Enfin, j’ai fini mon noveau blog..
http://mon-amour-et-ma-vie.blogspot.com
Je comprends que vous avez attendu longtemps pour mon nouveau blog… Désolé! Je suis très occupé de mon travail mais je suis sûr vous apprécierez ce nouveau blog.. ;)..
Understand some may not know what the hell I’m writing here and I don’t intend to translate.. all you need to do is click on the above new link..;)..
Blog abandoned and migrated to new webby.. thanks for being my faithful readers.. will share the new webby addy.. stay tune..
Rock ‘n’ roll again last night..
Ain’t good with playing rock ‘n’ roll music using the electric guitar *disappointed with myself*.. my fore finger tends to take a ‘holiday’ when I needed it most.. Then when I try to make a conscientious effort to ensure the fore finger stays ON the key, I won’t be able to play the song well. If I allow any finger to stay on any key it likes or reach at anytime.. chaotic but I can play better.. haha.. I’m going to have a huge problem when I wanna progress to the next stage.. DAMN!
I’m not giving up! I will continue to improve and ‘discipline’ my fingers. It’s nicer to play songs that I have heard before cos I can nod and sing with the songs as I play.. Out of the rock music that I’ve played so far, I’ve only heard two of the songs.. kaoz..
I hope to play better over time which means I need more practice but the guitar is at Teban Gardens wor.. hmm.. haha..
Yesterday, I had a super enjoyable night out!
SO and I arranged a birthday celebration for his buddy, Lester and wifey, Xunni. We went to K~Buffet at Kallang Lesiure K-Box. Cost is $25++ from 7pm to 10.30pm. This was our first KTV session together.
The buffet spread was really good…corn soup, seafood soup, starters (e.g. potato wedges, prawn fritters and many more), fried rice, curry chicken, sweet and sour fish, some vegetables, desserts (e.g. mini choc cakes, mochi, ice cream, puddings etc).. yummy!
Lester don’t favour singing but he was sweet to come with his wifey. And there were some star performance by him and he sang his 101 song.."One thousand heartbreaking reasons". Although he dun sing lots, but I’m sure he enjoyed the buffet! On the contrary, Xunni likes to sing and she sang really well. It was nice just listening to her sing.. :)..
Thereafter, we went to their place to play X-Box III till late. We played the new game Guitar Heroes! It’s a time to Rock & Roll, manz! Wooh-oh!!! Lester & Xunni rocks x3! SO rocks! I rock also! .. hehe…
I had so much fun that I told SO I dun want play Wii liao, I wanna buy X-Box III to play.. haha..of course, SO surely say okay lor.. haha.. I’m such a spendthrift.. but nay, doubt I will buy.. I can always pop by Les and Xunni’s place to play when the urge gets to me..
This idea of going to K~Buffet came to us when we went shopping with my bro and SIL sometime back and passed by K-Box and saw the yummy buffet spread!!! So we mentioned that we shall go together one of these days! Looking forward.. 
Had always wanted to plan a Ladies day out but we never get around to doing it.. but it finally happened! Enjoyed it lots.. ;)..
Received news that my SIL safely delivered Princess Elsie and Princess Chloe on 30 May 2008! Congrats!! Congrats!!!
So sweet sweet promotionS for me! Really happy for my bro and SIL, they are promoted to Daddy and Mummy status.. Enjoy the process of fatherhood and motherhood oh! ;p..
Will hold my horses for now cos the few ‘push’ factors haunting me at the moment are removed.. In the meantime, I will continue to do my best and see how things go.. and I hope I’m not delaying the process only and digging my own grave.. haha..
"Complain and complain really doesn’t help the situation.. reflection is perhaps a better way to expel these recurring thoughts.. but since it recurs, it’s probably a matter of whether I’m suitable anot and not that I’m not trying hard enough.. shan’t say more and hope I will start to develop a greater passion in time to come so that things will fall into place naturally.."
The awaited challenge for myself is here! Completed my 45km Endurance Challenge at the Runway Cycling 2008! This was a yearly event held at the Paya Lebar Airbase and I went every year except last year…. It’s amazing when you are doing the last lap, you will surely feel lethargic and muscle aches.. this is when you really have to start to endure..
Sunburnt cos I forgot to apply sunblock… kaoz.. super painful!! *huo gai*.. Maybe will do it again next year but need to buy cushion seats, wear gloves and apply sunblock manz..
As promised to share "The Experience"..
I went on a 10 days trip to Shanghai to teach kids and refurbish a library for one of the Migrant schools in Shanghai. This experience is about reaching out to the less fortunate which I have always wanted to do and I am really happy my coy gave me this opportunity to participate.
Today is R&R day for me in Shanghai and I finally had the time to do what I like to do best when I’m indoors, surf net, blog etc.. so decided to start sharing about my trip here for the past 5 to 6 days..
