Our Little Holiday

Thank you..

2009-01-13T14:52:00.003+11:00

Our trip is officially over. It certainly flew by quickly and is certainly something that will never be forgotten. It's something that has brought us closer as friends. Being back in Melbourne has gotten me to realise that i really miss all your company, the conversations, laughs, random moments and places we were in.

Betty even though i have known you for my whole life i have finally got to know what it's like to live with you and i must say it was terrible.. haha jksjks. It was really great to get to know you more than i have. Even though we had our ups and downs during the trip it got us closer. Please thank your uncles and aunty for everything they've done for us while we were in HK.

Gabriel thank you for opening up your home to accommodate all of us, showing us around and planning the holiday. I've had such a great time getting to know you and seeing a side you i've never seen. I wish you all the best with the nxt 2 years at NS and will see you back here in Feb. I can sincerly say that we will all miss you. Can u also please thank Mei Chin and Hui Ying for showing us around. =D

Janson you were always the one looking out for us incase we got lost. Thanks for looking out for us. i think the most funniest thing from was we "protect". You have certainly changed from a person who did nothing to a person who is the slightest bit adverturous. Thanks for all the funny times that was shared in all of us. And i must add i don't think i'll be missing ur stupid antics.

I've had so much fun with all of you and as you all know it was my first time ever overseas and it was the best experience i've ever had. Thank you for being apart of it all.

Linda

Leaving on a jetplane...

2009-01-13T08:17:00.002+11:00

No, for real this time, unlike that last time in Malaysia when were on that bus that tried to pose as a plane by putting wings on the logo and naming it “airbus”. This time Im on my jetstar flight back to Melbourne via Darwin, my last (well second last if you count it as two flights) on this great adventure that I’ve been on this past month and a half. It has been an amazing journey for me and I’ve felt as though I’ve matured over this trip and much more knowledgeable about the things in the world. I just want to thank Gabriel one last time for putting together this awesome experience. All the best for your mission trip tomorrow and hope you have a smooth flight and don’t catch malaria, and your two years in NS. It might be tough but im sure you’ll get through it. Time might slow down but it will never stop and before you know it, that 2 years is gone and you’ll be back in Melbourne, with all of us waiting. And besides, its not all over yet. Still have that month in February, which we would make the most of.
Anyway, even though Im glad to be heading home, Im also quite saddened to be leaving Singapore, which has essentially been my home for the past month, and Gabriel and his family has somewhat become my adopted family. As the plane took off and I watched the Singapore skyline, felt kinda sad as I was in a way leaving my family behind. But I know I’ll be back in Singapore. Its such a great place to be. Good food, good food prices, good transport. Whenever I have the money and time to travel, Singapore will definitely be on the list of places to go.

Right now I have the best seat that I’ve had so far on this trip. Im towards the middle so have more leg room, right behind the emergency door so if there’s an accident or something, I don’t have to go far to get out and I don’t have to do anything since Im not at where the exit is. Furthermore, I have the entire row to myself lol, so I can stretch out and sleep lying down if Im allowed. But it also means I can use my laptop more freely and not be cramped like I usually am.
My last day in Singapore was rather uneventful, just stayed home and didnt do much, except tick down the time and head out. In the morning though I did go next door to the shopping centre (called Lot 1 as I’ve recently learnt, after all my weeks in Singapore lol) to pick up some last minute gifts for people and get cable ties so I can secure my luggage, as my second lock was left somewhere. Possibly Malaysia after that...unfortunate incident with my Adidas bag. Gabriel also had to head out to the doctor to get vaccinations for his trip tomorrow, but since it was a bit too late, he got some pills instead, which apparently has “vivid dreams” as a side effect lol.
After a while, Gabriel left to do something and I just stayed home and wasted time by just sitting at the computer reading news and listening to music, before I decided to set out and go. I say goodbye to Gabriel’s grandmother and we have a bit of a talk about returning to Singapore and usual going away stuff. And from there I made my way to Changi Airport. Along the way, I discovered a new riddle:

How many people are stupid enough to travel from Choa Chu Kang to Changi Airport via MRT?
At least one: me

Getting there was such a pain. Walking from Gabriel’s place to the MRT was bad ehough. By the time I got to the station, I was sweating like a pig and must have looked like the biggest idiot, carrying my luggage and hand carry while wearing my laptop bag. And both my bags were sooo bloody heavy. Luckily my luggage had wheels so I could just wheel it there, but my hand carry (a big billabong bag because I gave my ugly orange aldofo bag to Pete to take to Malaysia and i didnt want it because it was so ugly) didnt and I had to carry it all the way to the station before I could let it rest. It was so heavy that at MRT station, when I was buying my one way ticket to the airport, the arm which I used to carry the hand carry was shaking so I had a bit of trouble putting in the coins. And now my hands are really sore. Whats more is that at the MRT station, as I was about to catch a lift to the platform (as if ride that narrow ass escalator, or God forbid, take the stairs), a security guard asks to check my bag, so she directs me to this table and gets me to haul my heavy ass bag onto this table, and I use my shaky hands to unlock it for her to inspect, which she only glances at. She also asks to check my luggage but I explain that I needed scissors to cut the cable tie, so she just asks me what is inside and lets me off to catch another lift. I took Gabriel’s advice and rode the front carriage which was good because it was relatively empty, compared to the sardine cans in the middle carriages.

Soon enough, I get to Changi Airport and there, I had some problems as the check in gate for my flight opened late, and I had to wait for ages before being able to line up in the long as line to check in. In that time of waiting for my check in, I took the time to weigh my bags and found that my luggage was underweight, at 18kg, but that my carry on was 10kg...and that it was 3kg overweight. I didnt care so much that I was overweight but that I have to lug around 10kg around the airport in Singapore, Darwin and in Melbourne...bloody hell. And when I checked in, they did weigh my hand carry as well but they let me off and didnt make it check in which was good of them, though they did ask if I could chuck some of the stuff in my hand carry into my luggage, which I said I could but because my luggage was cable tied, they would need scissors to open it. After that I headed to my gate after learning I cant by $30 bailleys because I was stopping over in Darwin and would have to buy from there first, which was a tad gay. I also had a sample of it and damn was it nice. Think Bailleys is my favourite alcoholic beverage, along with Heineken.
From there I went to my gate, which I had to wait to wait a while to open and also call Gabriel to let him know Im at the airport and also call Mum that my flight back would arrive at 2, not at the 1040 my itinery says I would. I also learned that my flight would leave at 1030, not 9:45 as my itinery said it would. Which meant more waiting. But I didnt mind. Before long, the gate opened and just had to wait to board, which soon arrived, which brings me to now. This should be posted when I reach Darwin, which should be like...7am Melbourne time? Something like that.

Anyway got to go now. Battery dying lol. Hope to see you soon. Also happy Birthday Gabriel’s Mum. Best wishes.

P.S. Im at Darwin now, charging my laptop. So gay, my flight isn’t for another hour and a half and I’ve been here for over an hour I reckon. My flight boards at 7:55 and right now its...6:34. Hard to tell how long I’ve been here since my watch was stuck to Singapore time for a while and not Darwin. In my time here, I’ve realised I may have missed my chance for cheap alcohol, as I don’t think I’ll have access to the duty free shop in Melbourne and I couldn’t buy alcohol here in Darwin because I forgot to exchange currency in Singapore because I assumed I would be buying it from there and the only way to get to the money exchange was to go through immigration which meant I couldn’t go back. So gay. Full price for a bottle of Bailleys? Oh well. No choice I suppose.
In my time here just wasting away waiting for my plane, I’ve had a breakfast of bacon and eggs with toast, and might I say, it was good. Not good because it was cooked well. Frankly I reckon my ones are better, where the bacon is so crispy you can eat them like chips. But it was good because I haven’t eaten bacon and eggs in I don’t know how long. Even though the food there was great, I still miss good old western foods like that. When I was eating it, it reminded me of a time when Betty said “I was such a white” because I was having coffee and cake for breakfast in Malaysia, and well in a way I am. I love my bacon and eggs. I love my coffee and tea.

Anyway, think this post is long enough. Next post I make, I’ll be sitting in the comfort of my own room. So good bye Choa Chu kang. Good bye Singapore. Good bye world.

Nothing more to say

2009-01-13T02:10:00.002+11:00

What can I say,
Time really flew so quickly!
One minute ago, I was rushing for my plane back at Melbourne. Next thing I know I'm saying bye to a bunch of really good friends.
Its really quiet now.. But I'm really really really glad that we've came on this trip.
Things that we've done and seen that will forever remain in me. And I'm sure for you guys as well.

Janson, we've been overseas for almost a month and a half. At the start it was kinda weird. But I reckon to certain levels we were on the same frequency. I've seen you change from someone not daring to do anything, to someone who was very "on". Ready and on the ball to do anything.
Our last few weeks back in Singapore after the girls left was quite relaxing. And the most enjoyable was the Chalet. Seeing INSANE dares and even the Steamboat buffet. Really glad that you were able to be in this part of my holiday.

Linda, Had an awesome time with you at Hong Kong and Malaysia. So greatful that your future brother in law was able to take us all around. Giving us a private tour, and taking us to eat the most awesome crabs. Although the game we played in Hongkong had only ME as the participant of the game, it was fun to have you 'spectating' the game. haha.

Betty, HAHA you're the most funniest because we got to bag you the most. Jokes. But it was great to have you on the trip and organising almost everything in Hong Kong. Really had a great time with you on this trip.
Such a shame that you girls weren't able to go on the reverse bungy or the giant swing.. But it was great that you were part of this trip too

Janson and myself didn't do much during the 2weeks after hong kong, it was more of a relaxing and gearing down period. Which I'm glad we had. Sometimes us guys just wanna hit the couch and just surf on the remote. =)
Chalet was great... Escape theme park? Shirts off during a ride? Whoohoo! Awesome!!!
Great bbq? Good fellowship over food and beer...

Anyways, I've been posted into the army already and kinda not looking forward to it yet. So I'll be looking forward to ANOTHER holiday back in Melbourne..

Cheers to one holiday which will never be forgotten!!
g

Things that I miss and will miss

2009-01-12T04:07:00.001+11:00

As my time here winds down and my time of departure comes, I’ve been using my spare time riding on the MRT or when Im just zoning out (which happens quite often) I’ve been reflecting upon my time here and on when I get back and I’ve somewhat formed a list of things about home that I miss, and things from my travels abroad that I will miss, as well as a few things I definitely know I wont be needing in Melbourne.

Things that I miss from home:
• My bed, my shower, my toilet, my flush, etc
• My computer and all its files, and not having to charge it
• Constant unbroken fast internet access
• Constant supply of coffee (had so many headaches)
• Knowledge of where the toilet paper is
• Manga and anime (6 weeks of not reading manga. Note to self: Read everything posted after Nov 26, of Naruto, Bleach, Kekkaishi, Bloody Monday, Koukou Debut, Kiss/Hug)
• Seeing and hugging Elmo, having him sleep on my bed after everyone in the house has left
• Family, Friends. Havent seen you guys in ages. Want to see if you guys changed much. Cant wait till we all meet up
• Melbourne weather, although it’ll be worse than Singapore weather on the day I get back
• Aussie powerports (so glad I can say good bye to that power adaptor)

Things that I will miss from overseas
• The food: roti prata, nasi briyani, ice kachang, stingray, etc
• Singaporean food prices
• All the adventures we’ve had exploring and just doing crazy things like midnight cycling
• Singapore and Hong Kong public transport (6 minutes for a train, max)
• The ability to go down stairs at like 10 at night to get food
• That shops don’t close at 6
• Cheap shopping: Mong Kok is the best place ever
• Random moments with Betty, Linda and Gabriel
• Boon Keng Chicken rice
• Gabriel’s music
• Phrases such as kopi beng (try saying that in Starbucks), kopi c, shiok
• Fast trains
• Use of Ezy-link card and Octopus
• Wide availability of asian music and shows and movies
• Cable television and watching Mythbusters non-stop and the history channel

Things that I will not miss from overseas
• KL public transport; as in Gabriel’s words “Fail: 14 minutes for a train” and having to get a new ticket just to use another mode of transport
• Polluted air
• Living out of my suitcase
• The smell of durian. Bleh, Gabriel’s parents bought apparently 10kg of durians which just arrived tonight and its reeking up the house. Glad I only have one day left here. One other time, we were eating dinner out and Jared comes to the table with two bowls of Ice Kachang with durian and it smelled horrible, and that was just the sauce.

Day after tomorrow

2009-01-10T21:35:00.002+11:00

After today and then after tomorrow, and then a few hours after I wake up, I shall be on a plane (on my own) back to Melbourne, with a quick detour at Darwin. And then after a short taxi ride which I hope I can afford, I’ll be back in the safe confines of my own house, in my own city, in my own country. But before then, we’ll be holding a massive barbecue tonight with Gabriel’s Singaporean friends and some people from Melbourne who are in Singapore right now, such as Jeremy, Karina and her cousin, and Paul Block. Yes. Paul Block. Giant South African Paul Block. Anyway, we hope we all have a good time tonight. Earlier today we went to the nearby theme park and went on a couple of the rides, such as go-karting and rollercoasters, but they don’t compare to the ones we went to in Ocean Park which were 10 times more scary. At least. That and half the rides were closed for maintenance so we couldn’t do all that much. Afterwards we just got drinks which we would be drinking tonight at the chalet we’re staying in over the weekend, which we checked in yesterday and stayed a night, staying up to play cards, wii bowling and boxing and this board game called Life which was fun, where you just spin this wheel and move until the game ends and sees who has most money, based on income, stocks, house and bonuses included in the job.

Over the past week, ever since New Years, lots of things have been happening. One such thing was that Pete had headed off to Malaysia with another Auntie who was in Singapore as well, and has been there ever since, and would probably be staying there until he has to come back for his flight. I had to see him off to Somerset Station, as Gabriel had to attend a family photo somewhere. After I dropped Pete off, I decided to explore on my own along Orchard Rd and was hoping to go to the big shopping centres like Wisma and Takashimiya that Gabriel never takes me to but instead I went the wrong way and ended up in Doubhi Gout lol and walked around Plaza Singapura, where I got a pair of jeans and a belt at Ip Zone for like $26.5 because everything in the store was 50% off which was awesome. Along the way I also bought a couple of Arnold Palmer shirts for $22 each which I thought was ok, until I tried them on at home and found they were too big lol. It was also distressing to find that I could take off my jeans and put them back on without unbuttoning or unzipping anything, which was a key reason why I bought the belt. That and it looked pretty cool because it was chequered and Gabriel said chequered was in so, thought I might as well get it.

What else happened...well we met up with Gabriel’s cousin Ben and his friend Winnie, who showed us around their School, Singaopre Polytechnic, which is huge. Has like 5 food courts apparently. It was so big that the students there designed and got the government to build them their own MRT station, which is Dover Station. Apparently the school covers three Bus stops lol.
After that, they treated us to Sushi train, which he had the buffet that was only $15. We ate sooo much. We ate like 26 plates between the four of us, which Ian says wasn’t that much but it felt like a lot. Had to go to the toilet like twice to make room lol. We could barely walk afterwards. From there we just walked around until Winnie had to go back home and the three of us just went to watch Transporter 3 which was alright. Wasnt that bad. Fighting scenes weren’t as good as Ip Man but the plot wasn’t too bad. As you would expect from Luc Besson, the guy who wrote The Fifth Element. From there, we just headed back home.

We also met up with James’ group as they were in Singapore as well and we did a couple of things together. First time we met up, we just bummed around Orchard Rd and went to a couple of shopping Centres where we couldn’t afford anything and for some reason, we spent a while looking at male underwear. Dont ask me why. We also had lunch at the Philippine place Gabriel said had really strong chilli, which Phui Mun just scooped a pile onto her plate lol. It only burns really strong at the start but after a while, it dies down and don’t even notice it. The food there was pretty nice. I had the grilled chicken but couldn’t finish it as Ian had plopped his half eaten fried chicken which I liked better but couldn’t finish that either. After shopping for nothing, we bummed around, did nothing for a while until we went to watch a movie, which was Seven Pounds, with Will Smith. The movie was alright, pretty sad. There were moments where I had to hold back tears. But it is pretty predictable, though there were a couple of shocks which I did not expect at all. After the movie, we had dinner at a nearby kopitiam and had stingray, which James felt was really hot. From there we just went our separate ways and Gabs and I headed back to Choa Chu Kang.

The second time we met up with them was at Clarke Quay, no not to drink but to do the reverse bungee which everyone has been so enthusiastic to do, possibly with the exception of myself, as Im not such a fan of thrill rides such as that. After dinner with Gabriel’s family, Gabriel and I MRT’d down there, expecting to get there at 10, as was planned. However, as we got onto the green line, Marcus calls me (Gabriel’s phone had died, again) and I give it to Gabriel and apparently they’re there already and asked us to get there now, and this was at like 9:40. We ended up getting there a bit later than expected, because we missed our interchange at Outram Park for some reason and had to catch a later interchange to get back to Clarke Quay. We also got there later because we had to make our way from the MRT station all the way to where the reverse bungee was, which was pretty far. Once we get there, we get our tickets, which I decided not to do the giant swing because I knew it would be more scary than the reverse bungee because you’re suspended in a great height for a longer time. We get our tickets, take a piss and then we’re ready to go. Those doing the giant swing (James, Marcus, PM, Mok and Gabs) went first and apparently it was scary as hell because they were so high and Ian took so long to push the button that releases the swing lol. I had no idea how it was like but from the screams, it seemed quite scary lol. The swing seemed to swing for ages, like three minutes. After that, we headed straight for the reverse bungee, which James, Marcus and Pm go on first. They screamed sooo loudly lol. All the time, all you hear were screams lol. It was so funny at the start because the woman was like “alright, countdown from 10” and a second later she goes “10” and all of a sudden, up they go lol. Gabs and I was like “ooohh shiiitt” lol. It was so scary because you see Marcus’ legs flailing everywhere lol.
After them, it was Gabriel, Ian and my turn, and we were like scared shitless lol. Well I was. We sit down and get strapped to the device and we get rotated backward and the woman tries to distract us by getting us to stretch our arms to our feet, but we were like “stuff that” and just laid back. And then she goes “don’t worry, not yet” and then whoosh, we were sent flying. It was so scary, being sent up so fast. Can feel all the G-forces pushing against your body as you go up and down and feels as though you’re being lifted off the seat. Its pretty scary because the harness isn’t hard and is pretty flimsy. I held onto the bars underneath me so tightly lol. My arms and pecs still hurt from that lol. After a while you get used to it and it stops going so fast and can actually relax. As we were being lowered, I just felt like kicking the guy in the face lol.
After that we were going to get a drink at Hooters but decided to just get a coffee from TCC. I got an orea frappe thingm but wanted to get one that had rum in it but didnt because it was too expensive. After that, James and crew went back home and Gabriel and I was going to catch an MRT back home but since services had ended by then, we had to catch a taxi back. The taxi driver was nuts apparently; Gabriel said he was doing 140 in a 90 zone lol. And when we approached a taxi stop, he goes “oh quick, put on your seatbelts” and Gabriel and I already had em on and I watched as the taxi driver pull his down and just hold onto it until he passes the checkpoint.

