Gee, it's been quite a while since I last blogged. I'm suppose to be reading up on Consolidation, the latest, most bad-ass accounting topic ever, but I guess I could spare some time to briefly log the happenings of the past couple of months. Its been swell.

The results from the last semester ain't too shabby though I'm still a bit short of making it. On the day of my last paper, a gang of us took off to the cinema and we caught the very much anticipated Ironman 2. We had a mere weekend of reprieve before our professional attachment began. I remember how I was swarmed by figures nearly everyday of the week. I met some pretty nice folks there; the senior I worked with was like an older brother I never had. Though waking up every morning and taking that long walk down to the train station in shirt & pants that stifle from wrist to heels was so much of a chore, looking back now I really do appreciate my time there.

While I fulfilled the internship, my weekends were pretty much filled out by the miscellaneous. I completed the Sundown Marathon at a timing of around 5:30. Apart from that I was busy planning with a couple of other friends for the trip to Europe that was going to follow.

The trip was meant for the Global Summer School Programme where we'd get to clear an elective abroad at the London School of Economics. Of course we couldn't resist the opportunity to travel.

We had bought the eurail pass from STA Travel to help us in our travel in Italy. Our first stop was to Italy where we spent a week moving from Rome, to Pisa, Cinque Terre, Milan and finally stopping over at Venice. Rome was an ancient city to behold, having an immensely rich historical heritage and cosmopolitan atmosphere. It was odd, yet surreal, coming across ruins that have been left as they are in the midst of the charming city. Dinning along the laid back alleys in the evening, the fire wood pizza, coupled with a nice cold Forst beer, felt like nothing I had had before with generous slices of ham spread across the pizza and nice crisp crusts. While there, we visted the Trevi Foundtain, Spanish Steps, Vatican City, Isola Tiberina, Palatine Hill, the Colosseum and the Catacombs.

We stopped over at Pisa for a half a day to see the leaning tower, and then moved on to Cinque Terre, a fine getaway from the hustle and bustle, before proceeding to Milan, a rougher side of Italy where we saw the magnificent Duomo cathedral. As we moved around in the subways within each city, baskers would play their accordians on board the train and although I enjoyed the novelty of it, it seemed to annoy the locals as I would also later see even Paris.

Venice, a sanctuary on a lagoon, was easy to move around without any cars to watch out for. When we were not navigating the streets and alleys on foot crossing bridge after bridge over the gondolas, we were taking the water taxi, basking in the soft seaside light. The streets was full of shops that sold mesmerizing pieces of venetian masks and Murano glasswares. We visited San Marcos, where there was a vibrant public square, and Murano where they pride themselves on the quality of their handmade glassware. The Gelato ice cream was so rich and awesome I had one everyday without fail at every stop of Italy.

Our favourite stopover was at Cinque Terre. When we first arrived at Riomaggiore, we were exhausted from lugging our luggage up to our room but recovered quickly when we saw the view from our balcony. It was quite a sight, being housed on a cliff facing the clean horizon of the sea. We even hit the waters for a bit, and sat on the rocks while we watched the boys cliff dive.

The walks from Riomaggiore to Manarola and back was most reposeful. It was also known as the lover's path where couples would leave their padlocks along the railings of the path. For our two days at Cinque Terre, we continued to visit Vernazza and Monterosso, covering essentially 4 out of the 5 towns, missing out on Corniglia unintentionally. On our last night, I was out at the balcony, under the star lit night, hearing the waves, taking in the sea breeze, trying to make a lasting memory.

The seafood was absolutely magnificent, the best I have ever had in my life if I may add. I remember having an entire sea bass to myself, and how fantastic the seafood spaghetti was. I'll never forget the anchovies too.

We dined at La Scogliera at Manarola twice because of how delightful the experience was for the first time round. There was a time or two when we would walk pass a lady salting fresh anchovies at her back door near where we stayed. She would give us a pleasant smile each time we walked by. We stocked the fridge we had had with fresh peaches, strawberries, cherries and blueberries that we would eat every time we were back in our room. We also bought a bottle of 'limoncino', a cinque terre desert wine, for a friend who would later meet us in London.

