All set for a healthy lifestyle!

. Adidas LFC top (love the stripes behind) . Nike waterbottle .

. FBT shorts . Gym welcome pack . Nike Air Strong Sister .

Maybe not...

Because I can't seem to have any (common topics) conversations with her,
Because I don’t agree of her doings,
Because I feel happier when I hang out with others.

Friend?

Perhaps she was merely helping out
Perhaps she thought I didn’t mind
Perhaps she’s not really a friend…

Arrogant

Just because you’re not a local doesn’t mean that you’re in any way of a higher status than us.

Do not use that questioning tone as if we’re too stupid to understand what you’re saying

Hmph!

What I ate in HCMC - Part 2

During this trip, I’m really thankful to HS and his staffs for bringing us around to try authentic local food.

Row 1:
We had the superb mixed beef pho @ Pho Hoa (this is the only branch and they do not have any franchise, not even the one in Sg is).

The seafood dinner was delicioussssss! For $50, the 5 of us finished off 1 kg of prawns (stir fried with assam and artery clogging pork lard) 3 plates of shellfish dishes and seafood porridge. We even requested for baguettes so that we can dipped it into the sauce from 1 of the shellfish dishes. That’s Singaporean style for you!

Row 2:
Wrapped with lotus leaf, the Ban Giao is filled with flavorful minced pork and black fungus, and the outer portion tastes like our chwee kuay. It’s so good that I bought a dozen back home. This resulted in my bag being checked at the Viet airport when it went through the scanner. Well, they let me “off” as they know that it’s merely their local food and this crazy lady likes it so much that she had buy them back home :p

HS said that Viet is not just of Pho or rice roll therefore he brought us to try this yellow noodles with a soup base which tasted slightly like tom yum with slices of fatty pork, prawns and fish cakes. Yet another delicious meal I had in HCMC!

Row 3:
I vividly remembered that duck fetal eggs are sold in Vietnam. And when HS suggested the different kind of exotic food (rabbit meat) we can try there, I said yes immediately to try the eggs! It doesn’t taste that bizarre: slightly like hard boiled egg with hard crunches in between bites. However, I did had trouble getting the last few mouths down my throat. :p

What I ate in HCMC - Part 1

Being in HCMC, I decided to forgo the air-conditioned cafe and opted to have our drink from a street side vendor. It’s just something I had to try – sitting in those plastic chairs; experiencing what the locals do. Those thirst quenching lime juice and sugarcane juice were so damn good that I finished them in less than 5 mins! Just ignore the scene whereby the vendor handled the ice cubes and money with the same hand :p

We were to full to try the delicious looking fried carrot cake and Bánh mì (Vietnamese baguette with bbq pork and eggs). Salivating while writing this.

Lx and I woke up @ 6.30am on the last day in order to do some last minute shopping before our flight home. Breakast was at Nhu Lan as we wanted to buy the delicious Ban Giao back to Sg. Oh... how I miss the ice coffee in Viet and I’m not even a coffee person, that’s how good it is!

Cao Dai Temple and Cu Chi Tunnel - day tour

. Breakfast @ Kim Café . Boarding the tour coach .

The tour started from 8.30am to around 6pm. Majority of the time was spent on the coach as the temple and cu chi tunnel is located quite far from HCMC. It’s interesting to see how devotees of the Caodaism come together everyday at noon for a prayer session. You’re not allowed to pose for a picture along with the statues as it will mean that you’re on the same status as the God.

. Temple . Prayer session .
. Cu chi tunnel . Tapioca with peanut dip .

Lx and I went into the tunnel and before I know it, we’re out from it. If I’ve known, I would have chosen the right side route which is longer and slightly smaller. Perhaps due to our Asian frame, I didn’t really felt claustrophobic or nervous inside the tunnel.

Lx, Shree-ann (new friend from SG who was travelling alone) and I went to have the famous Pho @ Pho 2000 (Pho for the President > as per signboard as Bill Clinton patronized them before). It’s pretty good but you’ll spot mostly tourist inside the shop. After dinne, we shopped around the night market and I had difficulty shopping as I did not bring out much cash. Shopping with limited cash in your pocket is quite a toture! Therefore, the next day I made sure I had enough Viet dong and Sing dollar :p

Back from Saigon!

It started with a work trip of 5 days followed by “Graduation” trip of 4 days with the girls.