It was also Jared’s birthday, for which we had a small party at home where we sang Happy Birthday and had cake. There was also this time where Jared dropped his toothbrush into the toilet lol. I was laughing my ass off at that. I see him in the kitchen pouring boiling water into a cup and I just figure he’s making milo or something before he sleeps, until he walks into the room and I see he’s stirring it with his toobrush and Im like “...what the hell are you doing” lol. Then there was this other time where I see him in the kitchen boiling water and I figure he’s just making milo before he sleeps, until he walks into the room stirring his cup with a toothbrush, and Gabriel and I just look at him and he goes “don’t ask” lol.
Anyway, thats all from me for now. I’ve pretty much covered everything anyway. Not much left to do here. Not much time left either. Before I know it, I’ll be back in Melbourne craving Roti Prata lol. Hope to see you all very soon.

*Forgot to mention that while on the Reverse Bungee, when you're going down and facing down at the same time, the harness tends to ride up your crotch lol. When that happened, I was screaming " argh my crotch my crotch" lol.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!!!!!!!

2009-01-08T04:24:00.001+11:00

Lol, yes I am somewhat aware that New Years was a week ago...its the time difference...there is a week long time difference...Im sensing Im not being very persuasive. Fine fine, I was just too lazy and too busy to blog about. Happy? No? Well too fricken bad lol jkjk. Sorry I haven’t been keeping up to date with this blog. Just that so much happens here and you know...Im lazy lol.
So what has been happening? Hmmm kinda hard to remember what we did, but I remember the generalities of it.
First of all was New Years which was amazing. It was spent on a bridge somewhere in town outside the Esplanade with Gabriel, Pete, Sarah, Jared (Gabriel’s younger siblings) and Hui Ying and Mei Chin as e counted down to the new year and the fireworks. We got there a tad too early (think we got there at like 10? Or maybe earlier?) and we just sat there waiting for the fireworks. But it wasn’t too bad, we burned time by playing Big Two and “Who What Huh” which was pretty fun. We also had to put up with the performance on the television, which was of a guy in a green chicken suit doing some really crappy singing. But soon all the waiting and the crappy singing came to an end and we were presented with one of the best fireworks displays I have ever seen. I have no idea how the fireworks around the world was but Im glad I was able to see the ones in Singapore because it was so awesome. It was long, synchronised and had music to go with it which made it so cool and more organised and to tune. Didnt seem as random as the ones you see in Melbourne, and also had like a tone to it as well. After the amazing fireworks display, we started to head back, and the place was so crowded that we had to form a congo line so we wouldn’t get lost. Which reminds me, at first when we went to the underpass to get to the esplanade, we weren’t allowed to go through because it was too full apparently, but Mei Chin just goes “wait, our family is already inside, there there” and we were allowed through lol. Anyway, the whole road was packed like hell. It was worse than the KL monorail at peak hour. We were literally body against body but closer. And we were all packed up against the sidewalk waiting to get to the pedestrian crossing so we could get to Marina Square. On the way there we had a bit of an altercation, when a drunken Caucasian woman with a Singaporean accent with her husband behind her and her kids in front and behind with the maid, just barges through the crowd blowing her whistle loudly. At first I thought it was a cop until I realised it wasn’t and then she continues blowing, despite the fact that no one can move an inch. After Pete asked her politely to stop blowing her whistle, she just blows it in Pete’s ears a couple of times, even louder than she did before. After that, Pete tried to take the whistle out of her mouth, which he misses and Hui Ying gets it off her. After that there was a lot of swearing and Gabriel trying to be the peacemaker that he is by asking the woman to stop swearing because her kid was right in front of her, and Gabs said Mei Chin was being the typical Singaporean by just looking away and covering her eyes lol. After a while, the woman and her family walk off somewhere else and we manage to cross the street to Marina Square Shopping Centre where we take our seat at Maccas and just wait until it clears out a bit inside so we could order food, but Hui Ying and Mei Chin were a bit too hungry so just went inside to do a food run for us. After a while longer, we were still hungry so I went inside and got three large chips, which Gabs said was enough but I didnt think it was. After the chips, we headed to the MRT station where we were able to catch the last train back to get picked up by Gab’s parents who were at Clarke Quay.

New Years Resolutions? Well normally I only have one but since this was such an amazing year which culminated in this simply awesome end of year trip, I decided to go all out and have three.
First of all is to make more out of my life and be more constructive and do things like get a job, take up a hobby, do more writing, go out more. After exams and before I set out for this trip, I realised how empty my life was, just filled with studying, school, manga and sleep. And after exams, school and studying went with it, which just leaves manga and sleep, which isn’t exactly all that fulfilling. Theres only so many hours you can sleep, though Im trying to beg to differ. That and I also realised how quickly time flies. I can remember just a month ago, I was waiting outside my house with my parents for Gabriel to come pick me up. I can remember just two months ago, I was crapping myself over my English Exam. I can remember just 12 months ago, I rocked up to the Landy Centre for my first day of ear 12. Its all gone by so quickly. Thats why I want to make the most out of my life before it finishes as a result of natural causes or Uni lol.

Second resolution is to keep those close to me closer and to cherish who and what I have. Throughout this year, I have realised how important people are in our lives and what an impact they have on us, which is why I don’t ever want to lose those who are important to me. This trip I feel have brought us all closer and in some ways, made us into a weird sort of family brood. We might have our differences and little tiffs, but at the end of the day, we all have to return to the same house and to the same room. We also seem to have formed our own little language, much of it taken from Gabriel’s vocabulary, with words such as “awesome” and “relax” put into circulation. Also I’ve noticed that at the start of the trip, it was “can I borrow your shampoo” and “can I borrow your this and this” and soon we didnt have to ask and just left whatever we need in the bathroom for all to use, like a normal family. We just had “our toothpaste” and “our shampoo” and “our food”. It was no longer “I” and felt more like “us”, as we all just got used to each other and became more familiar.

Final resolution, is to work my ass off to get from Melbourne Arts into Melbourne Media. The result I got, while wasn’t bad, wasn’t ideal either. It served as a wake up call that told me “I have not been working hard enough this year. Get your ass into gear and work hard enough this year”, and as such, my goal would be to work harder, get the credits needed to transfer from Arts to Media, where I’ll actually have a chance of finding a job with my degree.

Well I think thats all from me for now. I’ll talk about my other exploits in Singapore another time. I’ll leave you with my New Years Special, simply because I cant be bothered adding more to this and its late enough (how the hell Im going to meet deadlines as a journalist, I have no freakin idea). I’ll probably blog more frequently now that we’re not doing that much and just relaxing more than anything else. And eating of course lol.

How quick Hong Kong goes by

2009-01-06T04:09:00.002+11:00

Time isn’t the only thing that goes by quickly in Hong Kong. Money too. Im nearing my limit and have no idea as to how Im going to make it through two more weeks of Singapore. Food there is cheap but that doesn’t mean I’ll be able to survive on the money I have left.

Anyway, right now we’re nearing the end of our time in Hong Kong and for Betty and Linda it sadly already has and right now they’re on their flight back home to Melbourne. If you two happen to be reading this, it means you had a safe flight and are back at home with your family. Hope you both had a good time with us and weren’t too traumatised by our antics lol. And thank you both for all the efforts you put in to make it a great trip and do all the planning on where to go and what to do. If it weren’t for what you did, we’d probably just be sitting around Pete’s place or in the hotel room surfing the net and not doing anything at all. Going to miss you both heaps while I go back for Round 3 of Singapore, which Im not complaining but got to admit I am missing home a lot now. Gabriel said for the whole time in Hong Kong I’ve looked sad and tired and kept on screaming at me “Janson wake up!!!” which I guess was true, though I just saying I was tired, which was also true. Didnt realise I looked that tired and sad, though didnt feel that sad. Just missed stuff from home, like my family, Elmo, the feel of my carpet on my socks, stumbling out through the pitch black hall way at 3 in the morning to throw stuff out, miss using my own computer with all of my songs and files with fast and stable internet, miss sleeping in my own bed with my mountain of blankets which make it so comfortably warm in winter and which I chuck off the bed when its super hot in summer, miss using my own shower and toilet. Miss just going into the fridge and just pulling whatever out and just eating it. I miss home.

Anyway, enough reminiscing about home. Onto all the stuff that we have done in Hong Kong, assuming I can remember properly. First day Pete, Gabriel and I arrived and we were greeted at the airport by Pete’s Aunties and Uncles who took us by bus from the airport, which I fell asleep during the ride so wasn’t able to absorb the amazing views. Luckily when we came down from the second storey from where we were sitting, I didnt fall asleep and roll down the stairs, as was what happened the last time I fell asleep on a double decker bus in Hong Kong.

After that, we took a taxi back to Pete’s apartment where we had to walk up a flight of stairs with all our luggage because the elevator to the 8^th floor was dead and had to take the other one to the seventh floor and walk the rest of the way. Gabriel fell asleep while Pete and I “borrowed” internet from wherever we could. Had to “borrow” internet as the internet router and modem were old as death and we had no idea if or how we could connect our laptops to it.

We also met Pete’s grandfather who took us to eat lunch at a nearby restaurant that was packed as hell and gave us some advice about Soon it was time to pick up Betty and Linda from the airport, and since Gabriel was still dead asleep, we decided not to wake him up and just let him snore. So Pete and I head down to Central MTR, walk to Hong Station where Betty and Linda’s airport express was set to arrive. They come out and I think we took a taxi back up to Pete’s place because it would have been impossible to lug their heavy ass luggage up that damn hill. After we all get back to the apartment, we still find Gabriel sleeping and tucked in lol. Dont remember much else from that time but remember that I fell asleep on a black chair in the apartment and Pete’s auntie tucked me in lol. Later that night, we (Minus Pete) went out to meet up with Belinda to have dinner and just spend the night out going through shops in Causeway Bay. There was this complex that we went through that seemed to only sell girl stuff which was a tad awkward for us guys. We also went through this arcade place that was cool because it had this huge Gundam torso and head that you see as soon as you step out of the elevators. Soon after, Betty went off to meet her relatives and Belinda went home and that left Linda, Gabriel and I to just get home ourselves, which was fun. As we got home, we found that Pete’s brother Paul had come to join us for the duration of the trip. Think that night we headed out to explore a bit and went to 7-11, got some drinks and some takeaway supper from a place that apparently had a cat in it, though I didnt see it. I had like a curry chicken with rice, which everyone said it smelt funny, though it tasted alright.

The next day we went to Tsim Shar Sui (pronounced Jeem as in sharp, sar as in sand, and joe as in mouth) and did some shopping. Well the girls did, and Gabriel bought a green adidas top, and after he said he wanted a small one, a woman just sprints off and comes back with one lol. Gabriel was a tad worried about that. The girls bought heaps of things, like a warm jacket and other stuff which I cant remember. After shopping we went to the space museum because it was free but it was also pretty cool. Learnt some pretty interesting stuff there, like a got to see how the cockpit of a space shuttle looked and there was a gyroscope or something which Gabriel went on and it was this propulsion system thing that I don’t remember how it worked. Paul and Pete also went on this hang glider simulator which was cool and they (and betty) also tried this laser thing that simulates working in space or something, which Paul did really well in and Betty couldn’t do lol. There was also a spacewalk thing, where you’re strapped to a harness that simulates walking on the moon but we couldn’t go on it because it closed just as we got there.

Afterwards we went to the harbour place to watch the light display show, A Symphony of Lights which was just amazing. It looks soo cool, and has music to go with it which makes it even cooler lol. My English has gone to crap. All the buildings just light up and flash in a synchronised fashion. It was a bit difficult to watch because it was like all around so we didnt know where to look at first and its so wide that its hard to absorb it all in. We arrived there like an hour early and were starving so Linda, Gabriel and Paul went on a food run to Maccas and took ages to get back for some reason, but got back in time for the show which was good.

Then we took the star ferry home to Central because it was close, fast and cheaper than the MTR. The ride was alright, but I remember after we boarded and were waiting for other people to board, the gangplank was up in the air so no one could get on because of the wind, which meant the boat was pretty much on an angle. We get home and Paul and I was bored and Betty was hungry so we head out to get her a late night supper of roast pork and egg rice from the place with the cat, which she said tasted really good. I think.

The next day we went shopping at Mong Kok and damn did we spend. I pretty much spent all my money in that one place. Bought so many clothes, like a hoodie, a couple of tops and other stuff which I cant remember. Also bought a pair of jeans from Baleno because they were cheap but it wasn’t from the market place, think it was called Far Yuen Gai (not sure about this, Betty would probably need to correct me). We also ran into Kathy while there and we had lunch together at this place called Century Plaza or something and afterwards went to this shopping complex thing that was full of girls. It all sold like girl stuff. Gabriel said the ratio was 1 guy to every 20 girls there. It was weird because the girls ditched us and left me and Gabriel to fend for ourselves. Some girl pushed me. After that, we did more shopping in the market area and then heading to real shops like Bossini and Baleno and then Kathy went on home and we went back to the apartment to drop off the day’s loot and head upto the Peak and Madam Tuassad’s Wax Museum. At first we had some trouble finding the peak and had to ask like a security guard of some building but we eventually got there and got our tickets to go up the tram. Damn that tram is scary. Its sooo bloody steep, like the buildings around you are at like a 60 degree angle, its scary. Once we got up there, we decided to have a Starbucks coffee before we met up with Pete and his friend Michele and go to the Wax Museum where we had our photo taken with Jacky Chan. Its soo cool in there, see all these famous and important people, like Benazir Bhutto, Saddam Hussein, John Howard, Bill Clinton, George W. Bush and all these others but most important of all Ayumi Hamasaki was there!!!!!!! And I had my photo taken with her. Betty wanted a photo of me kissing Ayumi but I thought it was a bit gross since I don’t know how many other people’s lips have been there and the idea of kissing a wax figurine seemed a tad gross. She’s so small and skinny, she’s like a fricken stick. We also saw Mel Gibson, who is oddly short lol. And damn Pierce Brosnan is tall. We also did this scary walk thing where you walk through like a dark hallway with scary wax figures and real people jump out and scare you. It was really scary. Betty was screaming like mad and was about to tear Pete’s shoulders off.

After that we went to the sky terrace on the peak because the museum was about to close. Betty also got a wax figure of her hand, which I felt was pretty cool. Dont remember how she made the pose though, think it was the V sign. She should upload a photo of it, assuming she still uses this page. Its so scary up there at the sky terrace because its so damn high. There was a point where it felt like I was having a panic attack but it wasn’t too bad. Not like a fell onto the ground and crawled into the foetal position. But the views up there are so nice. See like the entire city with all its lights. Probably be the best place for new years. Pity we’re not there for it.

From there, the order gets a bit blurry but we did a tonne of fun stuff which is why we have not blogged at all the whole time we were in Hong Kong. At the moment, we are flying back from Hong Kong to Singapore, which just goes to show how long these blogs (mine anyway) take to be made lol. Anyway I havbe a bout two hours of battery life and a 4 hour flight so should be plenty of time to fill you in on the stuff that’s been happening here in Hong Kong. Or should I say there.

We’ve done so much that its hard to remember it all. One of the things we did was Disneyland which was pretty fun, though many of the rides weren’t that exciting, but the lines weren’t that long either so that was good. One ride though was long as hell, which was the new miniworld or something and the boat ride through it. My favourite ride there was probably the boat ride through Tarzan world or something which was pretty cool, especially the bit where there was a fire that was actual fire. One bad thing about the ride was that the narrator was not all that enthusiastic and kinda narrated things half-assedly lol. There was also this ride called space-mountain which was an indoor rollercoaster that was pretty scary for me because a) I hate rollercoasters b)it as in the dark so you cant see a damn thing and c) it felt as though my head was going to be cut off because it was so close to the bars and stuff. It was fun and exciting, but damn it was scary.

We also stayed behind for the fireworks which was amazing. They had projections of Fantasia onto the castle which was was so cool and if you watch the fireworks using the glasses they give you when you come in, it looks even cooler because they look like little angels and birds. The fireworks were all synchronised so well. Only bad thing I can say about it is that we had to wait like an hour just standing there because we thought it started at 8:30 but instead started at 9:30 but Im glad we went early because we got such a good view. Cant rememeber what else we did at Disneyland, but Im sure we did heaps, and took heaps and heaps of photos. Its not a bad place. Has a really nice atmosphere.

After that we took the MTR back which was packed like hell because a train was delayed or cancelled or something and everyone was leaving Disneyland because it was closing or everything fun was already done. It was so packed that at station, people couldn’t even get down the stairs. Thats how many people there were.

We also went to Ocean Park which was really fun. Along with our group was also Shaun and Jacylin and her cousin and Kai, a person who goes to Fungus. We went on pretty much all the rides. Got soaked in Raging River where at the end of it, after a huge drop, a huge puddle just landed on my lap. Also went on this spinning thing called space something that was pretty scary because your spinning vertically to the ground but it was pretty fun because it gives you such a rush everytime you’re going down. Most scary ride there was probably the Mine because it goes superfast over this track thats hanging over the edge of cliff and over the water and has these really steep drops that makes it feel as though the carriage is going to fly off the tracks. My favourite ride would probably have to be the abyss, this huge ass drop that gives you such a rush when you go down. It forces your legs up when you go down. It was really scary going up because your so high and you know how I feel about heights. After doing all the rides, we had lunch at maccas and then went to an aquarium which was so cool because it had all these sharks and manta rays which you could see up close. The sharks and rays were damn huge. After that we took one last scary ride, which was the cable car which was so much scarier than the one at Sentosa because the one at Ocean Park goes for ages, and goes over really high cliffs which scared the crap out of me, and betty didnt make it much betty by trying to shake it and screaming out that it stopped and saying “look how steep those cliffs are”.

After the cable car ride we didnt do all that much and just looked at dolphins and seals and bought souvenirs. I got the cutest panda toy. Its so soft and cuddly. We left after a bit and just skipped the panda exhibit because the line was too long and figured we wouldn’t be seeing much.

After leaving Ocean Park, we met up with Phui Mun and Ian at MK. Havent seen them in ages and we just split up, with the guys going to the street market to shop and the girls went wherever. I bought a pair of levis shoes there simply because the ones that I had were pretty much unbearable and needed new shoes. Gabriel also bought a pair of converse shoes. We also went back to this place that like sold porn so that Paul could get his earphones, the same one that Gabriel had bought the last time he was there and I bought a naruto phone string for my phone which looks awesome. We’ve come to notice that we’re all starting to copy how each other speak, like Im beginning to talk like Gabriel, using words like awesome and putting “damn” in front of other words, like “damn awesome” After shopping we met up with the girls again, and were also joined by Kelly and Tang and we went to have dinner at this place, think it was called cafe de coral or something. I ordered a roast pork with rice but since Paul didnt like what Pete ordered for him since he already had it before, I did a trade with him because I only ordered what I ordered because I didnt know what to get; so I had his baked tomato with rice and pork chop or something

After that, we all went upto our place to bum around for a bit before meeting up with James and Marcus to have a late night supper down stairs and then just bum around for a bit more before they went back home.