We took a flight from Italy over to London where our term of 3 weeks at LSE began. Three of us shared a nice apartment at Mornington Cresent. The weather at London was cool and lovely and made it good for a hot cup of coffee on my way to school.

My group mates were some of the coolest dudes I've met in a while. I was glad our project(MAD Network) took shape really quickly. Every morning, I would buy an egg mayonnaise sandwich, and a pipping hot cup of coffee to take away from Wright's Bar. Every afternoon I'd find myself at the library catching a nap on the bean bag, a routine my group mates began to noticed and find amusing. It became the place they'd look for me when I was needed.

With the time we had out of school, we wandered the streets of Oxford, Piccadilly, Campden Market and managed a Sandemans tour with a guide around London. We spent a night watching the Phantom of the Opera and another on the riverboat cruising along the Thames river with the people of LSE. It was a pity we had missed the England vs Hungary football friendly. In the end, I felt a little bit attached to London and our cosy little apartment when we finally had pack up and leave.

Over the weekends while in London, we packed our bags for a couple of weekend trips. One to Scotland Edinburgh, where we missed our easyjet flight (the most traumatic of experiences) and had to take a 12h bus ride stopping by Birmingham where we dropped by the Bull Ring Market.

We had a little more than a day at Edinburgh. Loved the beer, calm picturesque landscape at our coach pit stop, and the jolly people there. The Sandemans tour gave a good insight to the history and quirks of Scotland, introducing Irn Bru, a drink thought to be a cure for a hangovers and other features of the new town such as the Heart of Midlothian where people would spit on (for good luck and also in defiance to Edinburgh's arch rival football club that also bears a heart for its crest) and the memorial of Greyfriar that spoke of a heart wrenching tale of the loyalty of Bobby the dog. Amongst the many sights, we also saw the site that gave inspiration to Harry Potter's Hogwards. Eventually, we ended at a pub where tried the Scottish Haggis, a national dish. It was a pity we didn't have the time for the highlands of Scotland.

We soon finished the term with our final presentation at LSE and took off to Brighton for a day trip on Friday where there was the pebbled stretch of beach and some really quirky, bohemian styled shops around. We sat at the beach watching the sunset, with the remains of the West Pier in background and the seagulls all over just before our bus left, catching what little sleep we could on the way back.

From the UK, we flew to Amsterdam (the whackiest central town ever, with the enchanting hamlet of windmills at Zannse Schans), Brussels and Paris (the Eiffel tower, Disneyland, Notre Dame, Lourve Musuem, Versailles... truly a lovely, lovely part of Europe).

To finally drop my bags back home was sort of a good feeling. I spent the night unpacking, throwing out souvenirs for my siblings, sharing bits and pieces of stories of my good travel before I headed to bed and repacked my bag for my next flight out to Phuket with the Kenai/Casper gang the next day...

(to be continued)

Labels: europe, summer, travel, vacation

It was a small bunch of us that went down to Central for the fabulous ramen noodles at Marutama. I believe its the best ramen in town. Then while qx went home to watch 'Friends', the rest of us had a walk down to the Esplanade. We had a good time taking photos of the night.

The next Monday morning I woke up in the early afternoon and joined C and her gang at the Tanjong beach. It was a pretty good day of play and the weather didn't ruin the rest of the day. There is the surf and sweat to look forward to with some of them.

Came Tuesday, the 29th of December, two days before the new year, I made my way to school. The FAL closed on me so I was left at the reading room, unable to print my things. I continue to map out the factory outlets from the google maps in anticipation of the then upcoming Hong Kong trip. At around seven in the evening I made my way down to the hall's volleyball court. T'was the slight drizzle, and a bit of tension when the guys didn't show up punctually. Towards the end I could not really play like how I wanted to (or how I used to). It was frustrating. I blamed it on playing on an empty stomach but I wonder if its something more of an excuse.