You are my Angels - Day 1 - Sunday, 11 May 2008, cool
Arrived at Shanghai Pudong airport at 6.15a.m. and transit to The Magnificent Hotel which took about an hour to reach ~ chatted with my room-mate TP during the journey ~ Reached hotel but timing was too early so none of our rooms were ready yet ~ Left our luggage with the hotel and went to a nearby Chinese fast food eatery for breakfast ~ Ordered set A, soya bean with youtiao ~ Strolled around the area after breakfast for a while and took a cab back to the hotel to rest my lazy ass in the nice hotel room ~ and took a short nap before heading out for lunch.
Strolled to Raffles place and had lunch at a food court, very much like the Food Republic in Singapore. The shops in the mall were very much like those in Singapore. I had a yummy eel fried rice but the portion was too much and it cost RMB28. The rest also enjoyed their lunch except for our pretty team leader, Rachel. Her la mian was full of vinegar ~ We bought a variety of desserts to share amongst ourselves and I think all of us enjoyed the desserts lots. I even told myself that I will try to return to have my meals there and eat the dessert again. How come Singapore don’t have such yummy desserts leh? hmm..
Thereafter, we strolled to the "Bu Xing Jie" ("Road by foot only") (a.k.a. Nanjing Road). This street is so wide and have many shops along it. As I walked and enjoyed the cool breeze, I saw a man standing on the balcony of a building playing a Chinese song using his saxaphone. Can you imagine that? It feels so romantic and it felt as if I were in some European country but nay, I am in Shanghai.
We were planning to go for massage at this place called Tao Yuan Xiang, near to Sofitel Hotel. I chose this 2 hours full body massage and foot massage package worth RMB258 and the massage service is really worth it!
Ended the day after popping by a supermarket called Century Mart (suspect this is like our NTUC) to buy some groceries and snacks etc for the next 9 days.. ZZzzZZz..
You are my Angels - Day 2 - Monday, 12 May 2008, windy
Woke up and went for hotel breakfast, international buffet style. The food was okay, I’m a bread person and loved making my own sandwiches..
Stepping out of the hotel, the first thing that came to my mind was how much I loved the weather here! So cooling (but minus the dust that came with the breeze)..
First day of School.. yeah! ^o^.. The teachers welcomed all 10 of us by informing all the students to come down from their classes and queue up in their respective classes in the School compound. This was impromptu and the kids were so lively and well-behaved.
Thereafter, we referred to the timetable provided by the principal and started to get ready our materials for our respective classes. We have mainly English and Activity teaching classes. When we don’t have to go for classes, we will help out in the school library cos the other objective of our mission is to refurbish the school library. We splitted up into pairs where one of the teams started to do the planning for the library and the rest just execute the plan.
My first class was to teach English for the Primary 1 kids. The kids were so cute, enthusiastic and responsive in class. They will raise their hands when we ask them, do you know the answer? Some came up without knowing the answer. I admired their courage for coming up. This just shows how much they want to participate during the lessons. This is very different for the kids or even adults in Singapore during lessons and meetings.. Different upbringing, I guess.. hehe.. The educational level of the Primary 1 kids were better than what we expected as we were given the impression that their standards would likely be the same as the school we serviced last year.. but it isn’t. So we came up with new ideas and curriculum on the spot..
Had dinner at a Hongkong cafe after school and went back to hotel to freshen up before going to Rachel’s room for our debrief session and planning for the next day.
Sad news for the day.. Sichuan earthquake of 7.8 on the Richter scale caused a school and another building to collapse, killing/burying many alive.. Death toll estimated to be 80,000. Gosh! I didn’t even know there was an earthquake till my dad and SO sms-ed me to check how are things in Shanghai.. Maybe I was too busy or too "stable" to feel the shake.. keke.. I can imagine and understand the heartache of the ppl in Sichuan who lost their family member… hope all will stay brave and carry on with their lives.. and those still under the ruins, please do not give up hope.. Jiayou!
You are my Angels - Day 3 to Day 6, 13-16 May 2008, sunny
The usual schedule > wake up~hotel breakfast~gather at lobby~zoom to school~teach lessons~refurbish library~hotel freshen up~dinner and debrief sessions. On these days, we also worked with another 10+ volunteers from our Shanghai office…
There were a few interesting things that happened during the week which are worth mentioning..
The kids have two 10-minute eye massage sessions everyday where all the students will follow instructions announced through the speakers and massage the acupoints around the eyes. No wonder none of the kids wear spectacles! How I wished the schools in Singapore had such sessions during my time!
During lunchtimes, there will be representatives from each class to pick up huge trays of rice and dishes from the canteen and have their lunch in their classrooms. They will bring their own cutlery from home for their lunch. One thing for sure, Shanghai-nese or should I say, in China, they take lotsa rice unlike us, we always ask for less rice.. hehe..
The school organised a donation drive to give assistance and support for the victims of the Sichuan earthquake. All the students and teachers assembled in the school compound and arranged for a class representative to drop an envelope containing the donations into a box. They then sang a song together, "Tomorrow will be better"..