During our time in Hong Kong, we also took a day out and went to Macau and had Betty’s Uncle take us around which was so nice of him to give up his time for us. Macau was really really really fun. All the casinos there are so damn cool, especially the Venetian, which is the one with the canal and the painted sky and hte gondolas. Its so pretty in there. I remember stepping into the food court, where and looking at the roof which was a sky and we were all like “woooow” and our jaws literally dropped. It was so beautiful inside. At the food court, Gabriel and I ordered goose from this place and it was our first time trying it and damn it was, as Gabriel would put it, SHIOK. It was that good it had to be in capitals. Goose is the best thing ever cooked. It tastes soooo good. Its like duck but a million times better. The meat tastes so sweet and skin is...I don’t know how to describe it but its amazing. After that, following the canals and going to the casino area for free water, we left and decided to go to another casino, which was Sands, and it was also really nice in there, but annoying because it was really smoky there. That and the woman at the entrance asked me for my year of birth which was gay.

All the casinos were soooo nice, especially the Histories one that had all these historical replicas like the Coliseum and other stuff which I cant remember. Think they had a great wall of china and also a replica of Black Hawk Down for some reason lol. After going to the casinos, we took a look at some historical sites, such as the Church of St Paul or something like that and this old fortress that was used during World War 2 and had some old canons that were used during colonial times or something, which we took pictures of. There was also this dog there, which we assumed was

we decided to explore the night markets for anything we liked and to look for a place that sold Abercrombie and Fitch stuff but sadly we couldn’t find it. Afterwards Betty’s uncle took us to lunch where we didnt have goose but had something else instead, cant remember what I had. Think it was something fried pork, something that Gabriel wanted. After that we just went back and caught the ferry back home to Hong Kong, which I slept through, as I did on the ferry to Macau in the morning.

But we didnt just do the touristy stuff. We also met up with friends to just hang out and stuff. One such time was when Linda and I met up with Anthony, a friend of ours (well mine anyway) from Primary school and Kelly, and met up at Tsim Shar Sui where went to harbour City, had starbucks and just reminisced about our days in Primary School and Anthony and I were checking out “leng luis” lol. He started it, not me. After discovering that nothing in and just explore there for a bit. We went to this place called Langham Place which smelled sooo good as soon as you walk through the doors from the MTR. Smells like cookies and cakes. From there we just did a bunch of random things, like play this coin game where you toss coins onto this table thing and can win prizes, depending on where the coin lands. It was soo fun. We won like so many things, cant remember them all but I remember we won some chews, a panda sharpener and a watermelon cow, oh and Anthony won a tape measure, which we used to clothesline Kelly because we were bored. We also helped Anthony pick out a pair of Levis Jeans and discovered that he has no ass lol. He got so frustrated from deciding which pair fir and looked better that he just decided to get whatever he had in his hand. He looked mighty pissed at the end of it all lol. First time I ever seen him look like that lol.

On Christmas Eve, we tried to have a party at our place but Betty couldn’t make it because she had to go to her high class dinner with her family, though she didnt have to dress that high class for it. I was kinda expecting that she’d have to go in some LV dress or something. We (meaning Gab) was going to cook but instead we just ordered in from KFC and Pizza Hut. The chicken was soo nice. Its so spicy lol. Makes me drool just thinking about it. Tang showed up and later so did Shaun, Jacilyn and her cousin, and we just ate and tried to finish it. Shaun was so excited that Christmas was coming, he even had a little countdown going. Afterwards, Betty arrived and we all just talked about how crowded it was downstairs in Lan Kwai Fong. Seriously it was packed. When I came up, it wasn’t that crowded but I saw like a couple of cop vans pull up and a bunch of cops erecting barricades. Betty said it was so packed that she barely made it up and couldn’t even drive through. The next day we also went to Ocean Park with them which was fun.

We also got a chance to visit relatives, with Betty and I seeing relatives of ours, which is good because on this trip, everyone managed to see family: Gabriel had his whole extended family in Singapore, Linda met up with Andy, her future brother in law, and Betty and I saw our uncles and aunties in Hong Kong. On the day of when Betty had her high class dinner at the racecourse, I met up with my Auntie and Uncle whom I haven’t seen in I don’t know how long. Apparently the last time they saw me was when I still lived in Bendigo...=.=. At first I was dreading seeing them because I hadn’t seen them in so long and didnt really know them and wouldn’t have anything to say to them. But it wasn’t too bad. Talked about school and my time in Hong Kong and the weather. Also met up with another Auntie and Uncle I didnt know I had but upon seeing them, bought back some memories I had of him and kinda recognised him a little. We had Yum Cha and afterwards my cousin, whom I didnt know I had took me DVD shopping, where I splurged and went a tad overboard, spending more than I should have lol. But I reckon it was worth it. They’re good movies. After that, my Auntie and Uncle took me around Harbour City, the part that I hadn’t been to and went to the harbour side and looked at the Star Cruise that was docked there and looked at the cityscape before they left and I went around Tsim Shar Sui to explore on my own which was fun, and went into the crammed MTR station where everyone was arriving for Christmas Eve Celebrations.

Our last days in Hong Kong was really fun, with many of us being immature, as it was Betty and Linda’s last chance to do so before they head back home and have to act like proper adults. Dot remember much of that night, but I remember Betty was trying to cram all her loot into her luggage and Gabriel and Paul lasering people from the apartment with laser pointers from BB guns that Pete and Paul bought, and later Pete and Paul going to the roof to do it, in disguise with Pete wearing his Bleach hollow mask, and Paul wearing Pete’s beanie over his whole head and sunnies over it. They looked so funny. Later that night, we all headed up to the roof to take a last look at Hong Kong’s beautiful skyline. We went up to the upper section of the roof, which we got up by a ladder. For it me it was pretty scary up there but it wasn’t that bad and was able to enjoy the view. Soon we went down and just tried to stay up as late as we could to see Betty and Linda off when Betty’s Auntie picks her up at 6 something but we couldn’t and just fell asleep. Luckily, they woke us up when they left so we were able to say good bye when they left.

The guy’s last day was just meeting up with other people who were in Hong Kong one last time and had lunch together, afterwards just stumbled around, not knowing what to do before Marcus and James went back to our place to help the Auntie clean up the place and play with BB guns by shooting it into an unopened bowl of instant noodles lol. We also discovered a pair of BB guns which Pete and Paul had bought the last time they were in Hong Kong which were powerful as lol. We shot them at the wall of the building next to ours and saw the BBs actually break up when they hit the wall lol. Soon we took a taxi to the airport, had dinner and caught our flight back to Singapore, which I fell asleep, and according to Gabriel, onto the woman sitting next to me lol, though I don’t remember that. After we got back to Singapore, we met up with Gabriel’s dad and his sister Arella and we just had supper at this place, where we had Murtabak and Roti Prata and kopi beng (Im going to miss using those words lol. Be weird if I go to a coffee shop in Australia and ask for Kopi c lol). After that, we went back and spent our first night in Singapore. Again lol. Well not again for Pete.

And that’s pretty much our entire experience in Hong Kong. Yes yes, Im aware this post is a tad long (think tad is a bit of an understatement) but I am compressing almost 2 weeks of Hong Kong into this one small post, and we did do a lot. I have to say, the time in Hong Kong would have to be my favourite in this trip, not that the other places weren’t good either. Just that Hong Kong felt particularly special. Not sure why. Might have been the amazing shopping (MK is awesome lol) and great weather, weather in which you can wear long sleeve clothes in, but got to admit, Hong Kong falls far behind Singapore in terms of food. Hopefully I covered everything we did. If not, Betty or Linda can just fill it in lol.

Well thats one more essay done, and a few more to come as Gabriel, Pete and I enjoy the last leg of our amazing journey together in Singapore. As much as I enjoy being here in Singapore with its cheap and delicious food, I am looking forward to being on that flight back home, back to my own house, my own bed, my own bathroom, my own toilet lol.

Photos

2009-01-04T15:40:00.003+11:00

Memorable Quotes and Moments

2009-01-02T17:20:00.008+11:00

Ok. Well seeing as the trip is almost over for some and already over for others.. i thought i might post a little memorable moments...

In our hotel room in Malaysia.. Wei Hao is drawing Betty (at her request)
Betty: "Don't draw me fat!"
Wei Hao: "How?"
Leaving Janson, Gabriel and myself to laugh hysterically

Hanging out with Kelly and Anthony... When Kelly finds out Anthony has an older brother:
Kelly: "How old is your brother? Is he hot?"
Anthony: "He's married!"

Gabriel's signature words and phrases...
"Fail"
"Epic Fail"
"Power"
"Damn..."
"gg" (that's the worst of them all)
"Janson... Wake up!"

Paul's signature words and phrases
"Rage quit life"
"ty"
At some point.. these words and phrases were used by all of us. We seemed to develop them into our vocab.

After Janson's Flaming Lambo... I get clear view of him puking from where i was sitting (i mean close the door!)
Janson is sleeping and:
Gabriel: "Janson, Janson, Janson"
Janson (in his sleep): "Gabriel Goh" (in a romanctic voice)

Jokes about Betty
1) Linda: "She was the most white person on that train" (in Malaysia)
2) Andy: "She obviously goes where the sun don't shine"
3) After Betty eats the "chilli" tofu
Andy: "She's not white anymore!"
4) Betty looking for a sugar daddy at her HK fancy function

Acting childish on our last night in HK
Sitting on the roof top of our apartment building

Gabriel's immaturity really came out in Macau...
1) He starts spelling everything that is said by anyone...
2) Janson and Gabriel have an argument about whether bread or foam was sitting in the water.. and starts saying and spelling FOAM
Janson: "It's bread shaped foam"
3) Gab's not talking to us because we were making fun of him..
4) My new name becomes Nobody and Janson's new name becomes No-one

Janson and My DVD spree in Malaysia... which was suspected karma for his misfortune on our last day in Malaysia which was:
1) Waking up at 12:12 when we had a 12pm checkout
2) Janson loses the key to his lock
3) The taxi guys break the zip completely off his back
"Here's your bag and heres your zip"
4) Betty drains out Janson's laptop battery
5) Janson has no money to buy a new bag so withdraws more
6) Bus has no power and couldn't recharge his battery to his already drained laptop

The fact that Gabriel gives 'DVD's' to Wei Hao while his dad is a cop. But also the fact that the place where we got the DVD's was near a police station.

Janson doing chin ups

Up on the Victoria Peak in HK it's freezing... wind is blowing you away. Putting your camera on the edge is the most dangerous thing that can be done... Gab and Pete hide in a little cardboard bus display to protect them from the cold. Standing on the edge leave to you to feel the strongest gusts of wind coming from the side of the building.

Ocean Park in HK... DAMN awesome...
1) Shaun's screams
2) 8 of our crew getting majorly soaked...
3)then drying off with the space wheel which afterwards everyone had trouble standing up right.
4) Being the loudest group on the mind train.
5) The guys shaking the cable car just to scare Shaun
6) Paul's girlish screams

Midnight Cycling is a MUST in Singapore... You may be in major pain the nxt morning but it's completely worth it!
1) Janson falls when he stops at the taffic lights (i get a clear view of it as i'm riding toward him) his jeans were stuck apparently and the 5 of us crack up.
2) Janson was so exhuasted that he couldn't talk and could hardly whisper on our way home
3) Betty stops as cars are on orchard rd and holds up 5 of us..
4) Cycling across a huge intersection
5) Playing a game along the ramp on orchard rd (i think it was anyway) Gabriel screams like a girl during that time...
6) Sitting outside the shopping mall attempting to ride inside it... and then didn't do it (mind you witnesses were there)
7) Riding into a carpark where Gabriel says hello to security cameras

Sentosa cable cars... Janson sitting on one side of it made it tilt... Gabriel once again loses his man-hood and screams like a girl...
Sitting at the beach bar in Sentosa.. deciding what to do. (we need one of those bars in Melbourne)

Dinner's with the families

Betty's run in with Gab's cousin's dog Lucky...

Awesome dinner... where betty bought a coconut... that whole night was made out to make fun of betty. We were listing the most random things along with chatting about her fancy dinner. that dinner was full of the most laughs and funniest moments.

Walking up the steps at batu caves.. almost keeled over a died.. especially since i was wearing thongs and it was pouring down rain... almost attempted to walk down the thing barefoot... lucky i didn't

Shopping with the guys in HK and Malaysia... Mind you only went to shop with the guys in malaysia to leave 2 certain people alone.. =D

The hotel in malaysia.. twas the best filled with laughs (mainly laughing and 2 certain people) and chats...
Gabriel telling Janson to turn around so they wouldn't face each other when they fell asleep
The clay masks put on Janson and Wei Hao.. Wei Hao falling asleep on it and smudging it on his clothes
Watching discovery channel
The blackout in the hotel left Betty to openly D&M with Wei Hao and his 'situation' the lights turning back on saved him and stopped for a while until the lights turned out again.
With the blackout we also over heard the convos with the other people in other rooms out in the hall.. apparently a boy was in the shower when the lights went out.

A&W rootbeer floats and waffles... yyyuuuummmmmyyyy

The absolute cute moment when Wei Hao went to sleep nxt to somebody else...

Gabriel's run in with the weather in Sg. Meeting us at the Maccas in Queensway (once again i think it was queensway. He enters soaking wet from top to toe with his documents as an umbrella.

It was raining everywhere we went.

Janson being a country Bumpkin (is that how you spell it??) and all. His new name became Cletus as we found out about his deprived childhood in Bendigo. He wasn't sure if he could ride a bike and didn't know how to fly a kite.. Which lead us to explain to Gabriel who Cletus was and why Janson was being named Cletus...

Finding out the Gabs was on HK TV on christmas day after the coverage from Christmas eve from LKF

Gabriel: "It's a slope!"

To be continued....

Back in Singapore for the girls

2008-12-31T15:14:00.004+11:00

Okay, I know this is a tad late, considering the girls are no longer in Singapore and arent even overseas and are back home in Melbourne. That and for the past two weeks we've been in Hong Kong lol. And dont worry, that post will be up later. Sorry but its another essay lol. Hard to just compress everything we've done into a few sentences. And sorry for this essay too. Betty wrote most of it so...blame it on her.

Right now Betty is too tired to blog about her own experiences in Singapore so it seems I’ll have to do it for her. She wanted to dictate to me for her but since I hate dictation, I’ll just go ahead and write what we’ve done so far. Hmmm well since we’ve arrived from Malaysia, we’ve been trying to do all the touristy things like going to Orchard Road at night, going to the roof of the Esplanade, going to Sentosa, going to Queensway to look at clothes...errrr...what else did we do...Well lets just talk about the things that I remember. Betty or Linda can fill in the gaps. Oh yes thats right, we also saw the world’s biggest fountain at Suntec City which was sooo cool. Had like a laser show and music to it. Was a pretty fun place to be. Real party atmosphere there. The laser show was a bit crap though. Seemed more like ads than anything else lol. Still nice place to be though. It seems that ever since the girls arrived, the weather has been like cooler. Not as hot as when I first got here. They say they took the good weather with them but if thats the case they also took the rain to Malaysia. Why do I feel as though I’ve said this stuff before.

Okay lazy janson gave up so it’s betty here

Hello! We’re back from Malaysia and we did quite a lot of touring around Singapore. Let me just try and recap of all the things we did. The day we got back from Malaysia we woke up, and Gabriel decided to take us to Chinese Garden, it was really pretty, many little ‘fake’ things (eg. A fake version of the forbidden city) and all these chinese buildings. There was also this turtle museum which cost us i think $5 to get in, we got to see the world’s largest turtle,... cool ey? There was also this snapper turtle and when you would hold ur hand up it would come and try to bite it. We were rather safe cos we were behind a glass screen. So after Chinese Garden, Gabriel toured us around Singapore, we went on the Singapore River cruise, it was really pretty a lot of photos will be posted up on facebook soon. Afterwards i believe we went to eat dinner at ‘Boon Tong Kee’ a restaurant famous for it’s kick ass chicken rice. And MAN it was SHOIK! After that we went to Orchard Road, it’s sooo pretty lights flickering everywhere, cars with their headlights, people walking around, and CLEAN SIDE WALKS. Hahahha everything is so clean in Singapore. We walked around, I took many photos hehe!. And then we stopped by this coffee place called TCC (the coffee connoisseur) I got a Christmas chocolate frappe it was really pretty and nice, i couldn’t even finish it cos the serving was soo big. The atmosphere at the TCC would be a place i could have a drink and chat with someone for hours, it’s such a pretty and nice place. Afterwards we decided to retire after a long day, buy some drinks at ‘cheers’ and then make it back home.

*Also we met up with Gabriel’s friend Eddie after Chinese gardens at Jurong point at Boon Lay and had Mos Burger, though we only had a bit of a talk with Eddie as he had to off somewhere.

Thursday we went to Queens way. Because Gabriel had to go to the Identification centre or Army thing whatever administration thing he was due for, Janson took us around this mall which he discovered himself while exploring Singapore. Before that though, Gabriel had to drop off some stuff for his grandmother at where he used to live at Bukit Batok I think, and while we were there, we had lunch/breakfast/brunch at the food court place there, which was where Gabriel used to eat all the time when he was younger and lived there. The food there was pretty nice, I had this relaly nice prawn wonton noodles which only cost me i think $3 janson had this mutton thing something that was like what we had when Linda and i first arrived in Singapore, Linda had hokkien noodles and Gabriel had two dishes lol. Think he had Nasi Lemak and...somethng else.
It was as usual a rather hot day, so we stopped by the food area, and i got my mango pudding ice thing (it’s like, mango, then a mango puree with grape fruit bits, and ice shavings) it’s my favourite dessert in hk. Janson got this ice shaving coffee dessert and linda got an apple bubble cup thing which was really good, better than bubble cup. We then went to the mall next door, looked around trying to look for cheap stuff, but nothing seemed to entice us. It suddenly started to rain really heavily so we decided to stay indoors and wait for Gabriel to come and meet us. We stayed at McDonalds where we ate fries and i got an evian water. Gabriel eventually came to meet up with us and his entrance was hilarious, he was drenched from top to bottom, and foolishly used his important documents which were all in an envelope as his umbrella. We sat for a while at Mcdonalds watching Gabriel trying to air out his soaked important documents.

Janson again. Betty’s gone off to sleep since its sooo bloody late now (its 2 at the moment) and since Im up and on night duty to wait for our ENTERS to come out (which is scaring the s**ts out of me right now) and I have to stay awake so I can wake the others on at 4, I might as well spend the remaining two hours before my doom writing about all the fun that we’ve had in Singapore since the girls arrived. Well from where Betty left off, after Gabriel arrived and we bummed around for a bit and then we set off to Suntec City to look at the worlds biggest fountain. Our original plan of the night was to go on night safari but since we couldn’t because of the horrible rain, we just decided to do more urban things, like that and also go to the Esplanade. It didnt rain that night but I don’t think it would have mattered as it would have been really muddy so Im glad we just went to Town and went to those places. First we went to the fountain and before we went, we just had dinner at this Thai place Gabriel said had the best tomyam soup which I got to admit was pretty good. I forgot what the place was called though but it was right outside the fountain. The food was pretty good though I cant really remember what we ordered. It was Tomyam, green curry, pineapple rice, some other type of rice and some vegetables.
After dinner, we went out just in time to catch the start of the laser show, which I found to be pretty good, though a bit weird because of the ads they put in. We head upstairs thinking that was it, but when we get to the top, the real show begins which was pretty good, though I couldnt see much from my angle. Afterwards, (think it was afterwards) we went to the top of the Esplanade so that Betty and Linda could experience the great views you get from up there, the same ones I got when I first went there. From then, think we just went back and rest up for the most exciting day we would have the next day.

