first impressions. Human beings are weird. We all know that it isn't accurate to judge by first impressions but we do it all the time. And so our discussion revolved around what kind of person would you want to be seen at. My friend said that he'd try out the geek chic look - get a pair of cool specs, act shy a little, try to hook some girls with it, and then drop the pretense to present himself as tanned knight in shining armour. Okay, that wasn't exactly what he said, but you get the idea! In the end it didn't really work and he was cool just being himself.

Oh, then there are the camps to join. I can't make up my mind, but I'm sure I'll get around to joining one of them. It's kind of confusing when there are so many choices, but I've narrowed it down to the Union Orientation Camp (22nd - 28th July), NTU Sports Camp (23rd - 29th July) and Freshmen Overseas Orientation Trip (16th - 21th July). Currently I'm kind of leaning towards FOOT but due to the dates clashing with my office work, tuition and happening 2 days after my Taiwan trip, I'm still considering.

Some advice would be greatly appreciated!

Who's the Bimbo?!

Me: Hey guys! Wanna go out for dinner next Friday?

Shuming: Hey. Who's this? Sorry, I lost my phone and contacts!

Me: Gosh... *throws shoes* Wait... You free or not? You have to trust the fact that you might wanna meet me. Well, us.

Shuming: Yingheng. Must be you. I dun have other bimbo frens... Haha...

Me (Gives up and acts bimbo): That's like, how disgusting la! There wasn't enough lines to even make a guess! Ew! And I'm not sure bimbo's a compliment. Anyway, can or not?

Shuming: I'm fine w that, just tell me what time and where... Can the other guy in our relationship make it? Haha... (Fish Leong's zhui wu gu de di san zhe, most innocent third-party comes into mind. I burst out laughing.)

Zhenhui: Ok. No prob.

Me: Easier than I imagined! Significant other has agreed. more details next wk. Whoever backs out I tell ur mother u bluff me ok. cya nxt wk!

Shuming: Okiedokie bimbo... cya soon!

-_-"

Soundaholic Presents

To be honest I'm not really motiveated to post anything on music because there isn't anything good being released lately, unless you count the shizzle that I'm too lazy to hear yet. I don't know how Trent manages to update his blog everyday about celebrity gossip, but I suppose it's because it's bringing him the big bucks. Anyway, there's still music to be introduced.



Justin Timberlake - Lovestoned
It's getting confusing for everyone because it seems that this track is the fifth single to be released as a single from his hugely successful sophomore album Futuresex/Lovesounds. Sexyback, My Love, What Goes Around (Comes Around) were the first three. Then Summer Love got released onto US radio, but despite the long wait, there has been no video for it. All of a sudden, the video for Lovestoned was released this week, with news that it will be the next single in the UK. Lovestoned is one of my personal favourites partly because of how the song evolves from something groovy and nasty to something trippy. I was really excited to watch the video because the original track's too damn long, and I wanted to know how much of the track they'd keep intact! Thankfully, most of it's still in there! The video's pretty simple and you can view it here.



Sophie Ellis Baxtor - Me and My Imagination
On the first listen, it sounds like a track that'd be really suitable for a circus act. On a second listen, the track is unable to save itself. It's harmless, pleasant to listen to but therein lies its fault. What happened to the spirit of the insistent one-track-mind that was her previous single, Catch You? It's about as cheesy as Take Me Home, minus all the cool. She's going to have a big trouble with her comeback if she's releasing such singles. The break didn't do her good, and if her next single's going to be this crap, make no mistake, it'll probably be the last you'll hear of SEB.



LFO - Summer Girls
There's no third new song this week because I'm keeping the good stuff for next week! Nah, I just couldn't find anything worth introducing. Maybe you guys can give me a tip or two? Point me in the right direction? In the meantime, it's Summer so what better way then to take a listen to LFO sing about Summer Girls, NKOTB and Chinese food that makes them sick? It was also creditted to making giving A&F a boost in sales due to the lyrics about them liking summer girls wearing Abercrombie and Fitch. The song was their third single and was nominated for Billboard Music Award for Top Selling Single of the Year in 1999. It's certainly a song that brings back some pretty good memories, so take a listen to it here.

Read My Mind

Last night I was still reeling from the fantastic conversation I had with Guo Fei while he drove me home. I don't know what triggered the verbal vomit from me, because I usually need a good dose of alcohol to become this chatty, but I guess a good combination of long-time friendship and the right topics just got me into a chatty mood. I've been thinking about a lot of things lately and it felt really good to share it with someone who understands.

