Archive for the ‘Events’ Category
flea.fly.flo.fun
Posted on: April 26, 2009
The flea market yesterday had a good crowd!
The rental costs $40, cab to and fro costs about $40 in total. Immediately, I’m facing a $80 loss without selling anything. I sold many of my things for cheaper than I had intended, but not less than my cost price of course. It’s a good experience and I earned more than I had expected. I’ll be looking forward to the next flea.fly.flo.fun!
I must thank my parents for accompanying me, helping me carry and waiting for me throughout the whole flea! They are super supportive parents and I love them so much! I cannot thank them enough for what they did for me… I must thank Ember too, for staying to help me for more than 5 hours. :) She’s a great friend! Without them, none of it would have been possible. Jerome too, was so sweet to come down, bringing us food and drinks and also supporting me by buying things for his female companion (not his gf he said, long story. Haha).
It was super tiring, I didn’t sit much for the 7 hours, I felt like I was in a dazed at times, too many things happening at the same time. I didn’t eat my dinner, only 1 nuggets & 1 chicken wing which Jerome had brought for us. Thanks Jerome! So sweet of you! When I came home, I cooked instant noodle + egg + sausage for me and Daddy. I ended up cooking too much because I thought I was damn hungry.
Happy Birthday to Me!
Posted on: February 22, 2009
Firstly, thanks to all these people for their well wishes!
Ang- bao givers: Mum + Dad, Aunty Alice, Aunty Song Chin (3)
Present givers: Xiuwei, Shirley, Ember, Kate (4)
Called me: Shirley (1)
MSN-ed me: Desmond (1)
SMS me: Derek, Pamela, Mathias, Xiuwei, Ember, Lixian, Charlotte, Philothea, Ping, Aunty Peaklian, Ericia (11)
Facebook-ed me: Ruiguo, Nat, Katherine, Mark, Belinda, MAY, Jacky, Georgi, Rishi, Audrey, Cassandra, Wesry, Jerome, Ting Yi, Qi Jie (15)
I’m not forgotten! *happy*
Facebook has officially taken over the world!
Before long, people took time to write or even make cards for birthdays. Then later, it was advanced to telephone calls – faster, less time consuming. And then somehow, people don’t even call anymore, they send SMS-es… And as if that’s already not impersonal enough, Facebook has taken over the World! Haha! Wonder what will be next! People really spend a crazy amount of time with Facebook. Madness!
Received some awesome presents. Will share photos and tell you more when I am feeling not too lazy/ tired.
Today is Kate Tan Weiling’s 24th birthday and we’ve decided to throw a 3- man picnic party- with just me, Kate and Ember. I knew of Kate all the way back from primary school, but not personally. I’ve heard of her because she was in my next class, and also class mate of my cousin Xiuwei. I got to know Kate better through Ember, my high school good friend + basketball team vice- captain (hehehe) and Ember was Kate’s polytechnic course mate + good friend. The world is so small and Singapore is even smaller.
An hour before the meeting time (3pm), I decided to make egg mayo (without the mayo, I used salad cream) for the picnic. It was okay I guess but I think it will be nicer served chilled. Oh well, there’s always another time. Anyway, we’ve decided to have our party at Sun Plaza Park (across Tampines library) and that was my first time there! Our first picnic location was filled with lots and lots of ants so we had to move to another space.
Happy Birthday Auntie Kate!
Opening my present
It's a strawberry necklace!
What's a party without a little craziness...
... and more craziness
Blowing bubbles part I
Blowing bubbles part II
Look at all the goodies!
Today I realise she has a very deep dimple...
Everything looks so sweet
Aiyoh, 24 years old already, still cannot eat properly
Kate with Ember's homemade jell-o
Kate brought $2.20 per piece chocolates
Ember looks really afraid of bubbles... Hmmm...
After our very short picnic (we wanted to leave as soon as we can because of the stupid ants), we went window shopping at Tampines Mall/ Century Square. Kate needed to find a PURPLE handphone pouch for a friend’s birthday but we couldn’t find any really nice ones. It’s always very hard to find something when you’re intentionally looking for it. But when you are not really looking, they seem to pop up all around you… Strange isn’t it? By 6pm, Kate had to leave to meet her friend, Baker Boy…
Me and Ember decided to continue hanging out, so we head back to her place. I’ve always liked hanging out at her place. Plus, Ember has a really cute Mum. So when the 3 of us sit together and watch whatever that is on TV, there’s always lots of funny comments and it just makes everything more interesting than it really is. Ember suggested making dumpling with their left over ingredients and of course, I was up for it.