The next day we took very easy, just stayed at home and veged out on Linda’s legitimately purchased season 1 of How I Met Your Mother which was sooo funny. We watched like 12 eps or something before we started to head out to Bedok where we were going to have dinner and meet up Gabriel’s cousins so that they could take us night riding which was soooo sooo much fun. Best thing that I’ve done in Singapore, in my whole life in fact. It was sooo exhilarating to just fly through Singapore on bikes for entire night.
We went all over the place, riding from Bedok all the way to Orchard and Doubhi Gout and then back from like 11 at night to 7 in the morning. We had breakfast at maccas where I had this pancake burger thing that had egg and two patties that looked disgusting but tasted really nice. Everything was like so soft. Afterwards we rode to a jetty hoping to catch the sunrise but we couldn’t see anything because it was too cloudy that morning. Afterwards we split up and we took a taxi back to the nearest train station and trained back home. I was soo dead after all that. Could barely raise a whisper.
The next day we just veged out on more How I met Your Mother before I stayed up to wait for our ENTERS to come out. I stayed up because someone had to wake everyone else up. I did alright. Didnt get as high as I wanted but got high enough to get into a course I wanted (and maybe even my first preference through fringe score but pretty unlikely). Congratulations to everyone who did exceptionally well and to those who didnt, who gives a rats ass. Its just a stupid number. Means nothing. Doesn’t determine who you are or what you become.

The next day we met up with Mei Chin and Hui Ying again and went to a boardgames cafe which was actually pretty fun, though I sucked at most of the games. Linda kept on winning the shooting game. Dont even ask about the ugly dog game. I got killed in that. Last game we played was this vampire game thing which was pretty fun. Sadly we had to end the game as our time ran out. Afterwards Hui Ying introduced us to Kaya toast which was the best thing invented since sliced bread. It was fully shiok lol. Then we just bummed around until we went to pick up Pete from the airport and took him back to Gab’s place to pack and shower before we got picked up by Gabriel’s auntie who lives near the airport and took us back to her place to get some rest before we left for our flight. After we checked in, Gabriel, Pete and I (Linda and Betty were catching a later flight) got some food from Delifrance which was pretty nice. I had a chicken pie which was really nice. Afterwards we just went and caught our flight, which I was soo wasted for. I slept through out the whole thing, even take off. I tried to stay awake for the landing but couldn’t. It was also fricken freezing when we landed. I had to borrow Pete’s jacket to stay warm lol.

Thats all for now. I’ll blog about all the stuff we did in Hong Kong a little later, when Im not as tired and don’t have to wake up early to go to Disney Land tomorrow. Its a bitch in HK because we have no internet and have to “borrow”, which is annoying because it keeps on disconnecting and is hella slow. Other than that, Hong Kong is freaking awesome. Shopping in Hong Kong is the best thing ever. Only problem is that it seriously kills your wallet. Sure killed me today at Mong Kok. But I’ll tell of that later.

Singapore Airport

2008-12-16T11:57:00.002+11:00

i'm standing here in the singapore airport as we speak.. or as i type. waiting for our plane to depart. which is in over an hour.. the blog for our trip back to Sg is in the works.. would post but betty who is writing it is either always eating or sleeping.. LOL! Anyway the hype of enter scores have come and gone. as soon as i got mine it came and went in 10 seconds flat. I hate my score! It was something i could see coming so i guess it wasn't too much of a shock but disappointed all the same. Anyway the other guys did really well.. so if u need to ask anyone of us about our scores... GO TO THEM!

I really love it here in Sg.. kinda don't wanna leave.. haha but i will be back nxt year... hopefully... anyway i have about 1 minute left on the clock... wish us luck with the flight... anyways toodles...

Linda

Arrival in Malaysia

2008-12-12T11:37:00.004+11:00

We’ve only been in KL for several hours and already we’ve had tonnes and tonnes of fun. Well I had, though when we first arrived, I wasn’t enjoying it as much, partly because of being scared s**tless that we’d get mugged and also because of the heat. Or somewhat lack of it. When I first got here, it was actually cold. And all I bought was a pair of boardshorts and no warm clothes at all. But soon I warmed up to the weather and the idea of being mugged. Well maybe not that but I wasn’t as afraid as I was before. I was able to walk around with my hands out of my pockets lol.

Well we didnt get to finish the blog, and just made dot points as the day went by because we were too lazy to make real blogs and also because we didnt have free internet and had to pay like 50RM for 5 hours, of which only one person could use at a time, four of those hours were used by Gabriel. But oh well. We had so much fun in the hotel room that we didnt even think about blogging. So enjoy this dot point blog, instead of those essays we normally write.

Things we did in Day 1
• Hotpot at Uncle Duck in Times Square
• Bin Tang walk in Bukit Bin Tang
• Sungei Wang
• Low Yat Plaza
• Explore around KL Sentral
• Gab’s words about public transport: “Public transport fail; 16 minutes for a bus”. Whats more, the system is sooo crapass. Have to buy so many tickets to get around, everything is packed as hell and its sooo bloody slow. Its worse than Melbourne. Hell even some of hte tickets don’t work. I was so glad to be back in Singapore with the Ezy-link system with quick trains that arrive every 6 minutes
• Get back at like 2 and have fun in the hotel room after cramming the five of us into the back of a taxi, though Wei hao rode in the front to tell the driver where to go.

Things we have done: Day 2
• Tried to go to Genting
• Couldnt so spent the morning around Petaling (think thats how you spell it) where Betty got three tops, think all three were Spongebob Squarepants ones.
• Then went to random shopping centres
• Then went to Petronas and looked around shops next to it
• Walked around the park and took more pictures of petronas
• Went to the aquarium and looked at fishes before going for a $15 fish spa, where you stick your feet in this pool of water and let these fish called Doctor fish or stone suckers that eat the dry skin off your feet
• Gabriel’s quote about Malaysia: “Why is Malaysia so gged? This is the city centre” and the place we were in had open sewers and cracked sidewalks T.G.I. Fridays (Yes they have them here too) and ate lunch, where we had a Cajun chicken salad, some salmon and pasta dish and another pasta dish. We also ordered drinks. Betty and Linda wanted Lemon Lime bitters but instead could only get lemonade and 7-up, Gabriel had a pepsi and I had this drink called a Strawberry sunrise because it looked nice.
• After TGI. Friday we went to...KL Tower I think. Took a shuttle coach up there and went up to the observation deck, where my ears popped. So nice up there. The view was great. And was indoors so there wasn’t any wind, unlike the rialto and I wasn’t scared of it because I wasn’t actually at any risk of falling off and splattering myself over the sidewalk. I bought myself a nice key chain there, which I might actually use or just keep as a souvenir
• After KL Tower went back to Petaling Street to do some shopping where Gabriel and Wei Hao bought a cople of fragrances for 76 (Wei Hao “haggled” it down to 75 ringit) to ringit for both, despite Wei Hao’s bottle being bigger lol. That said though, Wei Hao’s bottle was weird when he took it out of the packaging, like it was soaked in the stuff, like the bottle leaked or something, while Gabriel’s was in pristine condition. I got badly ripped off when I bought a couple of shirts for 50 ringit, but I didnt think it was that bad. Thats like 12.50 for a burbury and levis top, fake though but looks real enough. I think.
• After that had dinner at this place outside that served deer and frog. We ordered a plate of sizzling deer, bok choi and eggs with crab which was soo nice. Deer does taste just like beef except tougher. We also ordered drinks, which Gabriel and I had a shanty, which I had no idea what it was and thought it Champaign so I asked the guy if it was champaign and he thought I was asking for champaign lol.
• After dinner just headed back to the hotel where we made fun of Betty (we seemed to have been making fun of her more ever since we arrived in Malaysia, calling her a tofu and because of her extreme paleness), went through the photos and Linda went off to meet her future brother-in-law to catch up and make plans for the next day and Betty got Wei Hao to draw a picture of her. Kinda reminded me of Titanic for some reason lol.

Day 3
• Woke up as early as we could, got dressed and went out to the food court to get breakfast because the line to the hotel restaurant was way way way too long. Looked around and nothing was really open (I couldn’t even ask where the nearest atm was. All I would get was “10 o’ clock”) so I just went down stairs to coffee bean where I got a white chocolate mocha, which was huge for a regular while Betty and Linda got noodles and Gabriel and Wei Hao went and got Maccas, and apparently somehow Wei Hao spilled his coffee all over the place and after her noodles, Betty went to Maccas and got hashbrowns as well.
• First thing of the day was to go to Batu (think thats how you spell it) Caves, where we walked up (or staggered up) the 200 and more steps that leads up to it. Inside it was pretty dark and musty but it was pretty nice to look at. Lots of rocks to take pictures of lol. There were also some really nice looking Hindu Shrines.
• It was like bucketing rain in the morning and we had to wade our way through all these puddles when we got there. Also the five of us also packed into a taxi again, though this time I was riding shotgun so much more room in the back. Man the taxi driver was like nuts. He was going at like 140-160 and his speedometer was like stuffed because it kept on bouncing up and down between 140 and 160. I think he was like going at 200 because Gabriel said something which I cant remember.
• After exploring the caves and slowly making the harrowing journey back down, we stop at the nearby cafe place thing where Gabriel had a coke and we just sat around waiting for Linda’s future brother-in-law to pick us up and take us around. Linda tested if her phone worked by sending me a text saying “You suck! You’re a loser”
• Soon Andy picks us up and drives us to get lunch, which we eat at this place which was really nice. We had lettuce with bukit teh which I haven’t had before. Gabriel’s grandfather told me it was really nice but hadn’t had a chance to eat it in Singapore.
• After lunch, we were planning on going to Sunway Lagoon, which is kinda like a theme park like Genting, but because of the bad weather, we decided to go to this shopping mall called Utama or something. So funny, in the ride there, Andy was joining in on the rest of us making fun of Betty’s lack of colour lol.
• We arrive and we just split up, with Andy going off to do his own thing, Linda and Betty going on a shopping spree and the guys (Gabs, Wei Hao and I) just walking around aimlessly looking at clothes which we didnt buy for some reason, proably because we felt we didnt need any, though I could have used a new top or two, or a couple of pairs of jeans. The girls went wild, they bought like four pairs of shoes between them and several tops as well.
• After we met up, Betty and Wei Hao got food from A&W, where I had a root beer float earlier in the day and got sick from it.
• Gabriel, Linda and I went off to shop so Betty and Wei Hao could have their “alone time”
• Afterwards Andy picked us up, and drove us to the second best seafood place to have the best seafood dinner ever. The fried crabs with egg was the best. The meat was soo tender. There was this tofu thing which was pretty spicy, and after Linda tried it, she goes “Betty, try the tofu”, knowing Betty cant hack hot foods lol. Lol, Andy is soo funny. After Betty tries the tofu and goes all red, he goes “look, she’s not white anymore”
• After dinner, Andy took us DVD shopping where I got so much. I was sooo excited. I wanted to get so many of them, like Burn Notice and 30 Rock, but decided not to since Andy already took it up and passed it to the guy for packaging. It costed me sooo much for them, but I “think it was worth it, since the quality is really good, except maybe for my Hayao Miyazaki collection, which is in jap and Im not sure if they have English subtitles. I payed for 200 RM for all these DVD shows, like Supernatural, Dexter, Reaper and something else. All of which were perfectly legal. Yep. Yesiree. Nothing illegal about it. Oddly enough, on that morning, I withdrew 200 RM expecting to go to Sunway Lagoon but didnt and instead went shopping, which I didnt buy anything.
• Afterwards, Andy gave us a tour of KL and pointed out to Betty “a different type of spa...that spa you get a happy ending” lol. He also showed us the twin towers at night which looked soo pretty. All shiny because of the stainless steel. Lol, Andy told us how they cheated by putting in an antenna to make it the worlds tallest tower.
• Afterwards, he drove us back to the hotel where we had an all nighter (well tried, we went to sleep at like 4) where Betty gave Wei Hao and I facials (Gabriel managed to get his way out of it. I think I was tipsy, thats why I was unable to fight back. I’ll explain later why I was tipsy) and we all had drinks. Gabriel and I had a Heineken, Linda and Wei Hao had this drink that was pretty much the same as vodka cruisers except were called something else. Wei Hao also bought a shandy which I thought was Bettys but wasn’t.
• We had sooo much trouble opening the Heinekens because we didnt have bottle openers. We tried using the tabletops and the bed wheels lol and ended up using spoons, which gave Linda a scar on her finger lol (not yet though). As soon as Gabriel opened his, it like frothed so he just stuck the whole thing into his mouth. The Heineken was sooo nice. So smooth so I didnt really notice it and drank it too quickly, which meant I was red-faced and tipsy the whole night lol.

Last Day:
• After spending the entire night up (well as much as we could) we woke up at like 12:30 or something, when we were supposed to check out at 12. We rush to get things packed and just hoped we didnt leave anything behind, though we did. I think I left my luggage keys in there and Gabriel left his power adapter in there so had to buy a new one later in the day when he realised it was missing.
• We have breakfast at Coffee Bean where I had a brew of the day coffee which was pretty nice. It tasted like real coffee. I had it just plain black with no sugar and it was soo good. Wouldnt mind having another. Gabriel had a regular latte, which he commented that it was really big, and Betty had a iced white chocolate. We also went there for the free internet, which we were able to enjoy after Gabriel used up all of the one we bought for the hotel room. I managed to read a bit of the news before Betty took the laptop from me to go on MSN.
• From there I went with Linda to get a DVD wallet for the DVD wallets we purchased the night before, which we got from Justco. I let her pick the design because I knew she would have good tastes, pity that it looks so girly. Oh well. I’ll be keeping the wallet anyway, since Linda’s keeping the cases to her legitimate DVDs.
• We wait in line to pay for it, and we have to wait really long because of the tonnes of shoppers. Justco has this really inefficient way of purchasing stuff, where you give your stuff to a counter, they give you a receipt which you pay for at another counter and then you have to go back and get your stuff. Man, its as efficient as their public transport.
• After I get the wallet, I head back to the coffee bean where I planned on putting my DVDs into the new wallet but I realised that the DVDs were in my carry bag, which was with the place where all the bags were kept so I had to get the ticket to get my bag out. Once I got my bag, I realised that I didnt have the keys to unlock my bag so I take it outside to Gabriel, hoping he would have my spare key. As it turns out, he doesn’t so I had to go to the bag keeping guy to see if he could break open my lock, which he takes me to some taxi driver outside to try and break it open with a pair of pliers, which they couldn’t. So they take it to a wall and try to close the pliers by hammering it against the wall with another pair of pliers. And hurrah they got my bag open and showed it to me. Unfortunately they opened it by breaking my zips off along with the lock...=.=...WTF!!!!!!!!!!!
• So I take my newly opened bag back outside to show Gabriel and Betty what happened and head off to find a new bag in Justco, so I can put my stuff in to take home back to Singapore. I saw this really nice Nike bag, which cost 200RM and this bright orange Aldolfo bag that was for 59RM, and since I felt cheap, just went for the ugly Aldolfo bag.
• Afterwards just veged out in Coffee Bean, and couldn’t use the computer because Betty drained the battery.
• Then had lunch at this place called Manhattan Fish Market or something which was alright. Wasnt feeling too well so didnt eat much. Think it was because I was soo worried and pissed off about my bag that made me sick.
• After lunch, we saw Wei Hao off, as he was going to get picked up by his Dad and after that, we waited to get picked up ourselves by Airebus to take us back to sweet sweet beautiful, clean and efficient Singapore. Bust ride was a bit gay though, had no power so couldn’t charge my laptop and had no lights so had trouble filling out my form and had no sleep because Betty was flopping about in her sleep next to me.

And thats pretty much my experience in KL. Not sure how others feel about it but Im not sure I’ll be going back anytime soon lol. Not a bad place to visit, just not a great place to live in. I would blog about my last few days in Singapore but...meh. Too lazy and having way too much fun.

Malaysia...

2008-12-11T14:03:00.002+11:00

In a completely odd fashion i bring you a short blog. Nothing like Betty and Janson's long short stories that have been previously written. The past week now.. (i've been here just under a week) it has been quite a productive, semi-safe (some of us fearing what lurks in the streets on Malaysia- especially china town area)and pretty busy. When we got to Malaysia we had the interesting task to find our hotel in the Mid Valley Mega Mall which we eventually found and also found Wei Hao sitting in the hotel lobby. Betty fearing for her life when she saw him.. lol. We made our way to the room got settled in. Once we settled in we had dinner and walked around the time square area checking out the nightlife. The transport system in Malaysia is really complicated. so much that it sucks. you always have to move from one mode of transport to the other, buying ticket after ticket not knowing whether they'll come out of the machine.. haha Janson had the funniest mishaps with his tickets. When the ticket didn't come out of the machine when we were leaving the station he started to hit it and the other... umm when he put the ticket in the machine it would just shoot it back out... this was done 3 times before he did something about it.

The 2nd day had it's problems but turned out pretty well. We planned to go out to Genting but the buses had gone and there was only one at 2pm. what are you going to do getting there that late anyway? so we scrapped that plan decided to to some major shopping (wasn't so major). It was kinda early and we went to Petaling St but everything was being set up so hardly any shopping, walked around central market and some other market place. We decided to go to KLCC to check out the twin towers and the gardens we ended up walking around the whole gardens and KLCC. Basically looking for the Aqurium. it was eventually found with the newly found fish spa with a opening deal for RM15 for 30 minutes. It was the best thing ever. the first time is abit squimish and after about 5 minutes you get used to it. From there we walked to KL tower but decided we were hungry on the way so we had TGIF. We finally slowly made our way to the tower and went up to observation deck.It was sooo nice up there. If we went up there at night it would've been amazing. After that the plan was back to petaling st for some more purchases and we wanted to walk but ended up taking the monorail i think it was. When we got there i was amazed how packed it was. so much that when you walked through it you couldn't breathe. At least that trip wasn't a total bust up because the guys ended up buying something. had dinner, waited ages for the train and headed up to the hotel quite early due to an unwell betty. I was set to meet my brother in law to be (Andy) that night. We ended up and A&W instead to Mid Valley because we couldn't find the hotel parking ticket. anyway.. yeah A&W for a rootbeer float and waffle.. umm.. after that i was on a high.. a sickly high.. all the sugar! that night was quite fun... with all the things that i really shouldn't mention and the evil stuff done by gabs, janson and myself.

The day was completely planned the night before by yours truly and with the major help of Andy. We took and cab to Batu caves and that was one scary ride. lol and walked all the steps up to the top and took like a million photos. After all that we took a slow paced walked down the semi dangerous majorly wet steps. waited for a while and get picked up. Had lunch and made our way to the gigantic shopping centre... forgot what it was called. Us girls shopped around for ages while the guys thought they had walked the whole place (which they didn't) we had A&W and shopped some more. Met up with Andy again to have dinner at what is the best Seafood place however it was full and the booking was cancelled and went to the 2nd best place. It was sooo good. We did a quick tour around KL with the giant homes, and the twin towers which was so much better at night but they turned out the lights just as we were about to finish the lights turned out. made our way back to the hotel had a few alcoholic drinks and betty did mud masks to the guys. haha the funniest.

The last day in Malaysia was a lazy day we did NOTHING! we ended up waking up later than planned and later than check out time. we were all rushing out ok the hotel room as quickly as possible. haha funny everyone else was packing. anyway i probably should get off.. now.. need to get out of here soon..