It was quite an armified outing yesterday as Samuel, Guo Fei and I met up for dinner at the Asian Kitchen at Vivocity. It's a rare occassion that I actually paid for the meal, because I owe Samuel one for introducing me the job that I'm doing and GF just because he's there. =P The real reason just won't look right in words so I won't bother. Guo Fei was late and so Samuel let me read one of his essays which I must admit was pretty impressive, but not unexpected of him. He got an A- for it (which he says he's going to find the lecturer/tutor to find out what he lacked because it sounds weird to be the-student-who-got-A-MINUS for English!). I felt the essay really showcased a different side of him that I was pretty impressed by. But because he's usually such a joker, I couldn't help but burst out laughing while reading it. It was impressive though, so a big thumbs up for him. Seems that he's doing really well at SIM.

Anyway, the food there was really good and we had a good time swapping stories about our lives, which are turning out to be really, really interesting. Haha! We then settled for coffee at Pacific Coffee, talked some more and happened to see our ex-OC, Mr Tong YC. He shook hands with us and we discuessed running, his job, and marathons before he went off to meet his friends! We also made arrangements for next Saturday's Sentosa outing by SMS-ing a few people, called up Kenneth to scold him for being MIA and surprise Max with GF's "unknown number"! We then headed to this restaurant where Jian Hui (my BMT-platoonmate-turned-39-sce-company-mate) was working at and coincidentally, Tong was there having his meal!

It was a surprisingly short trip from Harbourfront to Samuel's place, while the same could not be said for the trip to Woodlands! Along the way we covered topics like friendship, the feeling of entering Uni in a month, a motivational film he watched (and I brought up Britney, but I can't be arsed to explain why) and of course, driving. After the entire conversation I felt enlightened, inspired and challenged. (See Samuel, it's a technique to use '3'. I know because I always do. How's this compared to your 'distraught, devastated and utterly depressed'? =P )

Blading

I went blading for the first time in my life at East Coast on Monday with Fukang.

He knew how to blade and obviously, being my first time, I didn't.

The thing I realised was that how much the experience was a metaphor for our friendship of almost 7 years. He gave me support when I was about to fall, helped me up when I was down and he waited patiently while I was trailing behind. After we graduated from secondary school, we must've met each other about 10 times, but everytime we do, it's as if time had stood still.

He's not smiling because he was having a fever that day. Or maybe he thinks the serious look works for him.

I was pretty much drenched in sweat within the first 10 minutes I was on roller-blades. Probably out of nervousness and the intense struggle of keeping my balance.

It was thrilling. Despite my discomfort I gave it my best shot. There was blood. But I've grown. I'm no longer the person hiding in the corner. It's not something to boast about but I feel that I'm more confident in my own skin, willing to try new things and I'm more afraid of not having attempted than facing failure.

It was just a simple blading session at East Coast but I've gained so much.

When was the last time you tried something for the first time?

P/S: I've just listened to Stranger for the 150 millionth time and I'm about to throw up but for some reason I can't stop. It's satanic.

Soundaholic Presents...

Hilary Duff - Stranger
It's amazing and I never thought that I'd say this but I think Hilary Duff (or Fluff as I like to call her) is finally making good pop music. I used to hate her a lot (but then I used to hate Britney way back during the BOMT years). I mean, who the fuck actually thinks Why Not, So Yesterday, Come Clean and Wake Up are actually good songs? I think she's doing a pretty good job picking up where Britney left off. Okay, so she's not exactly there yet and I don't think Stranger is anywhere near the standards of Toxic, but when there isn't anything better on the airwaves and this is the best there is, I'll take it! With Love was funky enough (to reach US Dance #1) with its cool futuristic beeping all over the place while Stranger has a minute bit of Indian influence. It's got a great catchy melody and I guess that's all that matters. If the third single is anywhere near this good, I think I need to get the album.

I deserve to get shot for saying that.



Enrique Iglesias - Do You Know? (The Ping Pong Song)
Would you go for longevity or being the hottest stuff for the moment? That is essentially the difference between Ricky Martin and Enrique Iglesias. The 2005 comeback by Ricky Martin only managed a dismal #65 on the Billboard Hot 100 while the latest offering by Enrique, Do You Know (Ping Pong Song) is currently at #33. The Ping Pong part of the song is stinks of cheap gimmick, but his voice more than makes up for it. Yes, I miss the voice that gave us Bailamos, Rhythm Divine, and fine, Hero (for all you romantic nuts out there). I don't know what's all the fuss about his dick size though. There were reports saying that he was unsatisfied with it because it's too small, and then recently he's been quoted to say that it's big.

Damn Enrique, I understand. It never stays the same length all the time, does it?



