Delayed

Super long time since I’ve posted anything here. So here we go. After about 2 months.

Work is great. My job is getting busier by the week but still no complaints. It’s what I’ve been wanting to do from the start and now that I’ve started doing evaluations and reading up on post market issues, I’m really getting to the crust of regulations and how we’re gonna be running things in the near future.

My cousin, Pupsy was here for a week! Oh man! Been ages since she kept saying that she’ll be coming in a few months and finally she did come! We had a great time catching up – although time was tight after work and been tired all day to go out and have fun, but then I think we spent the time we had the best we could.  One more weekend would have been great but then in Singapore, I think she’s basically seen everything there is to see. Sush… why are the pics not on FB huh?

Running:

This was a crazy up and own experience. TNF100, as expected was a hellish experience but then I managed to finish it. Almost knocked out cold after the event. For the first time after a run, I sat down and cried like a baby – it really is that hard. But then I had to be a finisher – not for myself but for my partner – who after finishing the race actually came back to look for me. Thanks Elaine! =)

The next couple of weeks I just dreaded run and I hated the pain and the agony. Ghosts of TNF100 kept coming back again and again – till NB Real Run. I was strong again. My time from km to km was so fantastically consistent and smooth that I loved the fast pace race. Seems like the trail and the terrain running really helped. I missed my PB by 1.5 mins but wth! I knew that I was back.

Last weekend was the best run ever – I finished my marathon training for StandChart by clocking 45km in a little more than 5 hrs – no soreness or agony what-so-ever. It was a fantastic run.

Basically, that’s how life is when u start working I guess. Very little time to myself. And the time I’ve had, I’ve been watching a show Choon Hong recommended to me – One Liter of Tears.

Sheesh, this show really made my cry- more than once. It’s hard not to….

 

Hmmm

Discoveries of recent have led me to a new perspective… but principles first…

Somehow related to this old post… on Spineless People

And suddenly

I don’t feel like doing anything anymore…

New Divide

Legendary Trip 2!

To con-tin-new where I left off last night, on 20th June, I left for my hometown, Bhubaneswar (BBSR) with Pupsy since dad was fine on his own. I bought my first non-aeriated drink at the Airport and it was one of my fav fully awesome ones – Snapple – Mango Madness. =)

Everyone was so thrilled that I was back that I was very touched and felt the love all around me, esp my cousins and granny – who I still insist was trying to flirt with me!

I went for a concert since we had passes and one of my sister-in-laws was singing and my uncle’s childhood friend was playing – Kishore Kumar was a music genius… Legen-wait for it-dary! Shall post one of my fav songs once I’m done with this. =)

The lead singer – had almost the same voice and look like Kishore-da

This lady was the stage turner for the duet – love the chemistry betwn them – her voice sucked though! =p

Prutyasha (hope I got that right) one of my distant sister-in-laws also sang a few songs – her voice was so much nicer!

My uncle’s childhood fren – lost in the passion of music. =)

The next day was Sunday, so we could whack a day trip! Off we went to Maa Tarini temple where apparently, if u make a coconut offerring and ask for something, you’re sure to get it. Well, it’s kinda obvious what I asked for. We met up with Sukanya’s family on the day trip – who’s close to Sush’s family too.

Sush and me again!

My eldest uncle and Sush

My youngest uncle

Sush’s Dad

The people who went there

Sush and Sukanya’s Sis

I loved this hut – looks so laid back

This is a crap translation of the name of the place – esp for a hotel!

The week after that was the annual Chariot Festival, where the God goes his aunt’s house for a few months. SO to celebrate this, we had prayers that day. A few years back, I sat for the prayers but this year i had a bad tummy ache, so my eldest uncle sat for the prayers.

The holy fire

The aunt-home-going God and his siblings

Our family butler (Hari) who came the house the very day I was born =)

The prayer offerings which Hari cooked – Love his food! Awesome! =p

Then we went over to my cousin’s place to see my nephew of 7 months. He’s so chubby and cute!

Spoilt brat loves the air-con! His little piece of heaven that is…

Cousin and me

Then we went over to my eldest cousin’s place to meet her and her family. I love the verbal jostling with her cuz she’s really damn funny and witty! Her husband on the other hand is damn shy and he can’t say shit but just blushes and gives up! Damn cute couple!

Husband, wife and me

Retro casette!

My youngest 2 cousins

Sush and me

Super whacking session!