Work for me was generally assisting in the logistics aspect – room booking, airport transfers, group activity and other misc stuffs to ensure that the conference will run smoothly. Though the breakfast in Sheraton is 1 of the well known place with a good variety of breakfast spread, I hardly had time and mood to enjoy the food. In fact, I hardly had any appetite during the 5 days.

While, things took a turn when the conference ended on Friday and we were in HCMC on our own!

As we were quite tired, we spent the Friday afternoon in Kim’s café stoning and drinking cheap beers before Lx and I headed for dinner @ Ban Xeo. Anthony Bourdain raved about it in his show, but like what HS said to me over the phone “Not nice one la”….I guess he's right. It wasn’t that bad but it's not worth the effort for us to travel all the way there (quite far from our hotel).

. Sheraton . baguettes . Ban Xeo .
. t-shirts . street vendor . lacquer ware .
. traffic . cone hats . mix fruit with yogurt .

After dinner, HS and his staff met up with us and brought us for drinks – a shop which sells tropical fruit shake (the jackfruit + mango juice, topped with ice cream was delicious!). That night, I had my 1st pillion ride on a motorbike and was holding to the back for my dear life as the traffic in HCMC is known to be quite 'scary'. However, I had 2 more rides on our last night in HCMC and it wasn’t that scary anymore, in fact I had a pretty good time and kindda enjoyed the ride.

to be cont'

After 7 years of friendship...

We had our 1st “trip” together in June 2006. A boat ride away from SG to Pengerang Kelong… well we had our passports chopped after all… keke

Come 17th Apr 2009, we’ll be exploring Mr Ho's city together!!



Hr & I will be there for our company’s conference 1st. Lx will then fly in and meet us on our last day of meeting. No detailed itinerary is out yet but since we’ll be there for 4 days, we’ll take it “nice and slow” amongst the buzzling city filled with motorbikes and noise :p

Back soon!

It’s just so ironic that when I’m back to my blogging feel, my dear PC had to show me the blue screen with a “Fatal Error shutdown message!

Well, it’s been 7 freaking long years since it has served me – through my poly to part-time degree days. It has finally decided enough is enough and had to shut me off without me saving all my pictures!!! Yup, that’s all I need to retrieve from my PC…

Anyway, I’ll be “turning” back time (from Oct 08) and jotting in my thoughts and memories back to this blog soon.

KOM in Langkawi

It was an event which I’ve been looking forward to since the day I started work in this present company (1 yr ago).

The annual marketing kick-off meeting is a big event which I certainly need to be involved in my work position. Though I was not able to join them for the reece trip in Apr due to budget constraints, I was glad that I still had the chance to follow them on the actual trip.

I had a great time during:

- Dinner at Sunday bistro & restaurant. Beautiful restaurant that serves excellent food. A must go @ Langkawi!
- Packing the gift pack with the RMT.
- Lunch at a rice padi restarant
- Team building activity of Tree planting (Corporate Social Responsibility.
- Did my 1st full body massage there but didn’t really enjoy it that much. Give me foot massage instead anytime! haha
- Gala Dinner which Pirates of the Sea was the theme. Everyone was on their feet dancing away!

I almost can’t make it to the Gala dinner as my big boss wanted me to be back in office 1 2 days earlier as to what was planned, for god knows what since I was not handling anything urgent which requires my immediate attention in office. Nevertheless S told them that I was already assigned with tasks and that I can’t be back earlier.

Though we were there for a week, we were always in the hotel and didn’t get to visit any of their tourist spot. However, this whole trip was definitely an experience for me as I got to see how the marketing people work as a team and how “work hard, play hard” applies to them. Though there were times which I felt a tad left out as I’m not in team, they made me felt that what I did was appreciated by them – a bouquet of flowers and teddy bear was delivered to the office for me when we went back to Sg. :)

Oops :p

5 months since I last blogged....

Back soon with updates :p

Advice from the Sis

I teared in confusion as I was afraid to make a decision; afraid that I was taking a “risk” for my group project. I was contemplating whether to call you that night seeking for your advice. But I thought that I should be independent and be firm on my decision.

My mobile rang when I was in the midst of a project discussion and was super super glad to hear your voice. I told you I missed you and I think it was the 1st time I told you since you left in Aug.