I took a quick shower, picked a couple of people up, before driving down to Walt's place where it was another night of poker. I think nights like these are gonna be here to stay. We checked our grades for the semester online. Not too shabby, and I'm pretty close from my target cgpa. To get there, that would be my new years resolution. After the last couple of rounds of poker, we headed down for supper before going over to the airport where we saw Chris off. The early morning drive was smooth. I reached school back at 7 in the morning where jn and I had good old eggs and toast for breakfast.

On the 31st December, New Years Eve, relatives came over to my place. It was a belated Christmas dinner. Gab and his sis, together with my brother and I found ourselves in a bedroom playing poker. At around ten at night, I went over Joce's place where the gess gang was. Friends for a decade. We had a couple of drinks, played cards, and then it was a long tiresome struggle for Sj to go off. My brother came to pick me up at around 8. That was my new years eve.

I stayed home on new years day, to pack for the trip to Hong Kong. I didn't get much sleep that night and then on the 2nd Dec, six in the morning, we flew off. The sun was rising as we took off. The itinerary went something like:

Day one: Night Markets, Victory Peak - The fog was pretty bad we could hardly see the buildings. The weather was chilling. We went on a random spree.

Day two: Disneyland - It was really the best of experiences, especially when tinkerbell flew by... even if its just the 3d goggles.

Day three: Shenzhen - The Lowu Commercial Building was an eye opener; the vendors and fake watches... Deeper in, to dong men was more pleasant to walk around. I crossed the immigrations back to hk empty handed though. Back in hk we visited the stretch of outlets at the camel building where I managed to grab a nice jacket. It was the one of the few buys from hk. I was quite convinced its hard to get a good bargain these days...

Day four: Citygate outlets - I walked out empty handed, though they really had every outlet housed in a building. And bid cw and kl farewell.

Day five: The Dragon's Back of Hong Kong's trail - It never got this cold although at first refreshing. The view was breath taking. If I had the time I would bring up some hot cocoa and sit there the entire day. I really would.

On the 6th Jan, midnight, I touched down back in sg. I had a casual chat with the cabby on my way back. Never felt better when I dropped my bags. I was exhausted and deep down glad that the IH volleyball match on the next day was postponed.

On the 7th evening, my family had dinner at the Long Beach restaurant off the east coast park. It was good to have dinner with the entire family every now and then.

The next day I had two of my wisdom tooth removed. The process was sort of nerve wrecking I admit. I wasn't in much pain but spitting blood in the sink didn't make me feel any better. The bleeding has stopped but not the lethargy.

Before the surgery I ended up buying a siamese fighting fish. I call him Mr B (for barracuda). I can't stop watching him swim around in his tank.

I watched the guys game on saturday and spent a good portion of sunday out gallivanting with my parents, from the hawker center at amoy street to the flea market at china square central, to the marina square and then to clementi. In the last few hours of the night I watched episodes of 'That 70s Show' which made me have some good laughs. Its been a long time since I had good laughs.

School starts tomorrow. December I should say was rather well spent. Sure, there weren't many days of laze and rest. That is how I know I was out having a kick ass time. I sure hope its a good semester ahead. A good internship ahead. And a couple of good trips ahead...

Labels: december, gess, nbs, travel, vacation, volleyball

(i will endeavor to be more detailed in my entries 'cause some of my past entries don't make sense to me anymore and it feels like i've lost something that i might never quite recover)

wmp: black eyed peas, meet me half ways

thursday - astro paper, the last of the papers. i was bursting with joy at the end of it though the people around me didn't quite feel the same. i am keeping my fingers crossed especially for the aa203 paper (God knows what the heck i was doing). after pondering our next move for awhile, we canceled the trip down to the sitex and leo zy & i had dinner at olive & fig. the wait was long. the kebabs were big on the portions. a tad too much garlic on the pasta, but i liked it anyway.