Dinner plan was with my two yougest cousins and Sush. We went to Tangerine 9 and whacked till we were full, fat and happy! Haha… We talked so much cork that we were reeling laughing for next three good hours. My youngest cousin literally fell down laughing! This went on for a good four nights over dinner! =p

My cousin and me went to Mayfair, a super posh shopping area to do some window shopping! Her treat for the evening! =)

I loved the colourfulness of the place!

Yummynessess!

A couple of days, we went to puri Jaganath – the God who went to aunt’s place. Apparently, very few people can get to see him there and so it was a unique opportunity cuz it was not as crowded – ually there are 1/2 million people there at once – i do not mean figuratively, there are crowds of 1/2 million on festive days.

My niece

And cousin

Niece, a distant nephew and me.  The fella is damn funny! We had an awesome time!

And one last whacking session with cousin – Haka.

The buffet is damn worth it! 4 Sing dollars! =p

One last pic – cuz she wanted to look taller! =p

I miss the place and the people already! Most probably, my next trip… will be my wedding. =)

My Legendary Trip 1!

Is what I would call my trip to India this time around! Well.. besides having a lot of fun and carbo loading till I gained 3 kgs(!), I actually kinda re-conciled what I’ve been looking for and what I’ve been missing out on. One point of self-discovery is that no matter where I live and where I work, I will always want to go back there from time to time – cuz at one point in time or the other, I miss the place really dearly – not just the food or the people, the feeling of being settled and being back home – with family.

This post is gonna be a shorter version of the looong story that I’ll prob tell u ppl in parts! So here goes! =)

Vidhana Soudha at night – There’s a cheesy line written on the top… try to read it!

Our driver, Viswanath tried his best to take a pic… after much much coaxing!

My cousin and me (mum not in pic) are squeezed into out little car at the back! =p

The ladies

And the gents

And began the holiest week of many years I’ve had in a long long time! I went to a new temple literally everyday from Iskon in Bangalore to Tirupati to the temple near our house to even Puri Jaganath – after the Chariot Festival. Like my cousin told me, we’re gonna have a life full of blessings considering how many temples we’ve been to so far!

Iskon Temple, Bangalore

Then I wanted to take pics of our house in BLR and wow! The mansion is a mother load so huge that I had to take samples of the Taj Mahal mum and dad had built after a lot of pain and sweat.

Balcony

Living Room 1

Living Room 2

Bedroom

Prayer Room

Grand Staircases… slippery too!

A REAL dorky pic of me on the living room wall. Taken when I was in Sec 2… I can see why I was alone with no frenz!

Look at the hair, the tummy, the glasses, the bloody backpack! SHEESH!

The next day, we headed to Mysore, a small place near BLR (abt 280kms away) which was the capital of the state previously. I had been there last when I was 6 or 7 and so for me, it was like being there for the first time again! As for mum and dad, it was a second honeymoon trip to what was 26 yrs ago! OMG! And for me… I took a pic for comparison. Once the old pics are scanned and up, I’ll show u ppl – promise!

Sleeping Vishnu Temple

Tipu Sultan’s Summer Palace

Cam-whoring again…

Honeymoon pic spot – 26 yrs on, Chamundibetta Temple

Temple outside Mysore Palace

Mysore Palace

YELPS!

A pic of me at the very same spot after 25 yrs… I’ll show u when I scan the original

The musical fountain

And the beautiful dome fountain – my fav of all!

A pic of the place from practically every Bollywood movie in the 80s and early 90s.

The next day, we intended to go to the Museum and the Planetorium – obviously, nothing happened when we met up with Sukanya – Pupsy’s fren who lives in BLR. All we did was the take a lot of pics and talk a lot of rubbish and played UNO – to the point we even forgot our tea and screwed the initial plans! Totally worth it! =)

Sukanya and Sushree

And the three S-ess (No puns intended)

Sukanya in her beloved room with her beloved kapohed lampshade

Evening, we headed down to Prabha aunty’s house to meet Vani Didi and Ajay. They were so young I last remember them tt Didi now has a son of the same age that I was when I first knew them! OMG! After so long, I didn’t even know where to start trying to catch up. Btw, the house Ajay built for his dad and mum is so beautiful and functional, as an engineer, it makes me tear in joy! Then we 4 went for a quick dinner to retire for the night… cuz next up was Tirupati.

A nice place just near home. =)

Love BLR, the weather is so nice u look exactly the way when u left home after ure bk!