I have always like hands- on, and it was my first time hand- making dumplings! The process was quite tedious, but fun nonetheless!
Our kneaded dough snail
Star- shaped dumplings?!
I was enjoying the wrapping dumplings part. I was coming up with all sorts of dumpling shapes. I think I have what it takes to be a dumpling designer.
My curry puff dumpling
Ember's star- shaped dumpling
Some of my dumpling designs
All our hardwork and sweat and LOTS OF FUN
The dumpling family... which I am going to eat
My favourite dumpling, now residing in my tummy
Today, my dear friend Jacky is going to Melbourne for further studies. Bon Voyage Jacky! This is a great time for anyone going to Australia for further studies because of the 1:1 exchange rates.
Rainbow cupcake for Jacky
His strategic twist to cover his zit
The IMD gang who were there to see him off
With his cute granny
He's loved
Bye Jacky! Take care and to greater things!
P.S: I wasn’t in any of the photos with Jacky because I was the one taking all the pictures! :(
Visa Run Review
Posted on: January 3, 2009
I was up early today, at 7.00am, because the bus for the visa run will be leaving at 9.30am SHARP. I left my house by 7.30am, took a bus to Victory Monument BTS (nearest to my place) and made my way down to Ekkamai BTS. The journey for the train took about half an hour, and I arrived at Banrai coffee shop, right beside Ekkamai BTS (supposed meeting place) at around 8.30am. There were already many people present, sitting around and filling up forms for the visa run. It was a good thing I got there early because I had somehow forgotten to bring a photocopy of my passport, so I had to run down to a nearby stationary shop to make a copy.
I was last to board the bus so I was made to sit with a 50 year old (I think he looks older) American guy. I introduced myself and initiated a conversation (polite thing to do, since I will be sitting beside him for the whole of 10 hours) and soon we were chatting about his family, what he does etc. His name is Rick, and he’s now married to a Thai woman half his age who has borne him a coming- to- two year old daughter named Amy (very cute and chubby, he showed me photos). Rick was previously married (now divorced) to a Filipino woman when he was in America and has a 17 year old son whom he’s not very close to. He has been living in Bangkok for about 7 years now and was previously holding a working visa (teaching English I think) which has now expired. Since the expiry of his working visa, he has been going on visa runs every month for the past 2.5 years. So tedious! My first impression of Rick is that he is a very friendly and talkative guy and seems to have no problems understanding my Singaporean accent at all. He pronounce the word “very” as “velly, velly”, which seems quite odd to me. He was going on about the hygiene problems in Thailand, how he don’t really dare to eat at roadside stalls because they don’t clean their utensils enough, food out in the open not very fresh, telling his wife she has to wash the chicken throughly etc. He still teaches English freelance and owns an online site that reviews restaurants in Thailand. You know, I think it is actually illegal to do all this in Thailand without a working visa (I think even if it’s freelance). And yes, Rick knows it is not legal, but who’s going to catch him?
The bus is the typical tour bus sort, comfortably enough for a one day trip. Shortly after you’ve been seated, a bottle of Singha mineral water and some toilet paper will be distributed to you. Afterwhich, a lady will go around with a menu for you to choose what you want for lunch. I picked omelette + pork with rice! The bus will also stop at a petrol kiosk for 10 minutes for you to take your toilet break, smoking break, buy tidbits etc. while they pick up lunch nearby. After you come back from the 10 minute break, your lunch will be laid on your seat, in a tray in Styrofoam box, accompanied by a can of Pepsi. Lunch was very tasty and the serving very generous! It was indeed a good lunch, as Les had mentioned to me before. Movies were also played on the bus- Eagle Eye, Wanted, The Bank Job, so it helped time pass faster. There was this stupid line in The Bank Job which stuck in my mind, “I’ve always wanted to meet a white man named Brown.” Somebody, please tell me who came up with such corny lines. -.-
We arrived at the border of Thailand at around 2+pm. And within an hour, everything was settled and we were back on the bus, on our way back to where we came from! As easy as A, B, C I say!