Leaving on a jetplane...

2008-12-07T04:55:00.001+11:00

Lol, not really, though we are leaving on a airebus...no not a380 airbus. Airebus as in bus to Malaysia airbus. Misleading huh? The logo even has wings on it to mislead you even further. When I first saw it, I had an idea that the bus had actual wings on it lol. Before when we were waiting at the DFS building in Singapore for the bus, I kept on humming Leaving on a Jetplane lol, you know that song from Armageddon.
Just then we cleared Malaysian Immigration so now we’re officially on Malaysian soil, and its soaking wet. It’s bucketing rain here at the moment and before when we were outside, all you could really hear was the rain. It was incredible but I hope it doesn’t continue, otherwise we might have to stay in for tonight and considering we’re only in Malaysia for a limited time (see us while we’re hot lol) I want to spend as much of the time we have in this country as possible, though maybe not in the bad areas because we don’t want to get mugged, pick-pocketed or robbed. Lol, we were so paranoid this morning when we were doing our final packing. We were like “no hold your bag like this, close to your body” and “Im tucking my zip into my bag” and “Im hanging my passport right by my stomach” and “OMGSH OMGSH is this safe? Is this lock safe enough?”. We went so far as to put locks on our carry on bags. I have a lock on my Adidas school bag. Looks weird. With all these precautions, I really ask myself again, “Why are we going to Malaysia?” lol. But Im sure it’ll be heaps of fun. Get to stay in a hotel which I haven’t done in ages. At least ten years lol.

Right now I have Betty next to me and having her read over this to make sure I have no typos, Gabriel and Linda behind us doing something, though I don’t know what. Making a bit of noise. Use your imagination lol. Probably nothing like that though. Gab’s is most likely playing on his mac and Linda on her mp3. Its like on the plane with no internet so by the time you read this, we’ll be at the hotel where hopefully we’ll have internet. If not you’ll probably be reading this by the time we’re back in Singapore with Gabriel’s internet. Well, the guy’s internet. Though we don’t have internet, luckily we have a powerport which means wont run out of power and can blog and blog and blog muahahahahaha lol. But probably wont because you know...I have a life. Well...as much of a life I can have being stuck in this seat for the next five hours with Betty telling me what to do. Before we just had dinner which was the food we had yesterday for lunch at Bugis, forgot what it was called though. According to Betty, she calls it the orange “mei fun” thing with egg, lime and chilli and beansprouts and fried tofu. Which she ate the the last of mine because I became full, though I don’t know why. Must have been because the water I’ve been drinking on the bus because I was thirsty, as all I’ve had the whole day was a cup of three in one coffee that Gabriel’s grandmother so kindly made for me. Right now Betty is a bit (more like very and laughing her ass off and disgusted) hysterical because we think theres a gay couple sitting in front of. I kinda had a clue one of them was gay because Betty goes to me “is the guy in front of you a guy or a girl? Because I see him wearing women’s singlet”. That and I just saw them give each other a kiss. Personally Im not too fussed over it. Now Betty thinks one of them is a woman because of the tone of her/his voice. Think this is getting monotonous? This could go for a bit since we have the powerboard lol.
Just one more thing before I forget it lol. Right now we’re encountering a bit of turbulence and the bus is shaking a lot which is making it a bit difficult to type and read.

Hmmm lets talk about something else. Day before yesterday Gabriel and I spent the day out waiting to pick up Betty and Linda, which was pretty fun. Just spent the day out in town looking at stuff like books and clothes and videos. We also played a game of pool which I sucked soo badly in. Need to get more practice here. Also went to a lan centre where we played COD4, CS and Halflife deathmatch, but it was pretty boring since it was pretty much just us two in every map. That and I suck at the games too lol. We also got to check on their arrival time on the Changi airport website, which we couldn’t do because the internet was super slow and kept on dying on us. After that, we felt it was time to go pick the girls up, so we headed to Somerset station and caught a train to Changi Airport. The MRT station at the airport is soooo cool. Its huge. And it looks sooo nice too. So pretty. Makes me want to take the MRT to the airport since its so simple. Also we got there at like 8:30 when they’re flight was arriving at 9:30. We kinda overestimated the time it takes to get to the airport, especially since we were already halfway there lol. But it wasn’t too bad. Gabriel showed me how to get around for when I leave on my own, since Pete wont be leaving with me as he has to stay in Malaysia for a wedding. I should be alright when I leave. Just do everything you did in Melbourne.

After showing me what to do, we head upto the viewing mall to look at planes before heading to Terminal 3 to explore and find the food place to have dinner since we were so starving as we didnt eat all day because we were going to have dinner with Betty and Linda. That and we were kinda too poor lol. I know I was. So after exploring Terminal 3 for a bit, we try to find our way out but before that Gabriel decided to have a coffee. I was going to get one too but couldn’t really be bothered. Gabriel got a macchiato, not knowing what it was, because it was the cheapest thing available. He payed like $3.90 for it and all he got was this dinky little cup that was soo small. Reminded me of the time Alvin got a short black coffee lol. Whats more, that small macchiato was sooo strong as well. It was soo bitter. Gabriel couldn’t even finish it. I made a dare with him that I could skull the whole thing because I suggested he do that, which I did. Bad idea though. For the rest of the night, felt as though I couldn’t close my eyes lol. Well after that, at like 9:30, Gabriel and I head down to the arrivals area to greet Betty and Linda as they arrive. We went os early because Betty nagged me to get there on time as they weren’t bringing any SG and didnt want to make them worry. Man...they took so long to get down. Even Linda commented that we should have waited half an hour, as Gabriel had suggested. So in that time waiting for them, Gabriel got a taro pie from Burger King, withdrew money from an ATM and we walked around the visitor’s centre collecting all these brochures so we can pretend we used all that time constructively, which we didnt. Its fun waiting for people at the airport. Its so exciting, your about to see people whom you haven’t seen in ages. Even though its only been a week and been talking to them on msn, its still exciting to see them again. Also just for the fun of it, I want to go to the arrival hall at airports and just wave at random people lol.

I see Betty and Linda rolling their trolley past, give them a bit of a wave, though Betty says my wave was a frantic one, and they come out. They would have given us a hug but they were sticky and icky lol. Gabriel calls his friend and asks how they got to the food court in terminal 3 and we take the sky rail there. We pretty much just got the food that Janice got for us when she picked us up, like Char Keow Tow and chicken rice but we got this chicken thing that I wanted last time I was at the airport and Ice Jelly instead of Ice Kachang, which I think I like more because of the jelly. Linda got me the nicest pack of tissues lol. Maybe take a photo of it and show you lol. After ate, which Linda didnt seem to eat much and we just shared by rotating plates lol, we left and took a taxi back to Gab’s place and showed them around the house, worrying that they would freak out at seeing the bedroom which we would have to share. Luckily they didnt freak out and thought it was pretty good lol. We also saw how Gabriel had to sleep as he didnt think it would be a good idea to share beds with me. I don’t know why. I wouldn’t mind. We’d just be sleeping head to toe, kinda way. Anyway, his new bed is like a small single mattress tucked in the tiny gap in front of Betty and Linda’s bed, which is less than a metre. Poor bastard.

Yesterday we spent the time just setting Betty and Linda up with sim cards and ezylink cards. Sim cards we had to wait till Gabriel got his IC to get because apparently the Singaporean government is trying to fight terrorism by limiting each person to 10 simcards in their lifetimes, which guess makes sense. The 7-11 person is so knowledgeable lol. Didnt really expect that. No offence to people who work at 7-11s. While we waited for Gabriel to get his IC, I showed Betty and Linda round Bugis Junction, which probably wasn’t the best idea as I don’t really know my way around. We also went to the Guardian shop and got some essentials that Betty and Linda didnt bring. Afterwards went to Bugis Street and looked at cheap clothes. Saw this really nice white top with like manga style characters on it. Looked pretty nice. And then the night we just stayed in and ate Gabriel’s grandmother’s delicious dinner of crab, fish and fishballs and a soup which had frog in it apparently, but I didnt eat the frog though the soup was really nice.
And then today, just did some last minute packing and headed for the bus to go to Malaysia. Right now we’re just going through like jungle, which looks really nice, though a tad dull. Before we went past this really beautiful valley kinda thing and as we left Singapore, saw a great stretch of water was amazing and Betty and Gabriel took photos of it so you’ll probably see it later. Betty would blog now but since I took so long, she’s asleep now so she’ll probably blog later. Now I think I’ll just play with Betty’s iTouch (its soooo fun) and sleep .

Janson.
-__________________________________________________________________________________
After the toilet stop

Well now the 4 of us are back on the bus after a 15 minute toilet break at some place. Argh! my first drop toilet in over 4 years. Must say it wasn’t that bad, after those traumatic experiences in Beijing 
Now we’re back on the bus, and i think in a few hours we will be dropped off in front of our hotel. Yay for that. I just can’t wait to finally arrive and PLONK on my OWN bed. Yay for no more sharing a bed with linda! For the past few hours Janson and i have just been sitting here in these comfy seats. They are soo much more comfortable than what linda and i had on the QF to Singapore. OOOO i can now see these high rise apartment buildings. Just thought i’d note that cos it’s the first actual BUILDING thing i’ve seen in Malaysia (excluding the customs thing) oh great. We’re back in jungley amazonic palm tree area again =.= this airbus is pretty cool. The seats are wide and extremely comfortable. There is so much leg room. I think i might just adjust my seat back just to annoy Gabriel whose sitting directly behind me at the moment.

Well let’s see what happened this morning. Well as usual janson gets maximum sleep while Linda and i wake up at around 7,( so i got about 6-7 hours sleep, that’s okay considering that i only got about 3-4 hours sleep the night before. Gabriel got no sleep, so while i was packing, eating etc. Gabriel just slept on the comfy mattress Janson has been managing to get maximum sleep on. I think im going to take that mattress when we get back from Malaysia HEHE ^^
Hm i don’t have much to say now. I just want to get to Midvalley and just lie on my own bed. I’ll talk to you soon. OH YEAH i hope you enjoyed my extremely long blog yesterday. I couldn’t stop laughing when Janson saw how long it was, we word counted it and it was 1500 words + HAHAHA oh well. I didnt ‘want’ to make it that long, i just told you everything that happened.
Ok i’ll blog soon

Betty

betty here

2008-12-06T01:34:00.003+11:00

hey guys, i realised that i should blog cos. hmm im the only person out of us 4 holiday buddies that has yet to blog in singapore. anyway as usual we're now resting in our rooms, and chatting in the awesomely air conditioned room. tomorrow we will be taking the airbus and making our way to malaysia.
let me blog about what has happened since Linda and i left melbourne. I'll try my best not to repeat what she has written(actually i have yet to read what she wrote, so yeah it's from my perspective)

The day started off with HIGH SCHOOL MUSICAL 3. Linda, Kenny, Jeremy and i with our prebooked tickets made our way to the vmax to watch the newly released movie. I really liked, it and i now can't get that waltz song out of my head. i think it's called 'Can i have this dance' download it or something, i love it. anyway so then we go have brunch at the food court i ordered a pork chop noodle egg thing. It was nice, but then i felt full so someone else finished it off for me. Mum meets up with us, and i intro kenny and jeremy to her, mum was like (yeah kenny, your chinese isnt that good) LOL. it was hilarious watching him pause for so long to think of a word, then fill it in with an english word trying to make it sound fob. lol. So then Kenny and Jeremy leave, and btw it was also the last time i see Jeremy in 2 years, or even more, im going to miss him. Afterwards me and Linda go home to pack. I had to quickly pack everything in. Mainly the carry on which had all my belongings. Lol the only thing i forgot that i know of now, was my earphones =.= but i bought some for really cheap today, so that's ok.

Alright back to the trip part. Linda and i make it to melbourne international airport and we check in get our baggage done, as well as get last minute advice from our mothers. We make our way into the terminal and we bump into so many people. First was Karina, then Chris ong from church, along with a few other fungus people that im not too familiar with but linda is. So our flight starts, and there's this crying baby, and i immediately think (this is going to be one long flight SIGH) but soon the baby stops, and surprisingly didnt cry until landing into Singapore. (Ive come to my conclusion that babies probably dont like rapid altitude change).
During our long flight, i watched 2 movies, dark night, and wall-e both in which i didnt understand completely, cos in between i got served a meal or got interrupted for other reasons. I also watched tv shows, Kath and Kim, The Simpsons, Mr bean, Disney Channel, and a few others. Everytime i laughed Linda would peek over to see what she was missing out on. So we continue to fly and Linda is watching family guy, not long i find her eyes closed. Initially, i thought that she was just resting, or soemthing, but i then realised she was actually asleep. It's funny, cos before our flight she claimed that "i don't sleep on flights" . So during the 2 hours Linda was asleep, i read the Grazia Magazine we bought, and also trying to occupy myself so that i wouldnt fall asleep either. (for safety reasons, cos if we had turbulence problems i know for a fact, that i wouldn't wake up. Also i'd like to note that we had horrible people sitting infront of us, throughout the entire flight they put their chairs back, which left me with no leg room and the tv screen about 10cms away from my face. Okay this sounds long and draining. Okay moving on, we arrive Singapore airport. Well we arrive, go thru many travelators, then arrive at the immigration line, and get our passports and arrival slips stamped. We then made our way to the conveyor belt and found our luggage. During that wait for our luggage, Linda points out that she sees Gabriel, so i look up, and see a Gabriel too. I frantically wave with excitement, but in return i get no reply. Linda soon looks at me with the ( what are you doing look) and says " theyre behind us" . So WHOOPS. there are so many GAbriel look a likes in Singapore, Janson told us during our taxi ride home, that he even mistakened another person for Gabriel.

So we unite together for the first time as a whole group. Made our way to the sky rail (im asked janson but he's not too sure if it's the sky rail) anyway it's the mtr thing that transfers people to other parts of the Airport. So we go to this food court area where Janson and Gabriel buy us food cos Linda and i were SGD less (i warned janson about the SGD thing beforehand and threatened him if they didnt pick us up) hahah it worked cos apparently they were waiting at the arrival hall for a long time. HAHA! Well i eat my first meal in Singapore which consisted of this red chicken thing with rice served on a banana leaf. and also cha keow tow(or however you spell it) (btw Linda Janson and are are here deliberating how to spell the dish) and we also had haianese chicken rice which was DELISH. So then we went to take a taxi, WHOAAA the gush of heat, now that's summer, unlike random melbourne 'so called summer' Taxi back to Gabriel's place, settle in, take a shower, and before we knew it, it was late late late i think 5 am Australian time. we made a few emails notifying home, then go to sleep. The boys mustve loved their sleep cos they missed their 7 am run alarm, which i insist was at 5 am cos it interrupted my good sleeping, then caused me to faze in and out, having light sleep.

So my officialy first day in Singapore started off with Gabriel's Grandma making us this delicious breakfast, it was this noodle thing so good, nothing that i've had before. Then the 4 of us decide to go to Bugis, and place that Janson speaks very highly of, and i now know why. We take the MRT and stop at 'Bugis' station, Janson, Linda and I roam around looking at a few things, and Janson even takes us to this place which was really pretty, im not sure what it was called, but we took pictures. Gabriel on the other hand was at 'Lavender' collecting his IC card. we soon meet up, then walk around, eat lunch at this, not too pretty restaurant, but they had really good good and CHEAP food too. Afterwards the 4 of us walk thru 'Bugis street' which is Singapores largest street market, We walk thru many many isles thru the thick hot air. We just walked thru it all without buying, cos we realised that we would most likely get the same or something similar for cheaper in either Msia or HK. Then we walked around this electronics building. It was HUGE i'm not sure how many levels, but it had too many levels, and each floor had sooo many computer/electronic stores. I saw quite a few fake ipods, and even this mini ipod touch! Well we spend a while in there, cos Gabriel wanted to ask about a router cos the one at the house likes to stuff up when it wants to, kind of like what happens at home occasionally, but it happens often in the place we're staying at. So then we take the number 67 bus back home. Before we went home. We went to the i believe Chua Cho Kang Shopping mall to buy headphone, cos Janson needed a pair for his laptop which im typing this blog on, and i needed one for my ipod. Then we made our way home, and waited for dinner. Dinner was AWESOME, spicy crab, fish, vege, fishball, all this GOOD singaporean stuff. all made my Grandma. I think im starting to like Spicy food now. I reckon by the time i go to HK i might even find HK food too bland, due to it's lack of chilly in everything.
After dinner, the 4 of us pack for Malaysia which we're going to be taking the 'airbus' tomorrow. We also fill in the arrival slips which Gabriel's Grandpa kindly sorted out for us, and helped us in some of the boxes.
Now, linda and janson are lying there trying to sleep, while Gabriel is randomly chatting to me thru msn (while we're like less than 10 meters apart about the internet connection which keeps stuffing up) . anyway i'll blog soon. hoping that we get WIFI in our hotel.

bye for now

betty

The girls have arrived

2008-12-05T03:42:00.002+11:00

Hey guys sitting here in the room and it's about 1am over here. Well in a rush.. our day consisted on hanging out and watching High School Musical 3 at Shoppo. After the movie we had a bite to eat and went on home to do some last minute packing. From what i heard Betty did heaps more packing than what i did.. i was sitting at the computer chatting and playing tetris trying to relax as much as possible. Heading over to the airport we went through the parentals giving us advice. While Betty's mum was talking about money and being safe, my mum was lecturing me about my manners and being the perfect little child.

Skipping to the airport part we actually went into the business area and there was betty, her mum and sister telling me at we we're in the wrong one. even though we got signaled to go there. It was such a hassel trying to get Betty there. It was a better idea because we ended up skipping the cue. After checking in we wandered around with the parentals and we were bombarded with more advice. We finally were on our way through the airport getting everything checked. Betty and i decided to buy some magazines and sat around. In the terminal we saw Karina, Chris Ong (jr) and Marcus Wong. So tempted to run up to Chris and hit him i didn't.

The actual plane ride... wasn't that bad it was quite a smooth ride with us being worried. The ride consisted of heaps of movies and Tv shows. I skipped from show to show, movie to movie. I actually became quite bored of them. On our desent betty and i got quite excited to be in Singapore seeing as it was my first overseas ever and it was Betty's first time to go to Singpore. we sat around before leaving the plane and the Krispy Kreme's were a pain to carry off... Did the usual go through the immagration and got out bags. The funniest part was about arriving was that Gabriel and Janson were waving frantically at us while we were waiting for our luggage i turned and saw them and notified betty.. she was like yet i see them too and was waving to some random. I asked her who she was waving to. Gabriel was the reply. I told her gabriel was over there pointing to the opposite direction. We got out luggage and went out to where they were standing. We then proceeded to Terminal 3 to eat. And took a taxi ride back to gabs. Which kinda leads us upto now. We're all just sitting around in the room doing whatever. =D Anyway we're off to Malaysia in a couple days. Janson is getting bored so i beeter let him on his own laptop. laters well blog again soon.. hopefully

Day Whatever

2008-12-03T03:31:00.003+11:00

OMGSh yesterday was sooooo fun. Not that the other days weren’t fun but I found that yesterday was the most enjoyable to date on this trip. Yes Im aware I haven’t blogged about those days. Its not like I go to Singapore to stay in and blog lol. Well guess today is an exception after all we only got like 5 hours sleep lol. Went to bed at like 2 after spending the night out and waking up extra early today at 7 so Gabriel could go get his medical examination for his NS, where he has to take his pants down and cough, lol. Well apparently Gabriel didn’t have to. I wasn’t there with him because I wasn’t allowed through. Think Gab’s asked the guy there if I could go as well and he was like “no...” and in my mind, I was kinda like “DUH...ITS A MILITARY INSTALLATION, NOT A TOURISM SITE” But oh well. Meant I got to explore Singapore on my own lol. Ah that military place was so scary. They had this mean looking guy carrying this huge ass assault rifle and there were all these people in military uniforms. I was scared and didnt want to go inside anyway and thought I’d wait for Gabs outside for him to be done. After about an hour, he sent me a text that he’ll be taking a while so I decided to just go exploring on my own. First went to a nearby food court place and just got an ice tea and from there went to a place where I hoped would be air con and places to shop. There was air con, although a weak one and no where to shop so I decided to leave and go somewhere else.