The next day, our road trip began at 430am to Sukanya’s place and picked her up and off we went to Tirupati. Although I was hoping to get to know her better, the poor girl had a whole trip of motion sickness – which our driver Mahadev was very nice to constantly look for drug stores to buy medication. Also, he knows so much that he made the trip worthwhile and cracked a lot of funny jokes along the way. The two of them were def lost.. and I had to laugh twice – once with Mahadev and once more after translating it! My Kannada was surely brushed up at the end of the trip! =)

5am from a Hyundai Tucson

Outside

And Inside

Ms. Motion Sickness with her power Remedy

We’re still good to go… till the ascend began. After tt we all looked the same

The awesomest driver, Mahadev!

Sukanya and Me at Woody’s – I ALWAYS loved to stop here for tea since I was a kid!

The next big thing was shopping and what we did instead was eat more and take more pics! We found this huge butterfly made of paper cups in a shopping mall! It’s to raise awareness of re-cycling and re-using. But for us, it’s just another prop!

After this I headed to my hometown which I’ll continue in Part 2 cuz its almost 3am now… OMG!

I’m off

To India! After almost 3 months of waiting, its gonna be great seeing mum and dad again tonight! =)

And I leave behind friends and loved ones… for a month! I’ll be contactable by email though so keep me updated people! And I hope I can blog too!

Miss you peeps!

Long Overdue

Of a post! Well, obviously, nothing much is happenning in my life so there’s nothing much to write anyway. 

But I’ve been upto a few things recently… except job hunting of course. I’m off to India for a good month on the 7th. The tickets are super duper cheap – 160 with everything in! Tiger Air rocks! Can’t wait to see mum and dad after so damn long! =)

A few of us went blading last Wed. Pearl and Yuen Ling have been trying to organise but the weather kept playing games with them. But it was great weather on Wed and off we went! The turn out was pretty good and was fun hanging out after blading with a bunch of cool frenz! 

The blading dudes

The blading dudettes

 

The two champs who’re on their way to Olympic Glory

 

And the two Lance Armstrongs – who picked 2 wheels over 8

 

Oooh… I bought a new pair of running shoes. I wanted to just go and check out the prices and the stuff but since Yams got his tennis racquet re-strung, Eliza and Vin got new racquets, I didn’t want to be the only one left ou in the shopping spree! So here goes my new running shoes. I havn’t tried them on a run though so I can’t comment. They’re still being heavily appreciated for their beauty in my living room. =p (The though of which kinda made Eliza cringe thinking I’m weird… OEY! I’m not the only weird one. You are too!)

My new Mizuno Wave Rider 12s

 

 

I went out for dinner with Winston and Joanne again on Friday! They’re a fantastic couple to hang out with! They not only keep poking fun at each other but also very open in a comical way that makes you comfortable to talk about many issues (esp young parenthood, marriage, marriage proposals??) that I have no one to ask about! We literally had to be chased out fo the resturaunt. 

 

Sunday’s Passion Run was freaking awesome! Although I was feeling weird and perpetually tired, I finally managed to break the shit cycle and psycho myself to run at full blast for 15km –  the longest, fastest brutal push I’ve ever done – 15km in 1hr 16min 02 secs.

 

Went for some Tennis training with Eliza, Vin and my Shifu – Yammy. Thanks for taking so much time off to teach me the basics Yams. He’s a fantastic coach – critiqing, correcting and giving continuous feedback all through the two hours. Vin – sorry about the NASA action and rockets flying off man! Haha… sheesh! I owe you 4 tennis balls woth of tea now! Eliza… Haha.. you owe me Ben and Jerry’s – half a tub!

 

My Asics Gel Kayano are about to retire soon – 30th May  2009 after 42.195km. Amazingly, I have worn out the shoes i bought in min Jan – with over 1000km in this short period of time! Sheesh! The training better be worth it on Race Day next Sat night.

 

Time to  SUIT UP! and watch ‘How I Met Your Mother’! =p

Ya Rayah

This is probably Rachid Taha’s most famous song…. meaningful too.

Rachid Taha – Oh Emigrant

Oh where are you going?
Eventually you must come back
How many ignorant people have regretted this
Before you and me 

How many overpopulated countries and empty lands have you seen?
How much time have you wasted?
How much have you yet to lose?
Oh emigrant in the country of others
Do you even know what’s going on?
Destiny and time follow their course but you ignore it

Why is your heart so sad?
And why are you staying there miserable?
Hardship will end and you no longer learn or build anything
The days don’t last, just as your youth and mine didn’t
Oh poor fellow who missed his chance just as I missed mine

Oh traveler, I give you a piece of advice to follow right away
See what is in your interest before you sell or buy
Oh sleeper, your news reached me
And what happened to you happened to me
Thus, the heart returns to its creator, the Highest (God)

月亮代表我的心

Well, this is the only song that I know… and its full of happy memories. Sometimes I miss SH. =)

Here’s the classic version by Teresa Teng. 