On the way back, Rick was commenting on how unreal the movies were and then started telling me stories again. He was telling me about how once there were 2 big lumps growing on the side of his body, he was so scared that he flew all the way back to America to seek treatment, not trusting the medical facilities in Thailand at all (he said in the past, they were not as advanced. *shrugs*). He was lying on the bed and surrounded by medical personnels when the doctor asked if he had unprotected sex while in Thailand. He told them, “Yeah, probably with about 100 women” (yucks!) causing the medical personnels to all had their eyes wide open. Honestly, I was a little disgusted by this and had nothing to say to him, or rather, did not really want to continue this conversation. So I merely replied, “Oh really? Haha” and was back to reading my 19 minutes, Jodi Picoult book. Then he interrupted me, apologized for interrupting and tells me he wants to tell another story since he won’t have any other chances of telling me again. So on he went about how once, after having unprotected sex with a girl (I assume paid sex), he noticed there were some sort of rash on her back. He asked her about it but of course she told him it was nothing. Weeks later, rashes formed on his legs and he again, he panicked. But this time, he decided to visit a local medical facility instead. The doctor asked the same question; if he had unprotected sex (which he did), then prescribed him a cream which will make the rashes to go away in 8 days. And true enough, in exactly 8 days, there was rashes no more. As I’ve mentioned, I was already and still quite disgusted by him, and in my head I think he’s a dirty old man. So I actually told him (after his second story), he should not have unprotected sex as he may not be so lucky the next time. What if its Aids? He agreed and said he no longer does it, because he’s now married. -.-
There was once or twice he lightly touched my thigh to tell me something, causing me to feel quite uncomfortable. So i used my cardigan to place over my lap. Then he also told me I’m very fair, and here, Thai man like fair women. -.- Even if the women are ugly, as long as they are fair, man will like. (I hope he’s not implying I’m ugly… but that’s not the point anyway) Towards the end of the journey, I also don’t know why he has to take up so much space, but he was resting his arms on the side, crossing over to my space. I did not want even the slightest body contact with him (especially after his disgusting unprotected sex stories), so I had to squeeze myself to the corner because I didn’t know how to tactfully tell him not to occupy so much space. I think at the start I was still okay with him, but after his stupid stories, I became more conscious of everything (can’t blame me for judging him) and got a little too paranoid (as if any contact I will contract some gross disease. I KNOW AIDS CANNOT SPREAD VIA BODY CONTACT LAH… Hahaha). Oh well, one cannot be too safe.
Overall, I give two thumbs up for Quick Thai Visa Run. Fast, easy, reliable!
Nahkon Nayok: Sawadee Pi Mai!
Posted on: January 1, 2009
First and foremost, Sawadee Pii Mai! (Translate: Happy New Year! – Pii means Year, Mai means New) I hope all of you had a great New Year, because I sure did!
This New Year, I spent it with the Yuvamits at Nahkon Nayok! Nahkon Nayok is a small province about 2 hours ride away from Don Muang Airport. Don Muang Airport is the other and older airport in Bangkok. They do only flights within Thailand now, while the new Suvarnabhumi Airport handles all international flights.
Uncle eldest sister lives in Nahkon Nayok, and every New Year everyone in the family would be invited to gather there and spend the day together (with everything generously paid for by her!). And you know what? Everyone in the Yuvamit family is so nice, warm and affectionate! They only meet once a year, but I really love the kind of affection they have for each other. It’s so sweet and heartwarming. *melts* I think I’m the affectionate kind of person, always like to hugging/kissing my relatives, friends or even people I just met, but I would think that such behavior is not that common in Singapore. Since young, and even up till now I still kiss my parents! (Not shy at all) My parents have always been the affectionate kind of people as well- my Papa will occasionally SMS to tell me he loves me, my parents hold hands when they go out and when they write on my angpow, they refer to me as their Darling Daughter. Hahaha! Mummy and Papa! I miss you and love you very much! I’ll be back in 2 weeks time, so don’t worry!
Anyway, we were waiting in Don Muang Airport for the other relatives to arrive (from Ubon), so that was can take the minivan together to Nahkon Nayok. First to arrive was this BIG guy, Poulet (pronounced as poo-lei). Poulet is a French word for “chicken”. If I remember correctly, how Poulet got his name is, Poulet is a meat- only- eater and when he was young, he always asks for chicken and needless to say, the French nickname must be given by Maman. Hahaha. Anyway, Poulet must be more than 1.9m tall and very broad, a rare size for a Thai guy I feel. Uncle has 4 siblings- 3 sisters and 1 brother, him being the youngest of all. Poulet is the son of Uncle’s only brother and Poulet calls Uncle “Ah Ood”. In our culture, you definitely don’t refer to your elders as éæ___ (fill in the blanks) because it’s very informal or even rude, right? But in Thai culture, “Ah” means uncle (father’s younger brother or sister).
