Daylight saving

Other than cross time zones, this is my first ever artificial shift of time. One less hour of sleep isn't that much but still significant enough to cause some rambling here and there.
The ideal of shifting time is still kinda new to me. I always thought that time is absolute and precious enough to piss people off when enough of it is wasted. I guess I was wrong. Time is more manageable, changeable and not absolute. Examples are in abundance. Singapore can alter its timezone to match the major financial hubs in Asia. Time can be push forward so that we can make full use of day light. Small islands in the pacific ocean can be put into "special time zones" to match their home country. It is fair to say time is just another human creation. However, people like me are still manipulated by it more than manipulating it. I guess I just need to try harder at managing my time (such as finding time to blog about my trip in budapest and prague). I shall start by sleeping now!

The day it snowed in Denmark

Being a Singaporean, tropican, equatorian,.... in short, someone who had never really traveled to winter countries implies that I have never seen snow prior to my trip to Kiruna, where I saw more than enough snow to last me a few years. However, the feeling of snow falling infront of your door step, your window next to your study table, the path you take everyday, is just something special. So our trigger happy selves took the better of us and we behaved like how you would expect tourists would, infront the Pyramids. Just that this time, there isn't any major photo-friendly backdrop, just pure snow flakes falling from the sky and a minimal amount of sunlight

Look at my surprised face! I always thought I have a careless attitude towards seeing snow. I was so wrong.

Look how high I jumped.( me, Jialiang and Kendrick)

More jumps to tame our excitment( me, Baolai and Kendrick)

Christiania

The weather here is so cold that I feel more nua than when I was in Sg. Which explain why I seldom update my blog other than the fact that there is nothing much to blog about. I have also reached the stage where I can wear singlet and shorts to stay in my room where the average temperature is 22 degrees and gain the ability to commute short distance in below 5 degree climate with shorts (,thick winter clothings) and havaianas flipflop.

Some photos before we reached our destination of the day, Christiania:

random street in CPH

famous candy shop, with a looonnnggg history

ancient lift beside the shop

Finally we reached Christiania in the early afternoon. In brief, Christiania is a place in Denmark that is not under the jurisdiction of the Denmark government. Their "special"autonomy allow them to sell soft drugs in the street aptly named, pusher street. It is not really a big place like the size of sengkang. Based on my own estimation it is at most the size of VJ. With 1100 residents, and buildings seldom exceeding one storey, I guess it can be quite cramp there.

Graffiti art in abundance

Snail

I suppose this is the real entrance to Christiania which we only found at the end of the tour.
On its reverse side, it states, "You are now entering EU".

After our short brush with drugs, we proceed on to visit the "gay" bars in the city since we have nothing better to do after our dinner and we happen to have a "gay map" with us.

Weekdays seem to zoom past you and weekends never seem to end. This is how I feel right now. Despite the sunny weather now, I don't really feel like going out as there isn't much to do. The few things that are left to be done are too expensive and way out of my budget. Now I find Singapore an interesting place. There are always movies to catch, majong to play, supper places to visit. Here, you can expect parties where everyone drink tonnes of booze at most.

Random pics of the day:

Hostel Fee Increase

How come prices of everything is increasing yet my allowance isn't. With the increase in hostel fees, it will cost about 1.9 K a semester to stay in hall, an increase of 270 bucks. This will definitely make poor students poorer. Is running of that hall really that expensive? In 3 years time, it will cost more than 2.2k per semester.

CNY pics

CNY entry

The weather is getting better as we speak. The sun is shining right into my room and I can wear a tee shirt in my room with the windows wide open. How I wish everyday will be like this. Just attended the indoor climate class. The comfortable temperature people desire is in the range of 15 to 20. I can't imagine the electricity bill if we do it in Singapore.

1st Day of School

Starting of a new term in an entirely new environment is not exact new to any Singaporean but this time round, it's an entirely new country, culture and climate for me. The day started off with a change of classroom which implies that I had to walk in the chilly wind for another 200m. From the 4 hours thereafter, I realised 2 things-- danish students are hardworking and the younger the dane the better their spoken English. The lesson style here is more personal. The prof made an effort to engage everyone in the small class setting which is different from the tutorial class in NUS. Tutors in NUS should buck up. Well, I miss international week now where there will always be someone to talk to.

building a tower to hold beer cans

New rm

This the where I am staying now..... It is exactly what it looks like, a container. Anyway the room itself is about the same size as my room in sheares, just that is less furnishing which makes the room looks kinda spacey.

Start of SEP

I am typing this at my extremely long transit wait at Amsterdam, Schiphol . It's 6.40am here and I have to wait till 10am for my connect flight to take off. Since I don't have any euros with me, I can't do any shopping and therefore, here I am, typing this.

The airline I took, KLM or Royal Dutch airline's flight isn't as bad as GL described. I managed to watched 3 movies (with a small screen in front of the seat not a common TV screen), Shrek the third, F4: Rise of the Silver surfer and Curse of the Golden Flower (lousy show) listened to a few songs and catch up with lots of sleep. The meals served are not exactly wonderful but you can't expect that much a few thousand feet up in the sky right?