 

 

 

你问我爱你有多深
我爱你有几分
我的情也真
我的爱也真
月亮代表我的心

你问我爱你有多深
我爱你有几分
我的情不移
我的爱不变
月亮代表我的心

轻轻的一个吻
已经打动我的心
深深的一段情
教我思念到如今

你问我爱你有多深
我爱你有几分
你去想一想
你去看一看
月亮代表我的心

Repeat 3

Repeat 4

你去想一想
你去看一看
月亮代表我的心

 

 

The Moon Represents my Heart

You ask how deeply I love you,
and just how great my love is.
My affection is real,
and my love is true.
The moon represents my heart.

You ask how deeply I love you,
and just how great my love is.
My affection does not waver
and my love doesn’t change.
The moon represents my heart.

So soft was the kiss
that has moved my heart.
Such a deep affection
makes me long for you now.

You ask how deeply I love you,
and just how great my love is.
Consider this,
and look above.
The moon represents my heart.

(Repeat 3)

(Repeat 4)

Consider this,
and look above.
The moon represents my heart.

You don’t mess with the Zohan!

This is a crazee mad show! I LOVED all the meaningless jokes!

Esp the lines… “ I will destroy you!” and “Welcome to the Hezbollah hotline!”

 

 

BUT, nothing bests the BESEST meaningless shows! Pink Panther… I heard a new one is gonna be out early next yr *Pink Panther 2*! FANTASTIC! =)

 

Pink Panther

Pink Panther 2!

 

Clearing the phone

Well, as the title suggests, I was clearing the memory stick of the phone and I found stuff that I wanted to comment on! =)

 

The true Singaporean and a true-er Indian – Kiasu and Proud of it! Hhah….

 

 

And a true assole! Duped his rubbish into the elevator. :-S

 

 

Somthing I found that brings back great memories! =)

 

 

Hahah… the true star. I know I’m in the right FYP lab!

 

Hahah… Now THIS is innovativeness. Even the tools stand is damn cute!

12 Weeks

Well…. if you haven’t read my travelog in China, here u go… Dipsotravellogy.

 

Or else, here’s a pic view of the whole trip….

 

My room! Hmmmm nothing much but a nice room with a great buddy like Mr. Tan (regardless of what he thinks of me… haha) and Ms. Tan who was so well equipped with her IKEA cloth to clean up the place. Haha… she’s a clean freak! Hahah… and Mr. Tan well… he needs some improvement!

First weekend, one of the MILLION times we went to Nanjing East Rd. Now I really hate the place but it’s damn nice to see the bund from the Pu Si side to the Pu Dong side. Oh we got ourselves a boiler cuz we were tired of buying bottles and bottles of water at a time. And Mr. Tan got a mitochondria while handling it.. hehe… OUCH!

 

 First grocery shopping! Kinda sad when we realized that we didn’t have time to go to HK. And Mr. Tan’s favorite chicken’s backside hair that keeps popping up! Haha.. I felt a bit retarded but love my company… it’s always all or none for That 70’s show! I’m SO glad Li Che invested in an external hard disk. It was truly God sent in the entertainment business… we had it all covered!

The next weekend we took a trip to the lab and back to get work done and I took a pic of this place that I love the most in SJTU – the Parthenon. SJTU also has Jamun like looking grass… I’m amazed at the effort they make to deco the place up! Expensive too I guess…

 

 Aaah! Kok Vui! I finally met the Panda there and he brought us around to Shanghai Old Town (near Yu Yuan) and Xin Tian Di for a try to be but not so crazy night – cuz Li Che and me were totally NOT geared up with school bags in a club.. sheesh! Embarrassing haha…

 

Next Friday was my presentation and I wore the nice shirt my friends bought for me on my birthday! Hmmm…. My prof liked it too… haha.. Zara! WOW! The evening we went to a BBQ place for dinner with the Singapore friends we had bumped into the week before and it was great eating and eating and eating till we got our money’s worth! YUM! Hahah… we also were so full we had a sleepless night! That was for Li Che and me… Kelvin, was clubbing away! Hmmmm…

 

The next day was the torch relay in my school! Wow! Again I felt like I was a part of a historical occasion…. The first one was the turn of the millennium. Sheesh… sounds geeky… nvm.

 

 

Thanks to Joanne, we went for a really really nice concert by an American School Band and it was WOW!!! The best part was that the school funded the tickets and it was free… hmmmm lotsa support for the Arts.