I explained to you the dilemma I was facing and you gave your feedback and advice on how I should handle the situation. Just to let you know that I felt so relieved and reassured that my decision was right after the call with you.

Thank u Sis!

Outing with the colleagues

1st stop of the day was Qian Hu fish farm for fish therapy. We paid $10 for a half hour session and had our dead skin cells on our feet eaten by the fishes. Keke I kindda had many fished feeding on me unlike Jess as she does body scrub weekly, thus the fishes can't find any “food” on her. I actually prefered he bigger fishes as it was more of a sucking feeling as compared to the slight electrifying feeling from the small fishes. (Bigger fish, more sensation - as written on the board)

Farm mart was the 2nd stop where we rested and had snacks and drinks. Seriously, there isn’t anything there that interests us there so we headed for Vivocity to window shop and for the aircon! Keke

Dinner was settled @ Superdog which was yumz yumz before heading to the last stop of the day – Dempsey Hill. Ok, call me sua ku but it was my 1st time there :p We waited for seats at the super crowded Bens & Jerry and had 6 scoops of ice cream for $21!! Sucker us.

What caught my interest in Demspey was Jones the Grocer – it was as Australian as it can get. It reminded me so much of Sydney (I think we did visited the store when we were there?) I checked out the menu and confirmed that this is a place I definitely have to go with Sis for brekkie when she’s back.

P/s: Don’t forget our date when you're back ya :p

Last Leg of the Trimester!

updates 29/5: IMC passed!

It’s a brand new trimester and hopefully the last! Results are out with Credit for both SHRM and International Marketing. IMC is not out yet though *fingers crossed* for I’m most worried for IMC. On another note, it’s sad to see the selfishness of human kind in the 1st lesson of this trimester. But well... for each of his own aint it?

All the same, this trimester would be hectic with projects due one after another. We’ve been through it the past 1 year and I believe we’ll make it through this last one.

Chiong ah!!!!!

It’s a love and hate thing...

I hate the projects, the cramped datelines and exams.
I hate the school system and support staffs
I hate the fact that this trimester’s unit coordinators are stingy in giving exam focus areas.
I hate it when plans to attend convocation @ Perth are scrapped*

BUT I love the times I spend with my classmates.
I love how Kareen and I get excited discussing about food.
I love how our project working styles complement each other.
I love how we end the stressful week of work and school by happily gorging ourselves silly with unhealthy supper! :)

*Apparently, students for bachelor programs do not graduate with the mortarboard there, merely donning the gown. Oh well, at least the convocation is SG would be in full force (with si4 fang1 mao4).

It's not about the food

The dim sum supper @ Geylang He Ji Pau wasn’t anything much to blog about. But the mediocre dim sum did leave us very full. Perhaps the deep fried dishes overwhelmed us.

Anyway, since we were at the famous red light district of Singapore, we decided to have a “tour” around the lorongs. We locked the doors and look through the windows like tourists on a sightseeing trip. We checked out the similar looking rows of numbered houses, the pimps, the men, the women, the legal/illegal transactions, and Hotel 81s.

It was indeed an eye opening sight and that made up for the unsatisfying supper :p

He said she's brave cos...

People are afraid of being lonely and many don’t have the
courage to wait for the correct person to appear in their life.
~ The Leap Years ~

Supper? Yes!

3 supper trips to Chomp Chomp in 2 weeks is definitely not a good thing to our waistline.

But who could resist the sinful dishes of satays, sugar cane drink, chicken wings, fried hokkien mee, fried carrot cake, pork porridge and prawn mee. Not the 4 of us for sure. *burp*

It’s time to think of other supper haunts as we’re almost done with the selections @ Chomp Chomp ;p

Busy busy

Life’s been busy these few weeks.. @ work and with sch project.

I’ve been skipping a couple of lesson this trimester; as I see no point in attending Sats’ class since the lecture is pretty boring. Fancy going all the way to town for a 3 hour “lecture” and then back home... On another note, I GOT TO (better) start preparing for my exams that is set around end Apr!

Workload in office is starting to increase but I’m still pretty fine with it at this moment. With a new system coming up and a colleague leaving soon, lets just hope that everything will be manageable for me. After all this is the 1st job which made me say “I enjoy what I’m doing now” when my classmate asked if I wanna join them visiting the Career fair to start looking for a job related to the tourism industry.