Poulet is very affectionate to everyone! I just love the way he greets his “Ah Ood” So sweet and cute!
The 2 hour long journey was well worth it! Uncle’s eldest sister’s place is simply GORGEOUS! It’s like a giant garden full of greenery and very, very beautiful flowers! (My vocab very limited, the only adjectives I can think of is beautiful, beautiful, beautiful) Set in the midst of the beautiful garden are 3 houses, the middle one belongs to the eldest sister herself, and the other two, one to her daughter and the other to her friend, this nice old man from Holland.
Front porch
View from the back garden- simply stunning
With the owner of this beautiful place- Uncle's eldest sister
The eldest sister is a Professor, her daughter and son- in- law are pediatricians, and her son is a gynecologist. The eldest sister is 75 years old I think, but in my opinion, looks a lot younger than her actual age. Every family member of the Yuvamits; from the Uncles to the Aunties to their children, are all super (and scarily) highly educated, to a point where I think if I’m one of the Yuvamits, I would feel tremendous pressure to excel because it’s almost like an unwritten rule I have to follow… like some sort of a family tradition.
Like little kids again...
You know how during Chinese New Year, when we visit our relatives, its chit chat and catching up, then its mahjong and cards etc… Hahaha… New Year at Nahkon Nayok, they chat, sit together to play the guitar and sing songs, fly kites and play “monkey” (young and old together!), laze around in porches… The scenerio seems like it came right out of some family lifestyle magazine. With the beautiful scenery, the perfect sky and weather, it was the best way to spend the New Year!
This year, it’s the first time they will be spending the New Year at this military camp + holiday chalet kind of place (usually it’s somewhere else). Don’t tell me how military + holiday goes together, but it just does! There are really Army boys there supposedly having their training, but the place is so freaking big, you won’t really encounter them at all. There, you actually get to use their training facilities- shooting range, canoe, Flying Fox, abseiling, paint ball game etc.! If you look at it this way, it seems quite fun to be in the Army huh? (All the guys in Singapore will slap me for saying this, except maybe Rex, the Army siao guy)
Our holiday chalets
The view from our window
Shortly after we arrive at the chalet, we went to the shooting range. I’ve never really seen a real gun up close, much less hold it and I was feeling very scared and intimidated somehow. I think it was not so scary using the rifle because it seems like there was almost no recoil at all and the sound was not loud. I scored 93/ 100 (one bull’s eye) but was the lowest among the boys, who all scored at least 96 – 98. But when it came to the pistol, I was totally freaked out. The sound it produced was so loud we had to put on ear muffs, and there was recoil, so it wasn’t easy at all. I manage to hit the bull’s eye for one shot (purely by luck) and the rest of my shots were super off. :( No photos of me shooting because a certain someone totally lack photography skills! Grrrrrrr! They were either blurry, taken of the back view (won’t even know who it is) or very dark (against light)… The photos I took of them so chio lor, then photos of myself, sighhhh…
My name is Bond, James Bond
After our adventures at the shooting range, we headed back to our chalets and had to prepare for dinner.
I like this photo I took of Poulet's father
Every year, each family is to have a show- and- tell segment- singing, dancing, whatever, followed by a short update of whatever that is happening or has happened in the past year (because they only meet once a year). Very cute right? I think it’s very exciting and when I heard about this, I was looking forward to see what each family have to present. The Yuvamits are all very enthusiastic, gamely going on stage to sing solo… All not shy! After each performances (especially by the kids), the elders will show their appreciation, in the form of money! It’s almost like ang pow, but you have to work for it. Hahaha! And it different from Chinese New Year, because here, you only get money IF you perform.
The first 3 performances were by the youngest kids in the Yuvamit family, all playing the same instrument- Thai- version ē“. The very cute and mini Min was the first to perform. This darling girl received so much money, her Dad was like displaying the notes like a fan and fanning himself with it (jokingly). Hahaha! It helps if you’re young and cute. I was thinking why all of them were learning the same instrument, and such a difficult instrument at that. It turns out it’s sort of like we learn to play the recorder in Primary School, they chose learn the ē“ among other instruments.