I decided to just risk it and take a bus, hopping onto one that went to an MTR station I knew of and instead of heading there, just looked for a place that looked as though it had air con, which was a place called Anchor Point, though I didnt know that until I got inside lol. There wasn’t much to shop around, was really more of a large food court really. They had this place called Club Marc and everything was like drastically reduced for some reason and were really cheap. There was like a pair of jeans for $25. I would have bought it but no money lol. Well I did have money but didnt really want to spend on clothes. Would rather save it for food lol. Also there was an anime store so went there and took a look. There was also a drama place where they were soooo cheap!!! I could have bought Coffee Prince for $10. But I didnt as I wanted to save for food lol. They also had a book store which was a good place to just sit and enjoy air con lol. The sell Classic Books for like $2 each and Dennis Lehane for 7. I want to read Dennis Lehane, he’s the guy who wrote Gone Baby Gone which was such a good movie. Anyway, got bored and moved onto Ikea across the street, which was nice and cool lol. Also had seats to rest my feet. Got lost a few times though I managed to find my way out and afterwards went to the shopping Centre place next door which was alright. Lots of cheap clothes. Well cheapish. Some were cheap, others were expensive. When I later went there with Gab’s after his examination, I was looking at this store and the guy was like “here, try this, its very in style, so I try it on inside, just so he’ll stop bugging me, and while Im buttoning up the shirt, he just pulls open the curtain to give me another top and tells me to come out and take a look. So annoying. I didnt buy anything and used Gab’s excuse of “I’ll come back another time” lol. Also I think I left my empty cup of soursot (is that how you spell it? Its like a fruit jelly thing) drink there lol. Oh well.

Anyway, before Gab’s called me, I was still at Anchor Point about to get a Durian Ice Kachang but didnt and instead waited for Gab’s to arrive to eat, which he did and we went to the place next door where we had curry laksa. So hot lol. Wasnt hot hot but hot enough. I also ordered a couple of curry puffs, one for Gab’s but he didnt want it because the place there wasn’t that great, so I had to eat it. Also got that drink which I left at the clothes store lol.We walk around for a bit, Gabriel bought like 3 tops for $20. Such good value. He also asked a place that does laser engraving about having his macbook engraved, and the guy wasn’t sure if Gabriel should have it done at his place because he has no idea how it would turn out. Anyway soon we decide to leave most of it unexplored as we would most likely return with Betty and Linda when they get here and after Malaysia. So we took a bus to Queenstown station (well...get off before, walk there just to find that the bus we were on actually goes directly there lol. Afterwards we just trained back and now Im drifting between sleep and blogging.

Anyway, onto yesterday, which was soooo fun. I haven’t even mentioned what we did on that long ass paragraph before lol. I dunno, I kinda just would type a bit, roll over into the fan, rest a bit then roll back to the comp and write more.

So just what did we do? Well at first Gabriel and I didnt do much and just stayed in for a bit during the day (slept in. Well Gabriel went for a run in the morning and I slept in lol) before we took a train to soem place. I forgot what it was. It was a shopping centre and as soon as we got there, we needed a coffee since we were both so tired. Lol, we both nearly fell asleep on the train. I don’t know why I was so tired. I think I got plenty of sleep. Either way, we were so tired, we needed a coffee boost to rejuvenate ourselves, so we got coffees. Iced coffees naturally. We got them at this place called Spinellis and they had these iced coffees called spins, where they mixed coffee with these other stuff. Think Gabriel got a cookie one and I got a mint one. It was soo nice. Afterwards, we went through the three storey HMV they have there which was alright. Apparently YUI has a new album, not like I really listen to her anyway. Afterwards just strolled around, looked at clothes and tuff like that for a while, before taking a train to Dhoubi Gought or something like that to meet up with Gabriel’s cousins for dinner. Funny story. Gabriel’s phone like died because he didnt charge it and was only at 12% when we left the house. So we didnt know where to meet them. Gabriel said meet them at the station, but then we decided to go to the Plaza Singapura, but went wrong way first and ended up at the Cathay so had to walk all the way in the other direction to the Plaza and where we tried switching simcards but that didnt work because my phones locked to my card. He called the other sister (theres two of them, Hui Ying and Mei Chin, both sisters) and think he called Hui Ying for Mei Chin’s number but I couldn’t remember it. So stupid. So we bum around for a bit hoping they’ll find us. We then went down stairs and found Mei Chin waiting for us and teasing Gabriel for getting lost. We head out and meet up with Hui Ying, who tells us that we’re having dinner at the Cathay, and we were like “...we just came from there”.

But we didnt mind walking. Wasn’t too far and weather wasn’t too hot so it was alright. We make it to the Cathay and line up to eat at this place called the Aston which serves Western food. Feels weird eating Western Food in Singapore. Its like I never left home lol. But still the food was really nice and cheap. For 6.50 get like a chicken steak, with 2 side dishes. I got a black pepper steak with a baked potato and a pasta salad I think. It was soooo nice. The chicken was so tender and spicy because of the black pepper. Gabriel got one called the historical one which I think was good as well. It was a really good place to eat, though we did have to wait in line for maybe an hour or something, before we could get seated. So in the time we played this game, not sure what its called, think its called “who, huh, what” and you would say to the person next to you either “who” or “what” or “huh” and they would have to say the same thing to the person next to them and if you want to change directions, you just say one of the other three back to the person and that person has to continue with it and whoever gets it wrong by saying the same thing back to the same person loses. We had a trial run of the game and it didnt seem too bad so we played again and this time, whoever loses, has to ask a person sitting at a table next to us (its like an open restaurant and the line is situated next to a row of tables) what they ordered or what they’re eating. Sadly in that game I lost but luckily HuiYing said I didnt have to carry out with the dare, though if it was Gabriel who lost, they would have made him do it, partly because he was the one who suggested the dare. Soon we get seated and we just talk a bit before our food arrives. Most of the talk was about tv shows and how you cant download them in Singapore. Soon dinner was over and we just look around the place and head to a Ben and Jerry’s store to eat ice cream!!!! And my gosh its expensive. Its like 4.10 for a scoop. Awww sooo sad. Gabriel and I lost our Ben and Jerry-nity before Betty and Linda. Oh well. We’ll try and have a tub to have when you guys arrive, assuming we have the money. If not, we’ll get it after the Malaysian trip. I got a scoop of cheesecake something and Gabriel, HuiYing and Mei Chin got a plate with a waffle base and three scoops with chocolate topping which they shared, and I got some too which was nice. There was also a live band playing which was pretty cool. They played Hotel California and Happy Birthday lol.

After ice cream and the song was over, we headed out and somehow someone got the idea that we should go to a pub. I was a bit hesitant at first as I’ve never been to one before despite being 18 and not really a drinker and Gabriel wasn’t 18. Somehow we still went but on the way we went to all these touristy places and took photos which was fun. Also saw an Aston Martin which was sooo cool!!!!!!!! Anyway Cant remember all the places we went to but remember we went to this really posh place called Chijmes and the esplanade, or as Gabriel put it, the Durian building and went to the rooftop which was soo nice. The views were so cool, even though standing near the edge was scary because we were so high.It was also really cool, very breezy so not too hot. We took heaps of photos and it was really fun on the way in because Gabriel and HuiYing would just stop under an air vent for cold air lol. And also there was like a display that would move along with you, though it was too slow and we would get ahead of it. Lol, we went to the underpass which leads to the Escalade and there were people skateboarding around and as I get to the other side, I see this sign going “No skateboarding”.Its so nice inside, so classy. Cant wait to show it to Betty and Linda.

After the Esplanade, we walked on until we finally made it to this pub called Timbre (I think thats what we did. Not sure if we went anywhere in between)and it was such a nice place. Had a really nice atmosphere and wasn’t too crowded and was pretty cool to just sit and have a drink and talk. Which is precisely what we did. Luckily it was happy hour all night so drinks were cheaper.
When we got there, the in bar musician, a woman named Michaela was playing Unfaithful by Rihanna and it was sooo good. Later she also sang a couple of other songs, which HuiYing and Mei Chin sang along to as well. Lol, so funny when they were singing Falling by Alycia Keyes (which Michaela sang so well) to Gabriel. HuiYing put in a request for herself and myself (I picked Umbrella by Rihanna) but she didnt know how to play either of our songs so Huiying suggested she play a Christmas song which she did though I forgot which one.
As for drinks, we had a bit of fun going through the list. Gabriel just went for a Bacardi Breezer, HuiYing had a light beer from a brand I don’t remember and Mei Chin ordered an Apple martini. I wanted a Mojito but they didnt have any and since I couldn’t remember any of the drinks and didnt want to go through the menu again, I just ordered an Apple martini as that was the last drink I heard. The apple martini was actually quite strong, despite what I heard from people saying its more sweet than bitter. I found it pretty bitter as well. But it was still nice. It was like my first real drink in two years at least lol, assuming we don’t count that sip of Gabriel’s lime Bacardi breezer I had the other night. Lol, from there, the night started getting fun, with a lot of talking and Mei Chin telling a couple of jokes which were sooo funny, especially the King Kong one lol. HuiYing and and Mei Chin also tried to teach me Singlish (combination of English with a Singaporean accent, like putting in lah and leh and mah) and expressions such as wah liao and wah biange. We also realised that Gabriel had his medical examination the next day and how we had to wake up early. Also talked about why you have to cough when they ask you to take off your pants lol.

Anyway, the night soon drew to a close and Gabriel and I took a taxi back home, and he got himself a takeaway meal from the nearby food place which he ate as soon as he got home. The night was great and cant wait till we do it with Betty and Linda, though Gabriel said he’ll get his other cousin Ben to take us around, as he doesn’t want Betty and Linda to join Mei Chin and HuiYing in making fun of him lol.

Photos

2008-11-30T23:40:00.002+11:00

Our Block
Moss Burger =)

National Library!

Day 2?

2008-11-30T13:08:00.002+11:00

Something like that. Staying here makes me lose track of time. I have no idea what time it is or what day it is. This is either because I have no television to time my life to or that I’m not glued to the computer so I can’t stare at the clock or that heat and humidity has fried my brain completely. Probably both lol. Well now we’re entering Day Three and the last two days have just gone by in a flash, so quickly that I can barely keep up with the blogs. That and when you get home at like 12:30 after stuffing our faces with perhaps the best food ever, like we did today, blogging is the last thing on your mind. Your either trying to cool down, find out what has been happening in the world (especially in Mubai. I mean WTF??!! It amazes me the cruelty people can do) or want to just close your eyes and sleep.

Anyway...Yesterday...well lets just say Thursday since its now Saturday. Thursday...bleh can barely remember what we did. Oh thats right. We just spent the day setting stuff up, like getting our phones to work, explore a bit and just get everything arranged so we can be comfortable here and for when the girls arrive. So started in the morning with breakfast at a shop really close to us where we got carrot cake (its not how it sounds, it looks more like noodles than actual cake) and coffee. After that we went to the mall, where everything was like closed. Things here don’t open till like 10 so we had like an hour or so to just bum around for a bit so we seated ourselves down in front of KFC and err...”borrowed” the internet from the place. While online, I asked Betty to ask Three at home about international roaming and Gabriel just talked to people. Afterwards, shops opened and we went to the pharmacy to see if they sold power adaptors, which they didnt so we had to go to this place called Home Fix or something where we got a couple. Lol, apparently Gabriel brought the wrong adaptor from Melbourne. He took a Singaporean to Australian instead of the other way round lol. Oh well. We got like a universal one so should be alright. Afterwards just checked out phone plans for prepaids and plans for our phones and for when Gabriel goes for NS. After that was a bit of a blur and think we just explored the whole place before heading back to Gabriel’s place to borrow some more internet where I managed to turn on my roaming but didnt get my phone to work because I had to search for the network using my phone, which I didnt know I had to do. We also got a international call card so we could call home, which we did after we figured out how it works lol. Ah so nice hearing Mum’s voice after so long. Lol, feels weird without it. Anyway, we didnt really talk about much, except how I was doing and stuff, and she tells me about what happened in Mumbai, which at the time I had no idea about because we had no internet access and I didnt really use the time on “borrowed” internet to look up the news. She said it was just a bombing that killed 180 people but when I looked it up, it was much worse than I thought, as it was actual gunmen. The newspapers here called it “India’s 9/11”, which I agree with.

After that we went to KFC for lunch and then went to another shopping centre to look at stuff. Lol, so weird their KFC, like I was asked if I wanted chilli sauce and I said no (as you all know, I cant really hack hot foods) and the counter woman just gave me this like really strange look, as though I was some sort of weirdo for not wanting chilli. But like everything here is spicy. Even the carrot cake was spicy lol. Anyway, then came back, found all the internet connections were locked off so think just watched tv or read the newspaper we bought at the start of the day when we bought other essentials such as shampoo and newspaper and green tea drink lol. Think we bought something as well but cant remember what. Oh thats right, a razor for me to shave with.

Soon, Gabriel’s grandfather took us out to eat dinner with Gabriel’s uncle and aunties and cousins, (one of whom apparently studied in Monash) which was nice. We ate outside at some seafood restaurant and the food was soo nice. We had crab and vegetables and chicken satays which was soo good. They taste so nice. Anyway, we eat till I could barely move anymore and we head back, take a long deserved cold shower and think off to sleep. Or steal songs off Gabriel’s hard drive. Forget lol.

Well yesterday (Friday) was a more fuller day as we had essentially gotten everything done but still had to sort out Gabriel’s IC and Passport stuff for Singapore so spent a bit of time at the Immigration Centre. But started day off with breakfast and we ate out again. Apparently everyone eats out in Singapore. No one really eats at home.

We ate at this place that was owned by NTUC, a company that owns all this stuff such supermarkets (which apparently it has a monopoly on) and convenient stores and apparently restaurants. Gabs got us both some noodles to eat which was really nice (I swear all the food here is nice. Havent had anything I didnt like or was just plain ordinary. Just thinking about food makes me salivate) Think afterwards we got some more food again lol.We got these fish things wrapped in banana paper I think. Forgot what it was called. Also had some cold drinks at a Hk cafe in the shopping centre. Food there also looked nice but we just got drinks instead. Cold ones naturally. I got an iced milo and Gabs got an iced coffee. Not sure about his coffee but my iced milo was great. Anyway after we eat, we walk around for a place for Gabriel to get a haircut but none of them were open, even after 10. So we’re about to leave and head back when we come across this hair dressers which was open so Gabs goes in and gets his hair done up while I sit back and watch some kid having the time of his life flicking a rubber band. Wish I could be like that, have fun with the really simple things in life. Anyway, Gabs finally finish and he comes out looking like he did before. His hair wasn’t cut that much shorter. Oh well. Good enough I suppose.

We head back to Gabriel’s place where he gets changed to go to Town. I didnt really change, just stay in shorts and shirt but changed from flip-flops to shoes. We catch the train there using our Ezylink card, which is like HK’s Octopus card and just beep your way through. So much better than the metcard system in Melbourne. We had to get off at Jurong East and catch another line to lavender where we got off and went to the Immigration place and headed upstairs where Gabriel had to get his passport. He takes his number and we just sit in this large room and wait. It was soo packed. There were so many people but since there were heaps of counters, we got there son. Problem was Gabriel couldn’t get his passport renewed because he didnt have his IC so he had to go up stairs again to get his IC done, as well as take photos for them. Ran into problems when Gabriel didnt have the right documents so we decided to just go to Bugis Shopping Centre which is SOOOO COOL!!!!!!!! I want to go back. We didnt buy anything though, everything there was a bit pricey. But still nice. We decided to get lunch and went to Mos Burger where Gabriel ordered us a rice beef burger and an unagi rice burger. The burger was so cool, it wasn’t bread it was like rice stuck together lol. It was nice but I dunno, rice tasted a bit plain (my first criticism over the food here lol) but the chips and coke were nice. The coke had like a limey taste to it. We look around for a place to access the internet and print stuff, and saw there wasa net cafe across the road from the burger place, but didnt go there. Instead just walked around for a while before going to the National Library, where Gabriel tried to sign up using his student card but he had quite a bit of trouble signing up but got there eventually and managed to print off the stuff he needed and went back and got his stuff done.

Came back to his place and we were starving so on the way we got some Nasi Lemak which was really nice. Had some duck and pork which apparently was left over from his grandparent’s dinner last night. Tasted great. Later that night, spent most of the time walking around trying to find the place Gabriel had to deliver the Krispy Kremes to before finally finding it and then catching a train to meet up with Gabriel’s friend Bryan and ate at this Muslim place I think. Or might have been Indian. Whatever it was, the food was delicious. It was sooo good. First we started off with ice cold drinks, I didnt know what to get so I just got whatever looked nice, which was a Mango Spin. Think it was just mango blended with ice. So nice, so cold and thick so takes a while to drink. O good after spending who knows how long walking around looking for some guy’s house. We had some satays and then moved onto the main which was this omelette kinda thing. Kinda like those Japanese pancakes okonomiyaki but with eggs, onions and chicken. Put that with curry and omgsh its the best. Think the term would be shiok lol. Afterwards we had dessert of this ice with jelly some ball thingoes. Tasted really nice but think I prefer Ice kachang. Afterwards just bussed home and went to sleep pretty much immediately as we were so tired from the whole day.

And that was pretty much my first two days. Sooo fun. Cant wait for Betty and Linda to arrive so we can do all the other fun stuff and go shopping together. Also I think I need a bit of a manicure. Nails feel so long lol. The place near Gab’s gives $5 manicures which seems pretty good but I dunno, feels weird getting it professionally done. Feels like its a girl’s thing. I’ll think about it.

Also, now I do kinda agree with people that I am addicted to coffee. I haven’t had a coffee routine (like having 1 in the morning everyday and have regular teas) like I do at home so it’s been a bit irregular, only getting an ice coffee every now and then. And not sure when my last coffee prior to today was and this morning I had a really bad headache that just didnt seem to go away, which I just put down to the heat or not eating, and even after I ate and had a nice cold drink in a fully air conditioned shopping centre, still had the headache. However, after arriving at a train station and got a can of ice coffee, poof, headache was gone, as though like magic. Lol, today was like caffeine overload. First had that can of Boss Ice Coffee (which Im addicted to now. Its sooo nice. Do we have that stuff back in Melbourne?) then a Gloria Jeans latter and later another can of Boss Coffee. Hmmm think that was all. Doesnt seem like that much now that I look at it, though normally I limit myself to 1 cup of coffee daily and make the rest teas.