Timbaland ft Keri - The Way I Are
I love Timbaland and all the shizzle that he's produce, but when he makes an album all about himself, it becomes a bit of an overkill. However it's saved by some gems such as the second single after Give It To Me - The Way I Are. The beats are smokin' and rhymes are flowin'! His heavily vocoderised voice contrasts with Keri's smooth pipes to make magic happen. I was thinking real hard whether to feature this song, but I've got a sneaky feeling that it could probably blow up all over the charts after the success of P.Diddy's Last Night. "Baby if you strip, you could get a tip, cos I like you just the way you are..."



The Cranberries - Promises
Okay, and then there's the song that I've got to recommend from the past. I know I pick songs up real randomly, but this one's one of my favourites from the Cranberries. Promises packs enough punch to come close to being as hardcore as Zombie, yet starts off soothingly as if it were Animal Instict. The track was the lead single off their 1999 album, Bury The Hatchet. Every second of the song is delicious, from the haunting verses to the intense chorus. I love singing along to the yodelling. Wow. Take a listen here.

Bring The Beat Back

I've been bothered by morbid thoughts lately so I decided to go watch the sunrise. It's a miracle that happens everyday; something that we take for granted. I usually catch a glimpse of the amazing sight everyday on the way to work so I decided to check it out. I guess the sight was pretty worth sacrificing my sleep for!



I call it the huge-body-of-water-that-you-see-from-the-train-when-travelling-from-Khatib-to-YCK without actually realising that it's actually Lower Seletar Reservoir! It was quite a walk from Khatib MRT station, and more humid than expected.



The view was picturesque.



And the highlight of the entire trip is probably the jetty. I think it's really rare in Singapore to find a place where it's surrounded by lots of greenery and water and yet still relatively accessible. Okay, so it's not so appropriate but we went crazy camwhoring amidst the tranquil surroundings.



There was this bunch of Ah Bengs fishing all over the place and they managed to catch quite a few big fish! The way they dealt with the fish after that was a little cruel, but Man has always been like this since the beginning of time. Anyway, it was exciting to witness the fish being reeled in, hauled up, and then tossed onto the jetty.



I don't know how to explain this series of pictures. Don't ask. I just want to mention that that looks like a pretty weary smile on Pic #4. I think all the work has gotten to me more than I'd like to admit. I've realised I'm quite the workaholic. I like the fact that I'm driven and all, but I guess I just don't know my limits.



Ooh, I like this photo. I set the focus to infinite but it doesn't look good enough. But the idea is there.



For the life of me, I can't remember what these plants are called. It's been too long since I've played SimParks (one of my favourite games of all time), which was educational and entertaining at the same time. Animals, plants... the diversity of wildlife in the game was amazing. I should probably move off to some nature park to work in the future!



And everyone who knows Ryan knows of his obsession with Ni Guang and so I played around with the camera and got it to over-expose(?) the photo for this effect. Not bad right? Haha... Gosh I'm retarded. It was a welcomed break from all the mall-crawling and movie-watching. I love the outdoors and nature in general so it was a big treat for me.



We spotted a lizard and this huge army of ants crossing one of the paths. There were these tiny ants warring and outnumbering these bigger ants. They were obviously not friends. For every huge ant, there were 5 tiny ones stuck on their backs, trying to bring it down.

Mother Nature has its gruesome sights too.

After that we walked back to Khatib MRT and had breakfast at one of the many coffeeshops opposite. The food was really good. I think I'm addicted to Ba Chor Mee. Yummilicious! Haha... I headed back to Woodlands just in time to meet Wee Lee to get ourselves across the Causeway for a haircut and lunch. Such a pity that my usual hairstylist wasn't there. But Wee Lee commented that there was no difference in the hairstyle I got! So much for being original.

I'm going to hear a lot of comments about how short my hair is, again. But that's the way I like it!

More Advice

I went to Taipei earlier this month and stayed in Royal Castle Hotel (along Chengdu Rd) in XMD!

Places u muz go:

1. Shilin Night Market (makan & shopping!!)
2. Danshui (Old Street) (shop for native food & sight-seeing)
3. Lovers' bridge
4. Taipei 101
5. Museums & Memorial Halls (if u r interested)
6. Wu Fen Pu (shopping)
7. Yang Ming Shan (sight-seeing)
8. Xin Bei Tou (muz try its hot spring!)