First to perform, Min
Granddaughter of the eldest sister, in her full costume
Rubics cube performance
This uncle (in the photo below) is the son of the eldest sister. For his segment, instead of receiving money, he gives money out! Everyone is to raise their hands high up in the air and hand sign whatever digit they think the last number of the note will be. He will slowly one by one eliminate the guesses, “It’s an odd number”, “It’s lesser than 5”, “All the number 9s, hands down” etc. This sure builds the excitement and anticipation of the participants. Talk about audience participation. Hahaha. If you guess correctly, you get the note and there can be more than one winner! It started with 100baht, 500baht then to 1000baht notes! Then finally, it was a wad of 50bahts and we had to guess the total number of notes in his hand… There was only one winner, who guessed it was 12 notes. The rest of us å¤Ŗå°ēä» and were guessing less than 10 notes. Not much luck for me, didn’t get a single guess right but it was fun anyway. Hahaha. At the very last guess, Mathias and Cyril both won the 1000baht note!
Special "performance"
My favourite performance when unexpectedly, all of the Aunties and Uncles one by one walked out from the curtain, decked in full Hawaiians prints, flower wreaths around their necks and on their heads and gamely boogie away. It was so spontaneous, so cute and fun- loving. Everyone looked so happy and it made everyone else happy too. I remembered screaming and cheering away while they shake their booties away.
Uncle and his siblings having a ball of a time
End of their awesome performance
Everyone sure knows how to have a good time
Singing his lungs out
The 3 narak sisters
Second eldest sister, I think her face very cute!
Some brother bonding
Me being naughty, with Poulet and his Dad
After the countdown, I was so tired I went back to my room and crashed, without even taking a shower or removing my makeup and contact lenses. Poulet, Mathias and Cyril were up till 4am drinking, and doing crazy things together. They ran down slopes (Mathias couldn’t brake, Cyril vomited and Poulet just didn’t run) and slept on ant’s nests. Don’t understand, why guys always do silly things like this.
On 1st January 2009 itself, everyone was up early for breakfast (7.30am!?!!) despite going to bed late last night. We were following Pii Ed’s (Pii is used to address an elder brother or sister) car back to the eldest sister’s house to spend the rest of the day, but before that, we decided to do some activities first. Pii Ed is the son of the 2nd eldest sister and the father of Min. He is also an ah jahn (lecturer) at Chulalongkorn University. It was only me, Mathias, Cyril, Poulet, Pi Ed and his family. We went canoing and Flying Fox, everything liang (Translate: treat) by Pii Ed! No pictures though because it was water activities.
Everything was the first for me, and it was so fun! Canoing was tiring and Flying Fox was over in a jiffy and not as scary as it looks! Mini Min didn’t dare to try it though. And Poulet was so big, the ropes didn’t look like they can support his weight and he looks as if his feet was going to touch the water below. Hahaha. After our activities, we headed back to the eldest sister’s house. It was good food, chit chatting, napping in the front porch and playing “monkey”!
I throughly enjoyed the company of the Yuvamits and is very happy to have met them. I cannot thank them enough for their kind hospitality and generosity. I’ve gained a wonderful experience and many new friends! What a great way to spend New Year 2009! They tell me “Hope to see you next year!” and I sure hope so!
Present from Maman and Uncle
I got a present from Maman and Uncle- a box full of little knick knacks! You know, I’ve always wanted to receive a gift like that, filled with small little cute items of thought and effort. I remembered once during my polytechnic days, a school mate John presented his girlfriend Dina with a box full of very cute and thoughtful, but not necessarily expensive items. And I was thinking how sweet to receive something like that. (Which reminds me, guess what Uncle receive as a New Year present from his eldest sister? A Honda car! Zzzz. First a house, now a car?! Really very generous!)
In return, me and Mathias went shopping for Maman- knick knacks to put together to give her as a belated birthday (26 December) present. I really had fun shopping and putting together the present. And the total amount spent was no more than SG$10. And I know Maman will surely appreciate and be very happy with her present. :) (She is, the day she received the present, she was putting on almost everything she can from the box- earrings, scarf, hair clip and scrunchie. Hahah!)
Have a Happy 2009, everyone!
Emily in Thailand 