Anyway, I reckon this post is long enough lol. Probably too long so I’ll put an end to it now before someone complains. That and I need sleep.

Janson.

1st day

2008-11-29T13:22:00.007+11:00

Darwin

Janice Came to pick us up and so did alot of my old school friends. We had supper together at Changi's new terminal. So glad Janice came with her car, or I would've been dead by now. The heat was unbearable.

2008-11-28T04:57:00.003+11:00

Arrived...

Yep we’re here in Sunny Singapore. Well in fact we’ve been here an entire day. Just been a bit too busy having fun to blog. That and trying to get our computers connected to the internet network that the students (think its 2 girls and one guy) that are living with Gabriel’s grandparents had arranged. Before we were just “borrowing” internet from whatever network our laptops could access lol. But now we’re fully connected and running. Oh and btw thanks Betty for checking up on Three on my roaming thing. Means a lot but I managed to fix it online while “borrowing” internet so now we have phone and internet set up. Now to wait for you girls to arrive and set up your phones and we’ll be in business. Oh and Betty or Linda, bring an Aussie powerboard so we can charge our phones and laptops when need be. Like a 4 port should be fine. Ta.
Lol, before we had one of the students (probably the one who set up the net in the place) helping us connect to the network and mine was simple enough since it was a PC, but Gab’s Mac ran into some problems. Apparently one of them was that when the guy set up me IP address for it, I stole Gabriel’s IP address so he was left without one. That and the guy didnt really understand Mac and the Mac had trouble connecting to the router. Luckily the guy (that’s all I really know him by. Should learn his name when I can) was an Information Technology student and was able to fix Gab’s internet and let him use it on the Mac OS so he wouldn’t be stuck using XP, although it was by a stroke of luck as the guy was about to chain Gabs outside with an Ethernet cable to the router, which meant he would have to be outside whenever he wanted to use the net. But since that wasn’t the case, right now he’s lying on his brand new mattress (he had to sleep on the floor last night. Poor fellow) watching Meet Dave on his macbook.

Well, lets go back to late last night when we touched down in Singapore and our flight there after my last post (yes I know Im making a lot of posts. I just enjoy documenting our travels so that I can look back and remember what happened. One of my many quirks). Anyway during the flight, we got so hungry that decided to jus have one of the Krispy Kremes that Gabriel had bought for his friend. Well...one became two lol. So four were gone and his friend was left with just eight to eat. Afterwards, we try to get some sleep and kinda did for a bit until we hit some rocky turbulence which was so bad that the seatbelt light had to be turned on. And from then on, the flight was just shaky and too hard to sleep through, though Gabs somehow managed to. The reason for the turbulence was because we were flying into a storm as we approached Singapore, and it was actually pretty cool, like you can see flashes of lightning illuminate the entire sky. Think we tried to take a photo of it (or maybe I just wanted to) but it was too hard since it was so fast.
But the lightning didnt look as good as what we saw when we came into land in Singapore. The city looks so pretty at night, with all the lights on. The harbour looked so beautiful with it being all black with heaps of little bits of light from boats. It looked all so glitzy with all the lights everywhere. Betty and Linda, if you’re coming on a night flight, make sure you get a window seat and maybe take a video as you land, coz photos don’t turn out that well (trust me, we tried and they’re all blurry).

So we have a pretty much perfect landing (plane didnt skid off the runway, crash and burst into flames) and we get and just go through the usual process of getting our passport and boarding passes checked and we were on our way through. After getting off the plane we went on the travelator thingy that goes horizontally. Dont know what its called. Anyway after being checked through, we go to the carousel to get our luggage. Which mine came first, followed by Gab’s. Luckily none of our locks had been tampered with so we were safe. All that was left was to collect Gabriel’s special package of wine that he had sent through. It appeared as though it wasn’t there so Gabriel went to ask an attendant and while asking, the package appeared on the carousel so we get it and headed out where we were greeted by Gabriel’s Singaporean friends from when he went to school here. Before long, we were joined by Janice Mok, another one of Gabriel’s friends but she had come from Melbourne and was apparently part of Fungus. Anyway, we decide to go for a bit of a quick dinner before heading home with everyone, so Gabriel and I head to Janice’s car to put our bags in and so she can drive us to the airport food court. Man her car is soo awesome. Black (think it was black) Mercedes Benz and it looked so new. Apparently all the cars in Singapore are shiny because they cost so much. So we put our bags in the back and get into the car. It was sooo luxurious. I swear I could live in that car. Has air con and everything. The aircon was so good compared to the heat outside. It was as though we were back in the airport lol. So we drive to the underground carpark and see all these shiny high end cars. I saw a Porsche in there. So cool. Lol, as Janice was about to back the car in, she tells us to get out first because she doesn’t want us opening the doors and hitting the cars next to her.

After that we head to the food court and look at what foods to get and we couldn’t decide, so Janice goes to get us the food for us. She had gotten us Haienen (Is that how you spell it?) chicken rice, Char Keow Tow (I have no idea how to spell these foods lol) and Hokien Noodles along with cold desserts to help cool us down. I got the Ice kachang which was soo nice. Better the one we got at Rasa Malaya. Ah Ice Kachang is possible my most favourite dessert ever. Well most favourite in Singapore anyway because of the heat lol. Well the food soon arrive and I pretty much just gorged like a pig. I was soo hungry. All day I only had:

• Cup of tea and sandwich at home
• Large coke from Hungry Jacks
• Coffee and Muffin on the plane from Melbourne
• Tea on the plane from Darwin
• Two Krispy Kremes

All on a 12 hour flight. So I just ate and ate until I was as full as I can be and just scooped spoonfuls of Ice Kachang until I had cooled down lol. Afterwards, Janice drove Gabriel and I back to Gabriel’s grandparent’s place, which as Janice put it was in “the ghettoes” but I didnt think it was bad. Looked pretty good. Better than the ghettoes of Melbourne lol.
While leaving the airport, all the traffic was stopped and slowed as we drove along, and saw a bus just sitting there which prompted Janice to joke that a bomb was found, which I didnt find that funny. But apparently all the traffic was stopped because some big shot who needed a police escort was leaving the airport. It wasn’t that bad that the traffic was stopped, as the police escort paved the way for us to get through quickly. I wonder who that guy was. Must have been really important to warrant a police escort.
Anyway, we get to Gabriel’s place and just settle in and put our stuff away and take a quick cooling shower, which is the best thing against the climate here. After the shower, feel so much cooler and refreshed. I wanted to call home but I didnt set my phone to international roaming before I left home which meant I couldn’t make any calls and the phone card his grandparents had was out of credit. Sorry Mum and Dad if I made you worry. And both Gabriel and I were just so knackered from the entire flight that the first thing we wanted to do was just sleep. Which we quickly did, though Gabriel decided to watch a bit of Journey to the Centre of the Earth first lol.

I’d blog about today but since its like already 2 and Im tired as hell, I’ll do it tomorrow when Im a bit less dizzy. I’ll try and remember all the details of what we did today, such as “borrowing” internet from the nearby shopping centre lol.

Janson Cheng.

P.S. Gabriel’s grandparents are soooo nice.

In the air...again

2008-11-28T01:58:00.001+11:00

Yep. Gabriel and I am once flying, after catching our connecting flight from Darwin. After our flight from Melbourne, we touched down on in Darwin and just moved through the airport, going through customs and check in, as we are now boarding an international flight, not the petty domestic one we were in before. Before we landed, we watched out the window as we descended. Pretty fun actually. Lol, we were flying so low, you can watch cars drive past on the road next to us. Descending down to Darwin wasn’t that exciting. Not much to see. Just lots of green trees. There was also a lot of water which actually looked really nice. So much better than what we have in Melbourne. Maybe we should go back to Darwin one day. Seems like a nice place. Would love to visit the beaches. Look so nice.

Anyway, sadly I didnt get the book or magazine I wanted because we were so worried about checking in and customs and Gabriel getting the GST claimed on his macbook that we decided to just go get checked in first and buy it afterwards. Sadly, we couldn’t leave the lounge area so had to stay there. But wasn’t too bad. Was able to charge my laptop up to 50% so I have computer time for another hour or so before I have to turn it off. And afterwards...I dunno try my best to sleep through the flight I suppose. Not bloody likely though, as I could tell from last time. But this time it’ll be a night flight so would be darker so might be easier. But I dunno, probably too excited about Singapore to sleep lol. Anyway, as soon as we land and stepped out of the plane, it was like “whoa s**t!!” It was sooo humid I had trouble breathing. It reminded me of Maestro, where Paul’s father goes “Darwin is the arsehole of the planet”, or something to that effect, and if that was the case, the planet must have had a burrito or something. Well could breathe but felt like I was gulping in water whenever I was. Anyway, I look at a few books at the book place, saw a couple which I oculd have bought but in the end didnt because I thought I could come back after check in, but that was not to be the case so didnt get them and now have to try and endure the boring middle bit of the flight. But should be fine. Catch some shut eye or something.

After waiting in line for ages during check in and having to take out all liquids which were more than 100ml, which neither of us had, though Gabriel did have a bottle of something. Forgot what it was which he put in a bag though he didnt have to since it was only 50 or something ml. So after we get checked in, we had to go through customs, where we had our bags scanned. We were all told to take out our laptops while they were scanned, which both Gabriel and I did, and I think everyone else in line lol. Afterwards we went in through to the guy there to let us through and ask me if I had over $10 000 on me, which I didnt, sadly lol. Afterwards, I took a peek around the Duty free shop while Gabriel got his GST thing sorted out, which I went back occasionally to check on how he was doing, which prompted the guy there to ask if I was with him. Apparently, if I wasn’t, he would have told me to “go bugger off” So I “buggered off” for a bit and looked at some more in the Duty Free store until Gabriel was done and we just looked at stuff we could have bought but didnt. There were heaps of fragrances and alcohol (no books though ) and chocolate and random stuff, which I thought we could get for Betty’s cousin’s when we get to HK but didnt get them because thought they wouldn’t really be interested in puppets or a ruler and pencil set. So Gabriel bought some chocolate nougat, and I bought something which I thought we could celebrate with once we get to his place in Singapore. Right now Gabriel is jabbering at the keyboard at his mac, probably blogging like me lol. I wonder who’ll finish faster. Probably him since Im such a slow typer.

Anyway, we get into the lounge area, find a powerplug and just went for it. Also managed to get into the airport’s internet which was good and was able to post my last entry and chat to some people on msn, like Albert, Alvin and Betty which was nice. Also talked to my brother and told him that we were in Darwin and for him to let Mum know, before he just went offline to watch 2 and a Half Men no doubt. Sigh. I miss tv. Going to miss all the shows like Supernatural and Big Bang Theory. Oh well, just get it from someone later. Anyway, after a quick chat to people, it was time to board the plane, and when we did, we got free water which was nice. The plane was also being cooled as well so there was like smoke kinda thing filling the cabin. Before we left though, Gabriel bought a Red Bull and a pack of slated beer nuts which I wanted to eat on the plane. Also I was given a complimentary pack of like sleeping stuff, such as the eye mask, blanket and air pillow sorta thing, and Gabriel didnt lol. Prob try it out later if I could.

Anyway, probably should go before my battery dies out on me. On a final note, just want to thank Gabriel once more for putting all this together, arranging transport, the tickets, hotels, accommodation. If it wasn’t for you, I’d probably be sitting at home reading romance mangas, which a new one came out and seemed quite good. It was called Love Knife, which I will read as soon as I get back home. No manga on this trip. Just going to enjoy company of good friends in a good environment. And also want to say that flying is now perhaps my favourite past time. Its soooo fun. And its so beautiful to look outside the window. Cant wait till we fly again. BTW if you’re reading this, it probably means we’re off the plane and got to somewhere with internet and posted it up. Hope to see the rest of you guys soon. Enjoy your stay in Australia until then and watch as much Aussie tv while you can. We’ll post up photos as soon as we can because we took several, and would probably take more as we land into night time Singapore, which is going to be awesome.

Laters. Janson

1st day

2008-11-27T16:13:00.000+11:00

On board JetStar, my eyes are so dry and uncomfortable. But surprisingly the seats and service aren’t as bad as what I expected. The seats are actually LEATHER!

So anyway, back in Melbourne, already our journey was exciting and what lies ahead remain a mystery, whether to if I’m going to be able to find my luggage.
Only at about 5am, I finished packing my bag and I immediately died as I hit the bed. But I decided to wake up earlier today to say bye to my sister and brother before they head off to school. Essentially I’ve had only 3 hours of sleep.
Being so gungho I only decided to copy all my files from my desktop to my laptop at about 8.30. I thought it wouldn’t take too long, but I was wrong. I planned on leaving the house at about 10.30am, but I ended up only leaving at 11! Glad Janson wasn’t too fussy about it. So we made our way to Melbourne Airport, and headed straight for the check-in area, but because our flight flies to Darwin first before heading to Singapore, our flight wasn’t listed on the Flight Schedule. But we managed to check-in with no problems, except my luggage was 0.2kg above the limit, fortunately the guy at the counter was nice. So we received our boarding passes and we made our way to Gate 10. I was happily sipping on my small cup of Coke, while we waited patiently for the gate to open. However when they called our rows, I looked at my boarding pass and the row number on it was different from my friend’s. So I was thinking, maybe they stuffed up and had our seats mixed up. So I didn’t really cared about it. BUT I looked further on the boarding pass and I realised that the name on the pass was not mine but rather ‘LISA TING’. Immediately I was shocked and told Janson that we had an issue. Foolishly I’ve mistaken someone else’s boarding pass as mine! So I had a chat with JetStar Crew and managed to get MY name on my boarding pass. But that really gave me a shock! I should have checked before I left the check-in area. Despite the scare, I took the issue quite calmly and added it to the memory that I’m going to have about this trip.

Looking forward for more exciting and fun weeks ahead of me.
Until then, stay in tune to our blog for more updates.

Cheers,
g

In the air.

2008-11-26T18:52:00.001+11:00

In the air.

Yep we’re coming to you live from the plane. Lol, I wish. That way I’d have net access and wouldn’t be so bored. Im just typing this up as we fly and I’ll post it up later when we land and have access to internet.
Well right now, Gabriel’s in the toilet of the plane doing whatever he is doing. I didn’t enquire. OMGsh Im soooo excited. Right now my ears keep popping which is an interesting experience. Not much to see outside the plane. Just clouds. Lol, feels like we’re in a huge paddock with giant sheep. That and everytime I look out the plane and look away I see a green blob. Havent been on a plane in over ten years (as I told everyone) so it’s kinda like a new experience. Forgot how small a plane was. Or maybe its because the plane we got is small. Only two rows of three and don’t know how long it goes back for. It’s also quite cramped here Right now Gabriel is out of the toilet and eating his cold hungry Jacks which he got in the food lounge at the airport. We’re sitting in 14B and C (Im in B) and we just took off. I had no idea how rural the airport was. Then again, I’ve never been to this airport lately.
Well, lets talk about how this day started which was an interesting one. Started today at about like 8:40 (kinda slept in since I was having a nice dream. Forgot what the dream was though) and got changed. Since I woke up too late, I didn’t get to see Ivan off for the last time in a month. Oh well. I’ll talk to him online when I get net. Well after got changed and did morning stuff, had breakfast. My original idea was scrambled eggs but was too lazy so figured instant noodles would be fine. Mum didn’t think the same so made me a sandwich to go with my tea. Normally would have been coffee but since I already put the teabag in, thought might as well have tea. Afterwards, it reached 10, the time Gabriel and Pete were supposed to come pick me up. And the minutes dwindled away and still no Gabriel and Pete. And it took a while before they got here, which prompted a bit of nagging from Dad. I decided to wait outside and Dad and Mum decided to join me. At about 11:15, they finally arrived and not a minute too late. Well...about 75 minutes but thats alright. So long as we didn’t miss out flight. Which we didn’t as Im in the plane right now.
Anyway, I get into Pete’s car and man it is nice. Think its Mum’s celica except in red and the inside has these massive speakers. And his is manual while Mum’s is automatic. We drive along and I sit in the back observing the new surroundings I was getting into. As I’ve said, haven’t been to the airport in 10 years or so. Last time I went to Hong Kong, it was still in British hands.
Well, get to the airport, head down stairs because Gabriel had to claim GST on his new macbook (which looks sooo awesome. Its so compact) Owww, I just got a cramp in my right shoulder. And we’re encountering some turbulence *gasp* Hope its all fine. Anyway, where was I? Oh thats right. Arrived at the airport. Gabriel was told to do his thing after checking in, so we go line up to do so. We try one of those do-it-yourself ones but that didn’t work so we had to line up. After waiting for a bit, we finally get in and Gabriel was told to go back down stairs or wait to do it in Darwin. We get our bags put in (Gabriel’s was over by .2 lol and mine was under at like 15 or something) and we headed back down to get Gab’s macbook done. Before we went up, there was a couple of women who apparently needed a visa or something and that got me and Gab’s a bit worried. But it was fine.

Anyway, head down, told to do it in Darwin and Gab’s and I go through security to get to the Food Lounge. We put all our laptops and stuff in the plastic trays. Lol, I swear everyone had a laptop. Think that was all some guy brought. After we were all set and put everything back in, we headed to Krispy Kreme where Gabriel got me to buy a dozen and he went to get a Hungry Jacks meal. It was the new chicken one and man it was good. I managed to get a bite on the plane before. Feels weird blogging in real time. Normally I blog after the event...what was the Latin term for it? Ex post Facto? Something like that. Also saw a QANTAS plane outside and it was HUGE!!! The side wing thingy was like bigger than me. Anyway after getting food, we headed to the lounge to wait and I took a couple Anyway, when peoplw we’re called up, we had a bit of a drama. Gabriel saw my boarding pass and noticed that we weren’t sitting together, which he thought was odd. Then he noticed that the name on his boarding pass wasn’t his lol. So we go to the woman letting people in and tell her, and had this huge drama about having to recall the woman who has his boarding pass and he had to have a new one printed for him. Now we just worry about the luggage and the special package of wine he had sent over. Should be fine.

Oh yeah I should also talk about taking off. It went smooth, though a bit shaky towards teh start. Havent flown in ages so forgotten how it was like. And it was great. I felt a bit nervous at teh start because of some weird noise but that was alright. And even taxiing is fast. I was getting more and more pumped. Cant wait to do it again. Good thing it went smoothly because if I had to chuck up, I had no idea where I would have gone because I didn’t see a bag in front of me lol. Flying is sooo fun. Better than sex lol. Well...wouldnt really know but I know it lasts longer. Probably anyway lol.

And now, we just wait till we arrive in Darwin, recharge our batteries (both ourselves as we need food and our laptops lol) Argh Im so excited. Hi to everyone back home reading this, and I’ll try and call ASAP. And assuming my mobile still works in Singapore, which I think it will, call me on my usual number. Or I’ll call you. Laters for now. Oh and Gabs says Hi, I think. Cant tell, since he’s watching Samantha Who.