Food that u MUZ try:

1. Shilin Night Mkt - Super big chicken cutlet, teppanyaki (the stall owned by married couple and their mother), chua bing, fen(3) yuan(2) (their ice kacang), basically all the food!! Lolz~

2. XMD - Ah Zhong Mian Xian (opp. a row of Nike, Adidas & Puma shops), Ba Fang Yun Ji's dumpling & gyoza (juz beside XMD MRT), bubble tea (much nicer than S'pore), Fei(1) Tian(1) Ma(2) La(4) steamboat, Ya(2) Rou(4) Bian(3)'s duck noodles.

3. Danshui - Ah(1) Gei(3)

For transport from the airport to hotel, there r a few private bus companies tt offer to transport u to the hotels. U can find them easily at the airport terminal. It's much more affordable than taking a cab! Dun ever try taking cab in Taipei! Very ex! The meter starts at S$3.50 and jumps very fast! MRT and buses are the best transport to get u around Taipei. Very convenient too! U can buy an Ez-link card for ard S$20 at any MRT control station and u can use it for many train n bus trips!

People - The ppl are definitely more friendly and helpful than S'poreans. Haha.. if u need directions, u can try asking them. They are really nice peeps! They'll tend to ask u where u are from as our accent does sound different from theirs. If u r shopping, I feel tt it's better not to let the shop owners know tt u r a S'porean coz they mite think S'poreans r filthy rich n hence charge a higher price. U can try to bargain price with them! Speak Mandarin! =)

- Kherray

Thanks a lot, seriously! I really appreciate all the information and I think it'll be of major help seeing that you've listed everything so clearly! Gosh... we'll definitely visit all the places you recommended, although I can't promise that I'll try all the food at Shilin Night Market! I think I ought to start practising my Mandarin now; I really do suck at it! I wonder where Lovers' Bridge is at, because I haven't came across it in any of the stuff I read.

On a side note, we need to have a class outing soon!

If anyone has any 2 cents worth of contribution to make for my up-coming trip in July, leave a tag! I'd like to hear from you, mainly because there's nothing better than first-person opinions.

Okay, and the fact that I'm just a little lazy to do my own research at the moment!

PS: Isn't asking for opinions part of the research too? =P

Meaning

The harder I try to look for it, the more lost I feel.

Play

I'm having a lot of fun recently. I guess getting a new job and a new schedule was really what I needed shake my life up a little bit. Having enough money to satisfy my needs helps too. I watched three movies last week (okay, Pirates twice) and played badminton with my colleagues on Friday. That was really cool because I haven't played such a great game in a long time. It's probably because Cindy and I are roughly the same standard and we didn't take it too seriously!

After teaching 5 students today, I'm freaking tired. I can't wait to slam into my bed and indulge in dreamless sleep. There never seems to be enough time to sleep. Hmm, I won't be home early for the rest of the week due to shopping, tuition and badminton! Ooh, and I'm going to Malaysia on Friday to get my hair cut!

As with everyone else, I'm freaking out about my uni life. I've no idea what to expect, and that should be frightening. However, I'm really looking forward to it. After being aimless for so long, to return to studies and a school life is really what I'm anticipating. It'd probably be one of the finest years of my life and I want to do everything right, to have something cool to look back on!

It's nerve-wrecking. I need to talk to someone to get me calm! Haha...

Ooh, and I've lost my abs, which don't seem to want to come back despite me doubling my efforts to exercise. Damn.

I watched Shrek 3 yesterday and it was pretty good. I used to hate Shrek so I avoided the movie like plague, but I had a chance to watch the third installment with Max, Terence and Daniel. One of the best parts has got to be hearing Justin voice Artie. The part where he was whining and crying to Merlin was hilarious. It's hard to imagine that's his voice. Max drove the point home by singing Sexyback when that scene was on! What contrast! Haha... The worst thing about the whole thing was that most of the audience was either too old or too young to have watched Snow White and Cinderella to remember it as clearly as our generation. The four of us were the only people breaking into laughter at various points in the movie. The rest of the audience were so silent in their cluelessness I could almost hear their hands scratching their heads! Anyway, I guess I've got to do some catching up and watch the other two Shrek movies!

Samuel popped by work yesterday to visit his old colleagues and to remind me that I owe him a treat for getting me the job. I'll become as broke as I started if that happens!

More More More

"I have an aunt, who whenever she poured anything for you, would say, 'say when'. My aunt would say say when and of course we never did. We don't say when because there's something about the possibility of more.

More tequila
More love
More anything
More is better

There's something to be said about a glass half full. About when to say when. I think it's a floating line, a barometer of need and desire. It's entirely up to the individual and depends on what's being poured. Sometimes all we want is a taste. Other times, there's no such thing as enough. The glass is bottomless. And all we want is more."
- Meredith Grey

I'm guilty of wanting more all the time. More money, more fun, more muscle, more time, more friends... It's a mentality that's bound to backfire as we pursue "more", simply because more is not always better.