friday - t'was the morning run with jn. its a long while since i last ran. two rounds round the campus. i ran of out gas somewhere near the 10km mark. we had breakfast at the hall two canteen. after a nap at home i ran out again to grab my new phone. the SE w705 had dropped to $0. the timing was oh so fine and i didn't have much second thoughts about it. i was in fact quite pleased after toying with it... i had a couple of episodes of everybody loves raymond before i headed to bed. its nice, to have a few laughs before dozing off and i've been doing it almost every night.

saturday - at 630am i reached toa payoh and met leo & his friends. we hopped on the coach and made our way across the causeway. we spent a fair bit of time travelling on the coach and i napped whenver i could. t'was the kota tinggi falls which wasn't much of a sight. we didn't even bother to get ourselves wet. the seafood lunch and dinner weren't top notch either. t'was much to diss about. somethings were so atrocious that its almost hilarious. of all the stopovers, the ostrich farm was an eye-opener. the ostrich egg, the ostrich chicks, the ostrich satays,... the ostriches that roamed around were so calm, gentle and at ease with us humans around that its almost sad to know that at some point of time they'll all eventually end up at the slaughterhouse...




















sunday - beach with gess mates. i dumped my guitar in the latio before driving out. i got the sun burns even with the sunblock. honestly, the beach has somewhat lost its appeal. maybe i'm just getting lazy cause i had thought the best thing that could have happened then was not a good game of volleyball but a nice hammock. i wonder if i'll find the motivation to head back to the gym this month. showering at one degree fifteen has always been something of a sumptuous life, thanks to jo. we eventually found ourselves at the red dot at dempsey hill. with a glass of green beer each. and dish after dish of glorious food. at the end of the night i made my way to leo's place where he checked on my trashy guitar. i can't wait for the new strings to arrive.




















monday - i accompanied a friend to the dentist for a tooth extraction. did a check up while i was there. it seems like i've got some extracting to do myself but i'm rather reluctant to do it during this holidays (hmmm). i got back home for a quick nap before running off again to tabita's new place off the west coast. it was nostalgic driving around the area having lived there before myself. i didn't do much while the gang had their go at tennis, table tennis and pool. i really am getting lazy. some of us parted and the small bunch of us(marc, melo, leo & myself) had dinner at karu's curry, before finally heading back home after being unable to settle down for a night of poker.

tuesday - the run with jn & ky from the macrichie reservoir to the bukit timah nature reserve to the bukit batok nature reserve. it was refreshing. i was reminded of the cross country days back in gess.




















wednesday - i woke up and rushed down to the cathay to meet leo & zy. we caught 2012. not too bad a film. i'm quite keen still on renting the bunch of dvds of films i've yet to catch because of the tight semester. cw joined us after the show for a little while before we went on our own ways. i met up with the rest of the casper gang at chinatown for steamboat. it was quite a feast. zouk was tiring business. the casual chat with j over supper was depressing.

thursday - i woke up at around noon before heading down to the nlb at bugis where ky, jn & jo were. they were busy looking up for recipes for a good time in the kitchen come next week. we wandered around a bit for some food around the area before ky jn and myself headed down to the expo to collect our race packs for the coming standard charter marathon.

friday - rest. i hand washed the merc 200e & the nissan latio. i had dinner at imm with alvin, hj & kk. my ankle hurts so i wonder how the marathon will turn out... with regards to 'other matters', i guess i shouldn't be as hopeful.