Me again. Bored out of my mind at the moment and my laptop is gonna die in like 40 minutes so I’ll make this quick and as a note to Linda and Betty and Pete who are going to fly up and meet us soon, be smart and be like Gabriel and bring a book to read. Because sleeping on a plane aint as easy as one would think. Sigh, and I was so close to finishing Oedipus at Colonus lol. Oh well. I hope theres a place for me to charge my laptop when I get to Darwin and that it gets fully charged in time for the flight to Singapore. Maybe I’ll buy a book there while Im at it. Hmmm...Fahrenheit 451 or 1984? OOoo maybe I’ll get Thucydides. Hmmm...worry that I’ll start analysing those books. Maybe something I’ll enjoy personally. Something like Dean Koontz. Something fun. Dexter seems like a good choice, still want to read the book version. I’ll see what I can find and afford.

take care boys

2008-11-25T19:30:00.004+11:00

wow im some what excited for you boys, eventhough linda and i arent flying out til next thursday; im still really excited. Today i went by Jansons house to pick up some books, upon my arrival i get greeted my jansons mum and ELMO. Damn his nails are sharp he pounced on me and even dirtied my tommy hilfiger polo i was wearing. I had a look at jansons luggage and it's tiny. He'll definitely come back with one at least twice the size of the one he already has.
wow time really does fly. gabriel finally got his SEXY macbook im soooooo jealous lol, its shinier, smoother, brighter, better! . oh well i guess it'll have drool all over it once i take a look. ahhahaa. and check my enter on it.

enjoy the flight boys, take good care of yourself and each other. and i can tell gabriels going to be the first one ordering food HAHAAHHA
betty

omgsh omgsh OMGSH!!!!!!

2008-11-25T11:48:00.008+11:00

Omgsh, in less than 24 hours, Gabriel and I would be on our way to sunny Singapore, not that its not sunny here. Well, it wasnt for the past few days but now it seems to have brightened up. Lets hope it stays that way for the next few days so our flight will be fine.
I cant believe how quickly time has flown. I remember when Gabriel went up to me one time and goes "three months dude" and I thought he was talking about exams but he was talking about this trip. After exams we were like "wow just a few weeks to go" and then before it was like "one more week!!!" and we all began to panic. Well I began to panic. And am panicking now with the hours counting away. But Im sure I'll be fine since Gabriel's with me. I just worry if I have all the right stuff, in terms of documents and stuff. But I think Im alright. Cant think of much that I really need except for passport and the tickets. And of course a luggage with clothes and money. Now only thing need to worry about is getting robbed.

As Gabriel put it before, I've known him since Year 7. Well the end of Year 7 to be more exact as I think he came in like Term 4 or something. Think my first impression (as was all of us) was that he was a year younger than us, yet he was taller and bigger. Been through so many things together. Most damaging was probably Yr12 Economics with Signorini, even though we were in different classes, we're both probably equally scarred, me more so since I didnt have tution to cover up Sig's errr...teaching. Hmmm thinking back on it now, Gabs have had a habit of joining my classes after I've been ditched by other people and was left alone. Happened last year in English after Marcus decided to get out of my class because he had to drop GMA and Gabriel who also dropped GMA (as well as physics I think) happened to get into my class. Also happened in Yr10, after John ditched my Commerce class and left me all by myself, Gabriel and Marcus joined my class for some reason. Also remember all the stuff that happened when we were in metal together. Fun times. And hopefully we'll have more fun times on our trip.

Soon we'll also be joined by Betty and Linda, people whom I have known since the early days of Primary school but didnt really start to really know them until start of Year 8 I think, when we were put in the same class and together, like to think have grown to know each other quite well and hope to get to know better over this trip. Betty whom I have grown to rely quite a bit on (maybe more than quite a bit) and Linda whom I have so much fun with during our free periods this year. People who have always been there for me when I needed them.
So it'll be the four of us (as well as Pete, whom I dont really know but hope to know over the duration of this trip) for about a month and a bit, all travelling together. I hope that none of us gets cabin fever and end up what happened in The Shining, where one of us goes insane and kills everyone else with an axe.
Which I doubt would happen.

On a side note, Im no longer that geekiest kid with glasses Gabriel knew in Yr7. I've changed a lot. Im no longer in Yr7...and...yeah. See. Different.

Janson Cheng

2 nights

2008-11-24T10:26:00.004+11:00

I enjoy the fact that I'm about to embark on a journey with one of my mates from high school.
The fact that we're going to be travelling around Asia and getting to know each other more excites me.
I've known Janson since year 7 (Secondary 1) I remember the time when he still wore glasses and was the geekiest person I've known and we seem like total polarities
Although we may have differences, there is one thing that unites us as friends and that is the ability for us to compromise easy and willingly.
Imagine people not being able to compromise at all, the world would be in total chaos.

Here are the details of our trip, and I'll be looking to try keep them updated.

Please print these off and stick them on your family's refrigerator.

HONG KONG - http://www.uploading.com/files/ONYFCU8W/Hong_Kong.xls.html

GENERAL - http://www.uploading.com/files/L7NDFUIM/End_of_year_travelling_itinerary_Travell...xls.html

cheers,

JQ 61 - Jetstar

2008-11-18T20:39:00.007+11:00

Time is valuable,
Its uncontrollable,
Without it we become worthless,
Time seems to lag during times of hardship,
and races when we're enjoying ourselves.

Not too long ago, we're sloughing through the hardships and tough times of Year 12 and University, and the ordeal never seemed to end. Our sight is blinded by the books and exams around the corner, never leaving the back of our minds even when we’re ‘enjoying’ ourselves.

But now we’re free, this holiday never was a reality until exams were over.
In about one week - 1.35pm, Janson and Myself will be on our way to Darwin on our faithful Jetstar Airbus A320! Then only to Singapore
Some may be wondering why are we heading to Darwin, Simple answer... Our tiny little plane won't be able to fly across without a re-fill. HAHA.
But as long as we get to Singapore, I'm happy!

A quick update, we'll be staying in Cititel Midvalley from the 5th - 10th Dec 08.

We'll be travelling to Malaysia on Airebus, and we'll be dropped off RIGHT INFRONT OF OUR HOTEL!!

Until then
g

wooo exams are done and can look forward to the trip!!!!!!!!!!!!

2008-11-14T15:04:00.002+11:00

YAY!!!!!!!!!!!! EXAMS ARE ALL OVER AND NOW CAN RELAX!!!!!!! WOOOOOOOOO lol. Well now that I have absolutely nothing to do, I though I'd make a post here and think make up a list of the things I want to get while Im abroad. Everyone should do the same as well so we can work out like a timetable on when and where to get them.
Well here they are:

-Ayumi's new single Green/Days or Days/Green, which ever one I decide to get (think I'll get the one which has To Be as the third song) which comes out 17th of December so get that in Hong Kong, assuming its out there then.

-New clothes obviously. I dont know why but I see myself wearing a lot of white.

-Would love to get a pair of Oakley sunglasses, red tinted ones I think, or blue. Maybe both if they're cheap enough.

-Some anime or manga stuff. Is it possible to get an Evangelion bookend?

-Books for Mum, maybe some cds

-Johnnie To DVDs for Dad and other Chinese movies

-Something for Ivan, though not sure what yet. Maybe some PC games or something. A new mouse considering his scroller doesnt work.

-DVD box set of How I met Your Mother and 30 Rock and possibly Supernatural.

-A new watch and new bag.

-Birthday presents for people back in Melbourne (ignore this Linda)

-Some souvenirs for people who weren't able to come with us. Maybe a miniature golden toilet for Timmy. If not that, at least a photo.

Hmmm thats all I can think of for now. Kinda looks like quite a bit. Hope I dont go overboard and use up all of my money. Need to create a solid budget of how much I can spend in certain places *nod nod*.

Well thats enough for now. I hope I can see your lists soon so we can compare.

The end of school

2008-10-22T13:16:00.004+11:00

school's out forever! omgsh it's over. i still remember year 7 arghh. time flies.
well yesterday we had our final day of school. for those who weren't there we had a countdown in the lower courtyard infront of the library and when it hit 3:15 horns, crazy string party poppers wre everywhere and alot of screaming and roaring. lol. Principal Handley was there to high fiver everyone as they ran by and stood by picking the spray cans. It was a good and harmless rampage :)

Today was the morning of our breakfast. linda came over to wake me up. we then made our way to the landy for dress signing. Bel and gra eventually arrived with my yellow dress. I was variations of "oh nice blue" "wow thats a nice green dress" "wow the orange is nice". everything but YELLOW which was actually the colour of my dress.
so the signing continues and then we left the school.

At 10:15 went to pick up hyundo for our chinese oral at mitcham. man i was nervous. the rego lady was soo nice. she was soo comforting i gave her a hug on my way out. lol

Afterwards Michelle & i went to shoppingtown and bumped into loretta's family. We sat and had lunch with them. then bought some groceries then went home..

Soon we'll be getting ready for the valedictory dinner. It'll be a great night photos will be up soon

here's the link to a couple of the events

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=64902&l=be15c&id=653343054

betty

money talks

2008-10-16T11:32:00.004+11:00

I know, I know, I havent blogged for ages. Well...I havent. Everyone else has been making really fun to read and exciting posts about this up coming trip and keeping this website alive so we can continue to post on it. I would have made a post earlier about the stock market crash and how that would have affected our trip in terms of currency exchange, but been a bit too busy *cough studying cough*. That and I couldnt remember the username and pw for the site and havent really been bothered to go to my email to get it back. But today since Im at home sick, I thought I might as well put in the effort. I'd talk about me being sick on my other blog www.xanga.com/janson21 (nothing wrong with a quick plugging of my site). So now that I do have time, I'll talk about the rocky Wall Street Crash in relation to our trip.

N.B. Can be extremely boring. Post might not even be finished because I would have bored myself to sleep.

We have seen the Aussie dollar plunge from a high of 98USc to something like 66c, which is very disappointing, because the higher our dollar is, the more of theirs we can get which means we can buy more stuff. But now...lower value = less stuff we can buy. And all this is because people overseas are selling their shares in our business markets and have flooded the market with aussie bills, and as such as supply exceeded demand, the value plummeted. I think thats what happened. Sounds reasonable. Anyway, the reason why everyone was selling off the shares was because their confidence in our business profits dropped because the U.S. might (if not already) go into recession which would cause our companies to not do as well because we sell a lot of stuff to the U.S. As the saying goes, when America sneezes, the rest of the world catches a cold. Which is what I kind of have now, with a bit of coughing, headache, dizzyness...ok Im getting off track here. Errr what was I saying? Oh yeah. How this impacts on us. Well since it dropped so low, it means we'll get less money when we exchange but since the government has actually gotten off its ass and done something, the markets are picking up, and so is our currency.

See See. All green. Except for the HK one but that'll pick up as well. So I suggest we all wait a bit for it to get higher, because I'd like to go overseas and be able to have as much money at my disposal as possible...you know with all the spending we're all planning to do. Anyway, I got the stats from http://markets.theage.com.au/apps/mkt/forex.ac so keep an eye on it and just hope it goes up and up.

Argh better get back to studying and trying to get better. Hope everyone works hard for their exams so this trip will seem even more satisfying after its all over and done with.

Janson Cheng

2008-10-15T16:23:00.002+11:00

Just some quick photos of what we may be seeing at Singapore.

Singapore's Merlion

Fountain of wealth. Asia's biggest fountain.

Spectacular views during New Year's Day

On last notes, I'll be e-mailing out our contact details in regards to my place in Singapore.
And can Peter possibly just also e-mail me the details for HongKong so I'll just put them together.
Betty, you haven't got back to us about the tickets =)

g

2008-10-14T19:11:00.003+11:00

Only because i was told to blog i'm doing it now... but... i can't believe it's so soon...
you guys will leave in just over a month and then a week (i think) after you guys leave us girls are leaving the home country..
please excuse the lack of intellegence in this post.. i have just come back from working very very hard to pay for this trip. unlike some.. *cough cough* jks.. But it is offical i have made more than what i wanted for this trip and will be making more in the nxt month or so. i will not release figures just incase you rob me.
But because exams are on the way eyes should be on that. Concernration and motivation levels need to be up and running. But also studying should come to the point you lock yourself in your room (my tactic anyway)
Oh yeah... anyone looking into a commonwealth bank debit card they're released on October 20th.
I should go.. i have to study heaps of psych plus eat dinner and i'm off to school and work tomorrow.
Everyone please pray for exams and our safety for not only us but the family back home

Linda

WOw! Time pasts too fast

2008-10-14T00:07:00.003+11:00

Just a few weeks ago I remember creating this blog for our holiday and up until tonight I've been longing for 26th Nov to arrive quickly. Although the date draws closer, I contemplate the fact that exams are too drawing closer.

I picture exams like a lion just ready to pounce on its prey.
Haha, there is my effort to be creative =)!

Anyways, we've had our meeting during the holidays and I've kinda gotten some of the our stuff settled. The trip to Phuket for the boys has yet to be confirmed.
But I'm excited about the awesome sea-sports available for us.
Just quickly I would like to highlight and stress the importance for us to still keep in mind our exams which we all should be trying our best to succeed in.
Just keep in prayer that we'll all be able to take this holiday as a reward for our continuing hard work throughout this year.

Phuket has gone through some of the toughest times these past years with the tsunami last destroying most of it.
But hopefully when we get there, we will be experiencing such breath-taking views as such.
Time to soak up the sun guys! Haha. Work on them abs!
As for Singapore, I've found this traveler transport pass which will allow us to use for 1 week and on any form of public transport with the exception of Taxis with a single payment only. So I'll try get my hands on them and put them in our folder for the trip.

Thats it for now, Please keep this blog updated in terms of any changes.

Cheers,
Gabriel

2008-09-28T23:11:00.012+10:00

Who's up for some late night street shopping with a stick of curry fishball in ur mouth?

some of the placees we'll be visiting

peak

getting hand waxed

buzz light year!

some cool space thing in disneyland

disneyland at night

cool tree eyy?

just take a look at how big it actually is !!

we're still here

2008-09-28T22:45:00.006+10:00

hello faithful readers
I can't believe that our trip is so soon, and before we know it it'll be the date of our departure; what a shame. Last week we had a holiday meeting and discussed upon many of the things that we are going to do overseas. Everything seems to be going well. I feel blessed to be able to travel with these 4 awesome people.

One that i've known for my whole life, i mean literally, we "baby bumped" chatted when we were both in our mothers womb.
One which i've known since ever, i think grade one, a person that i can turn to, rage about anything to, and yet still understand me.
One that i've grown with in christ, together we witnessed the biggest miracle that has happened to me in my life, without this person i know i wouldnt be the same person i am today. and last but not least
One that brings joy every friday, the silly things (aka bullying me), and the committment of driving us youngsters around.

It's the second week of the holidays and i assume Gabriel has already hit the books hard, actually immsersed himself into the books that has caused him to forget his lectures:P Which means i should get some serious work done. Last week for me has been a pretty laid back week, i need to study like no tomorrow this week.

At the moment im planning on what to buy for my little boy that lives far far away. Tomorrow im going to make him a christmas box with little special things filled in it, then have it sent away. I hope this boy feels blessed and loved. Any ideas?

BY BETTY...big enough ?

YUMm...

2008-09-03T17:13:00.004+10:00

2008-08-26T23:20:00.002+10:00

omgsh. i cannot believe it is 3 months away. Time really flies. I feel as though i only bought my tickets yesterday.
First of all. I feel amazingly privileged to be travelling with all you guys for two of you i've known you for yonks haha and the other two i've known for a few years now and there isn't any other group of people that i could imagine travelling with.
You guys should already know that this is my first time travelling oversea let alone without the parentals so may i please say take care of me.. my mum wants me back in one pices.. lol jks
Gabriel. You're a very considerate friend (probably most out of all of us) and thank you so much for doing so much of the planning and organising for this trip. And i can say in confidence that you are a ledgend for it. Thank you once again.
In some way or another each and everyone of us needs to make it memorable.
Oh yeah. And all i can say is Betty needs to train up.
Anyway seeing as we have 3 months it's plenty of time for us to pray for this trip, exams, enters and the safety of our family and friends back home.

Linda

p.s. non of you will see my enter score i can promise you that!

2008-08-23T13:25:00.002+10:00

wow this blog is cool as. Thx heaps Gabriel for organising it. And for organising this whole trip. You put in sooo much effort, putting it all together, organising tickets, when to do what, where to stay, while I just sat back and did bugger all lol. I know this trip is going to be fun as. And the best way to end the year, as well as open it up.
Hmmm...not sure if Im as excited as Betty and Gabs are though. Not that Im not looking forward to it. More of nervous about stuff I guess. Kinda worrying about if I have all my stuff in order and if I'll get em done in time. Also school. Just did my applications and thinking about whether I'll get into the stuff I want or not. And I dunno. Guess also a bit apprehensive because I have no idea what to expect. Havent gone overseas in so long. And I've always gone with parents. Think its been 11 years since I've last been on a plane. So yeah. Everything that happens is going to be like new to me. All surprises. And as much as I love surprises, I like them to be small and manageable. And I worry I wont be able to manage these surprises. But Im sure I'll be fine since I'll have Gabriel, Betty and Linda to help me cope.

Anyway, I'll keep this short since Im starting too run out of stuff to say and Betty is getting impatient lol.

Janson

hello! holiday buddies

2008-08-23T12:09:00.005+10:00

First of all on behalf of everyone, i'd like to thank Gabriel for the endless effort and time he's spent organising tickets, planning a running sheet and even this AWESOME blog.

I'm extremely excited for this trip as it'll be my first time travelling WITHOUT PARENTS. i know it'll be great spending time with these awesome people. Most importantly we all know that God is in the centre of this entire trip. AMEN?..AMEN!
This year has definitely gone by really quickly, and before we all know it it'll be the day of our ENTERS. First i'd like to give all my best wishes to everyone, but just remember that whatever the outcome, whatver the enter score, God will carry you through. He's planned your life from the day you were born, he isnt just a God in the past, he's todays God, yesterday's tomorrows and OUR God.

I'm kind of lost for words now, i'll give you a glimpse into HK

okay photos arent working :(
so i'll guess you'll have to wait :)

Betty

SINGAPORE!

2008-08-23T11:36:00.000+10:00

Excitement Creeps Up

2008-08-23T00:50:00.000+10:00

Hey all! We're going to be on our flights to Asia soon! So I reckon it would be kinda cool if we had this blog specially created for our holiday and also to let our families kinda be involved with it as well, and have it as our e-diary for 2008 holiday!!
See I'm so considerate for our group.
Well, let this be a blog where we all can just jump on and pour our thoughts and feelings about the trip, before and even after. I would like if we all contributed to our little blog and make it special in every little way on our trip.

So let me begin by saying how excited I am for our end of year trip to Asia! We haven't done this before as a group and I hope it could possible bring us closer as well. So I wanna use this blog as a tool for our group to bond as well.
In about 12 weeks we're going to make our way to Singapore where we hopefully can squeeze some time for food and some shopping.
But despite the long way, I reckon this year has gone pretty fast. Its been a flash before my eyes. God really provided for each and everyone of us, and I really hope that we can enjoy ourselves even though we may not get into our courses for Uni. Or maybe do so well in the end of year exams. Or even just bumps and hiccups in our daily lives.

So what I want to say is, that we just have to suck it up, pull on through the rest of this year, and look forward to a really really amazing trip in December and January. I'll try my very best to make it very memorable. So, I've decided to hold a meeting for our group this September. Probably would be during the School holidays. But until then, lets get through together as a group.

Gabriel