Why do we ask for more? It's the fear of not having enough and not matching up to everyone's expectations. Unrealistic expectations. Working moms want more time, to be the perfect mom for their kids, to be the perfect wife for their husbands, and to be the perfect career woman in office. But for everything that you want badly, there's a price to pay for it in the end. Opportunity cost. We can never have it all.

One of the things that we go through our entire lives asking for more of, is money. To a point where we neglect the people around that we care about, our family and friends. We neglect the environment. We neglect social issues that seem too far away to affect us. We become selfish and self-centered, greedy and irresponsible.

I'm guilty of all the above. When I was younger I knew much better, but ever since I stepped out from school and into society, I'm just overwhelmed by everything that's out there, everything that there is to know and take care of, and everything that's out there for me to want more of. I think it's crazy that I work hard for my money, spend it on shopping just to make myself feel better, and the cycle never ends because the desire for more is just insatiable. More importantly, it's not what I really need, and thus it'll never satisfy that longing for more.

Because just sometimes, settling for less and being satisfied with what you've got gives you the time of day to stop and appreciate life instead of going through it grudgingly, monotonously, in the pursuit of more.

Stop exercising when your knee hurts. Stop drinking when you're that close to being used as a mop on the dancefloor. Stop working when you've got kids who're waiting for you at home. Stop gambling instead of lying to yourself that you'll get back your money on this last bet. Stop playing fucking DOTA when you should be studying.

At the end of the day, we need to focus on what we need instead of our insatiable desires. We need to sieve out the needs because we have limited resources at our disposal, and at the end of the day, you don't want to spend your life chasing things that aren't worth your time. Your life.

Soundaholic Presents...

Rihanna ft Jay-Z - Umbrella
When you're in the business of commenting on music, the first lesson is not to argue with popularity. As I mention last week, you're probably never going to win. Coming a close second would be to not to argue with a transatlantic hit. 19-year-old Rihanna's Umbrella is spending a second week at #1 in the UK and vaults #42-#1 on the Billboard Hot 100 this week. Unlike any other mere pop song you might hear on the radio, this one will definitely catch your attention with its distinct refrain of, "Umbrella-ella-ella-eh-eh-eh". She's a strange one because despite having huge hits (Pon de Replay, SOS, Unfaithful), she's not been a huge album seller. It's probably due to the fact that she releases her albums too damn soon after one another. I hated the song the first couple of times I heard it, but after repeated forced listens (it's everywhere) and her appearance on TRL, I'm sold. It's this summer's anthem. Miss out on this and it's your loss.



Good Charlotte - Dance Floor Anthem
I'm repulsed at how slowly it's been taking the public to warm up to Good Charlotte's current album. Keep Your Hands Off My Girl, which was supposed to an iconic single for the band, didn't quite take off because of the lack of support from punk rock fans in general. Lead singer Joel Madden revealed that the direction for the current album was slightly different, saying that, "We wanted to make it a little more dancey. I have been influenced by doing my DJ gigs, so I wanted to incorporate that energy. It is not a dance album at all, but it is a lot dancier." You can read the rest of the interview here. Dance Floor Anthem is the third single, and in my opinion, should do a pretty good job of getting fans of their previous hits like Girls and Boys, back. I love the track and it gets me hooked from beginning till the end. The video itself is nothing special though.



Linkin Park - What I've Done
If you've been to Lido anytime this week (and chances are that you'd have been because of Spiderman 3, Pirates of the Carribean and Shrek 3), you'll not be able to miss the fact that the huge screen which usually showcases trailers of up-and-coming movies is also plugging Linkin Park's latest single, What I've Done. It took quite some time for the song to grow on me, but what caught my attention the first time I saw the video was that it was highlighting some of the problems that the human race was facing - poverty, global warming and warfare. It's so rare nowadays for music to not be so self-centered. The lyrics are simple and therein lies it's magic.



Five - Closer To Me
If you've been into boybands in the past, surely you'd have heard of Five? They were never astoundingly huge in Asia (unlike a1) but still gave a slew of hits from When The Lights Go Out to We Will Rock You. My personal favourite however, has got to be the ballad Closer To Me, which was released after they decided to call disband in November 2001. It's one of the songs that can make me cry, for reasons I cannot fanthom. I remember being at a class chalet then and the radio was playing this song at 4 in the morning and we heard the song and someone asked me (naturally) who sang it, because it was really good. I broke the news and that guy was pretty stunned! Haha... can't believe I remember all that when it happened 6 years ago. Take a trip down memory lane here.