One of the students wrote us a thank you letter, drew a nice calligraphy painting of prawns and fishes for us. She had hoped very much for us to teach her class but sadly it was not arranged in the timetable. She’s really nice and talented and she always represent the school to give speeches.
Also, this week was some sort of their Olympic week where they organised group workout (similar to our Singapore Workout combining arms and legs actions) competition and sports competition for all levels. For some sports competition, the teachers even allowed us to participate. The games and the rules of the games were planned by the teachers. It was really fun!
Outside school time..
We went Karaoke to practise singing for our farewell performance on the last day of school. The song we chose was, Angels by Mayday. During the KTV, we identified Jason, our photographer and Rachel as the persons to hold the microphones on the actual day cos they can really sing very well.. Singing KTV in Shanghai is pretty cheap and it’s refreshing to have freshly popped popcorn as snacks instead of assorted nuts.. I specially enjoyed the dinner times lots with the team cos it was the best time for us to chit-chat and joke around..
Had wanted to post this entry but decided to write on the remaining days of the trip before publishing it..
You are my Angels - Day 7 - Saturday, 17 May 2008, sunny
Had a refreshing breakfast this morning! French toast with caramel and bananas with a cup of tea.. oh, yummy!.. We had the breakfast at a place called, "Kapp" at "New World".
In the evening, I went to meet the rest at for a dinner and chill out at a nice eatery called "Three on the Bund". The view was great at this place but the reservations were full for the seats out at the balcony so we sat indoors. Of course, we kept walking out to the Balcony to take pictures and enjoy the view and breeze!
You are my Angels - Day 8 - Sunday, 18 May 2008, rainy
I went to "Zhou Zhuang" to check out the place cos ppl say if go Shanghai must go to "Zhou Zhuang" to take a look. Well, there’s a little bit of history about this place. You may visit this website for more info…http://www.zhouzhuang.com/en/index.htm…
The rainy weather dampened the mood though and I had to buy a poncho in order to continue to walk around in the rain. Felt bored after a while and went to find shelter to sit around till time to gather up with the rest in the group. It’s an okay place to visit but it’s not a place that I will go a second time. It’s just like those city tours that you go when you visit a place for the first time.
The tour guide also brought us to a silk factory and another place as usual. Of course, none of us bought anything from the silk factory and as for the other place, the interesting part was when the tour guide brought us to this temple inside this place, to see the originated male version of the "Guan Yin". This is the place where I drew my first divination lot and have it read by the monks. The monk read abit then asked me to buy these huge joss-sticks to pray before he will continue to read more on my diviniation lot. I dun usually believe in such things so in the end I left without buying any joss-sticks and having the lot read. I felt it was pretty commercialised in a way when they do this…hmm..
You are my Angels - Day 9 - Sunday, 19 May 2008, sunny’
Oh, our final day in the School. We pumped and twisted 1000 plkus balloons to give away to the kids. And we managed to finish it in one day, efficient hor! However, we didn’t give any of the balloons out as today and the next 2 days were declared as the days to mourn for the victims of the Sichuan earthquake so it wasn’t appropriate. The principal and teachers will arrange to distribute the balloons to the kids on our behalf after we left.
Had dinner with all the volunteers from our Shanghai office at their local office. The dinner prepared by the Chef was superb! I love it! The tasty bread, codfish and chocolate-cafe cake with walnut..omg! I’m gonna find some time to explore and prepare such a meal for myself and SO.. .. when my urge to cook returns again.. ha..
You are my Angels - Day 10 - Sunday, 20 May 2008, sunny
We went to visit the previous school that we serviced last year before we embarked on our return flight back to Singapore. Felt abit inferior to the murals painted by the previous team who serviced this school, so talented manz! But I would still say our team did a good job also! So must give ourselves a pat on our back..;)
Some takeaways for all of us from this trip:
True happiness is not about winning…
Sometimes doing nothing is being helpful…
Playing with kids is usually 100% energy and 0% content…
No plan’s plan…
About Shanghai..
- Nice weather (during this time of the year but minus the dust)..
- Traffic is pretty chaotic and the ppl like to horn a lot..
- Travelling around in Shanghai by taxis is cheap..
- Romantic place for couples..
I truly enjoyed my time there and really missed the time together with my team-mates and definitely, the time spent teaching the kids! If there is another opportunity, I will still wanna go! Hopefully SO can join me otherwise, SO and I can consider doing this during our own free time cos we know that there are options out there.. ;p..
In my last entry, I mentioned that I will be away so where did I go? I am blogging from the business center at The Mangificent Hotel in Shanghai before I go for my dinner with the rest. Today is my 5th day here and specially today, I felt that I was back in school again, playing ball games in the school compound, following rules laid out by the teachers, returning the balls etc to the PE room.. hehe.. I had a lot of fun scoring "zero" points for the team, time to brush up yeah.. haha.. very thankful that the teachers allowed us to participate in their activities. ;).. Alright, gtg.. tata..