 

 

Weekend 3! Time to play again! This time around we went for dinner and supper with Weiming and Fiona. Weiming is a Singaporean but a perm student at SJTU and Fiona is a fren from my lab (a student under my prof). Weiming brought us to this place called Whisk… the brownie was AWESOME! I miss the marmalade pantry!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Amazingly, Saturday was spent sleeping away after the Singapore Day at the SH Singapore School funfare organized by NUS NOC! Haha… I loved playing like a kid again although it was a little embarrassing at first to be like a kid… but who cares! I have this sticker thingie that you add coloured powder over and colour the car.. haha.. loved it!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

After sleeping like pigs for half the Saturday and Sunday, we went to the SH museum and boy were we sad cuz it was crowded. Believe it or not, we had recce-ed the place the night before… at about 2am!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Weekend 4! After getting sick and tired of the internet’s slow speeds and sleeping, I went for a walk around the school and snapping away at everything that I saw! The school is bloody HUGE and very beautifully laid out not crammed into a small corner of the place. Well… the city is 10 times bigger too!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Suzhou… it’s a really nice place to visit for a day trip and walk around the Pagoda and the Gardens. Joanne and Liyang kept us company with their tips and crap jokes (Liyang that is) besides all the little bits of info on Chinese heritage and culture. Besides being a trip it was a learning experience for me! =)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Xi Tang. Not many people know the name but it’s the place where the last scenes of MI:III was shot. It is so gorgeous… all the little lanes and the rivers and the houses. It feels like that part of the town has not been touched by outside life… except the fact that every house has a laptop.

 

 

 

 

I went sightseeing with Fiona to the Pu Dong side but ended up shopping… haha… nvm. I loved watching the dude who was carving out pics on granite… so cool! But damn ex!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Hmmm… this dinner was SO scandalous, I will never forget… all gossips out! Haha…. And I will not say too!

 

 

 

 

 

Jane turned up at SH with her friend Aikra and finally, I got to try the ‘famous’ Xiao Long Pao at Shanghai Old Town (Shanghai Lao Jie). After that we fired away on the cameras and wow… it ended with the BEST egg tarts in the world! Haha…

 

 

It was also the weekend my level-mate Monaf from Syria went back home after exams! One day, I will go to Damascus… probably when I go to Egypt. He told me so much about it, it sounds magical!

 

 

Self touring!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

After many days of contemplation, I set out on my own in SH to look around the place and met up with Jane/Kelvin but the whole day was just walking around and covering places on Lonely Planet! Really saw some amazing stuff…

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Beijing! Finally, we set out on our Supertrip to Beijing to see the places we’ve only seen in pictured and read in stories. The COOLEST part was that our hotel was at the Hu Tongs… living at Md. Sultan… imagine THAT!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Great Wall… well nothing like getting down and dirty to see the Wall the way it was supposed to be. Not glamorous, but historically untouched. That’s a wonder. No 2 on my and Kelvin’s list of wonders. First for Li Che… first trek for her too! Amazing she did it despite whacking her knee pretty bad.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

First for me was climbing up more than 10km in all stairs. Almost seeped out of money and strength, Huangshan was what they claimed it to be… Hell for the body but Heaven to the eyes. I’m so thankful I suffered all the way up there cuz the views are simply exhilarating… to top it all off, I was with Mr. Tan who proved to be the bestest buddy I could ask for. He’s a champ!

 

Hangzhou. Many have said about Si Hu (West Lake) but unless u see it for yourself and take the boat ride, you never experience peace till you’re there. It was so calm and quit and the views so amazingly beautiful in the day I can only wonder how it looks at night. Speaking of night, China has one of the best sunset colours I’ve seen in my life. The sights even on the bus blazing away at 150kmph are nothing short of breathtaking…

 

 

And so it ended, 85 days of brilliant experience that I am only glad I went for although I spend almost 4k, I think it wall all worth it… living in a foreign land where I don’t speak much of the language yet I enjoyed myself to the fullest…

 

Of course its not all the experience… there are too many pics and too much to say here. But all I can say is that this trip was FANTABULOUS!  

China Internship Prelude

I’m back… and WOW!

What can I say… I’m so glad I went for this internship! It was not only an eye opener for me being in a country where I can’t speak the language but also to meet new people and experience new things I would have never experienced if I were to intern in Singapore…

For me, it’s not only a 6MC internship or an alternate for SEP. It was a chapter in my life….

Hang in there… I need to edit a few 100 pics then I’ll update at one go! =)