Labels: beach, gessvball, nbs, post exams, run, travel, vacation, volleyball

tuesday - orchard w cw & zy. we had a short time in town. then settled for a drink at the rooftop of the esplande. they called that place orgo. i laid there, soaking up the nightlife, the city lights, the company... it was good.

wednesday - morning tennis. i thought i sprained my ankle. tennis is a tricky sport. leo's birthday supper.


thursday - kenai/casper @johor bahru. heart pounding speed of go karting at plentong and the glorious seafood at taman sri tebrau. we spent some time at city square, too. it was good getaway. just before the term starts again.

friday - vijay's farewell dinner at newton. yet another round of seafood. when we didn't managed to find a place for all the l4d goodness, i bid them farewell.


saturday - gym/swim/rest. poker/guitar hero at jonas's place. i took that drive down. we played cards. it was nice, meeting up with them. laughing. trash talking. though i did lose alittle. it was close to seven in the morning before i slumbered.


sunday - beach. with the gessvball gang. it was good. to jump the serve. to dive, tumble and roll on the sand. to play with the gang. we found ourselves at red dot at dempsey where t'was the monster green beer. and finally, joce's place until dawn almost came.


monday - gym/rest/bake maple cookies. having stayed up the whole night, i didn't do much throughout the day. until i dropped by ah lians to meet the casper/kenai gang. soon after, i found myself yet on another rooftop of one of the blocks at hall three, heart in one hand, mug of whiskey in the other, enjoying the moment while it lasted.


tuesday - school offcially reopens/ab214 pre-test writing. i woke up and raced to complete my assignment. and then it was a good light evening at the track. cutting through the wind with the sprints was most reposeful. i reach home now, rethinking the day, feeling a little dread in me.


It is the drink of men who think.
And feel no fear nor fetter -
Who do not drink to senseless sink,
But drink to think the better.
- Anonymous

Labels: beer, friends, life, nbs, vacation

this is that fresh feeling

Labels: malaysia, nbs, redang, travel, vacation

i never had so much ribeye in one sitting. i was told of how cows that were bred in factories never got to see the light of day and were hung alive upside down when their days are finally numbered. a blade systematically runs down their necks and blood gushes out till the very last breath they take. it hardly is surprising and for that reason i kinda hate the thought of it. i feel like going vegetarian.

i met up with the gess gang once more with bottles of liquor and a couple of decks of cards. honestly i wonder if there exists another group of friends who play like this too. making it home in soggy pants in the morning was strangely a little bit of a deja vu.

there is 47 days now left. the dreadful semester is not too faraway.

scrubs is an awesome drama comedy series. i'm rewatching episodes and still get goosebumps at the end of certain episodes. such as s05e20. whats more i just realised that coffeebucks, something i say sometimes when i try to refer to starbucks, is an actually coffee joint in the show. unreal.

Labels: gessvball, scrubs, vacation, vodka

I, II

Labels: nikoi, travel, vacation

wmp third eye blind, jumper

we caught rambo. it's probably the kind of film you'd expect; bullets flying all around, body parts strewn about everywhere. besides the fact that the good guys always win in reel life, i thought for some parts, it was almost like watching that video where those god damn people skin those animals alive. at the end of the day, there i was, exhausted from the morning run taken up a notch, and of course, the perpetual lack of sleep. i could have laid like that for the entire night, and gone on talking about the past twenty years of our lives...




photos of redang. compliments of jenrine. i quote her 'pls go redang'. haha.

8 days left on the clock. 8 days. i guess i'm so close that i really wasn't looking anymore.

Labels: movie, nostalgia, vacation

wmp: paramore, my heart

i was casually lookin' at an old globe on the desk when i came across san francisco and i remember how i was told of how rich the coffee from the starbucks there was and how the ship made its way down to vancouver with endless parties onboard and finally to alaska where the glaciers were. it was thrilling enough to just imagine...

i'll have to put that down on my list.

Labels: life, travel, vacation

wmp: paramore, pressure

it was past midnight when the plane finally landed(to my relief). but dont' get me wrong, hongkong was awesome.

i stayed up till 4 in the morning, unpacking while my brother and sister watched and snagged up their share. i cleaned up my precious pair of shoe that had been trampled upon like 5156687 times. and did my own laundry. my biggest regret was to leave them over the night in the pail - i woke up to my horror when i realised that my entire morning of toil has been through the treacherous washing machine. i could have given my head a few hard knocks on the wall.

more later.

Labels: family, life, sleep, travel, vacation