Pre Road trip

After hearing almost as many horror stories from as many Malaysians in Blk C, I feel kinda worried about the trip. The flooding and demonstration just make things worse. Furthermore, my body is aching all over from 3 consecutive days of floorball-ing. Subtly, I've lowered my expectations for an exciting, exhilarating, fun-filled road trip to just a safe and sound one. But my 6th sense just tell me this trip will be a funfilled one.

Thundary Night

Lightnings! Haven't seen them at such close proximity for a long time. I wonder what the lightning struck. Everything seem to be in place. Maybe it's the ultra efficient lightning rods on top of every building doing their jobs. Adults pacify children by telling them that lightnings only strike those who commit evil deeds. What will the children think when they know there such a thing call lightning rod? Will children that grow up in this internet era think that it is okay to commit crimes since there is lightning rods to be struck in their place?

Mistaken identity

Received this message on facebook:

WOW! Was juz browsing thru and saw U sia! Peixin PRIMARY sch, Pri 1-1 and 2-1?!!! WOWW! HAHHAHAHhA! Haf A sMashing gOOd day! ENjOyz!

The problem is I am not from Peixin Primary School. Now I know there is someone who looks like me with the same name as me out there.

A Semester Cycle

Interesting mail I received.

Hope this is not what you are encountering now. hahha

New school semester:


At the first week:


At the second week:


Before the mid-term test:


During the mid-term test:


After the mid-term test:


Before the final exam:


Once know the final exam schedule:


7 days before final exam:


6 days before final exam:


5 days before final exam:


4 days before final exam:


3 days before final exam:


2 days before final exam:


1 day before final exam:


A night before final exam:


1 hour before final exam:


During the final exam:


Once walk out from the exam hall:


After the final exam, during the holiday:

ippt

Furthest sbj ever and slowest 2.4 in 9 years. But no more ippt for a year.

Break!

Hall life is sure hectic. IBG, SNDCC, Buaya week and DnD is really too much for 6 six weeks. Shouldn't had played buaya week. Although I tried my best and had considerable amount of lameness and fun, I think I kinda disappointed my buaya and buayee. Now, I have to find a nice present to compensate.

Organising DnD (and SNDCC) is surely an unique experience. Although it was quite xiong at times, the comm never failed to have fun.

Finally it's midterm break when I can try to finish my projects and catch up with sleep.

Divided into two

I think better when I jog alone, but I still can't comprehend how a "family" community has to end up like this. Those who just can't accept things, just had to make things unacceptable when such decisions won't affect them. Those (more like that) who don't know things, just had to make things more complicated by jumping on the bandwagon.

Childish thoughts keep running through my mind that will make the current not-so-nice situation worse than before. How come this shit has to happen within the blk that I m in? I must not be childish.

7 deadly sins of meeting

Sin #1: People don't take meetings seriously. They arrive late, leave early, and spend most of their time doodling.

Sin #2: Meetings are too long. They should accomplish twice as much in half the time.

Sin #3: People wander off the topic. Participants spend more time digressing than discussing.

Sin #4: Nothing happens once the meeting ends. People don't convert decisions into action.

Sin #5: People don't tell the truth. There's plenty of conversation, but not much candor.

Sin #6: Meetings are always missing important information, so they postpone critical decisions.

Sin #7: Meetings never get better. People make the same mistakes.


Ripped it off from some website. Sad to say, all meetings I ever attended are guilty of at least 5 of the 7 listed sins. Maybe NUS (and ah gong's army) should start a module on meeting management or even make it a university requirement module.

Death of face to face talk

Received 5 emails from a certain group seemingly quarreling about some ambiguous issues. Somehow, with emails, people can no long talk face to face and differences have to be settled with emails (and broadcast to innocent parties who most likely don't know what is going on). I can imagine 5 years later, I would be sitting in front of my boring officer computer, receiving heated arguments between parties who just can't bear the sight of each other to hold a normal face to face conversation (or hold a conversation with each other using an ancient technology call telephone). Most likely, I won't know what happened but I would still be receiving the mails, thanks to the power of "carbon copying". How exciting my future office life will be?

Vietnam 07

Took me quite a while to write something about the trip. Finally gathered enough motivation after my first paper in 3 months is over.


Flew to Ho Chi Ming City with Jetstar. We kinda paid more than we should. The very next day after we paid for the tickets, Jetstarasia decided to come up with a $2 promotion. What a good omen!


Day 1:

Checked in to a wonderful guesthouse "Blue River Hotel". The staffs there are simply fantastic. The facilities there are new and clean. With aircon, attached bathroom, cable television and free internet usage, it cost 6 USD per pax per night. How I wish they have this everywhere in the world.

Dumping our bags, we embarked on a "7 hours City Tour" recommended by our little blue book.
With a little Holland all thanks to ____ (I shan't mention name) and a few short cuts, we managed to keep the tour to within 7 hours with plenty of rest in between. Some (mis)adventures also took place: chased by dogs, vendors, disrupting traffic flow.

First meal in Vietnam, at Pho 24, just before walking round district 1.


Different sizes of noodles.

Kanghao with a street vendor prior to being harassed by a coconut drink vendor for 2 whole streets

Overcoming the language barrier to buy a cup of "mix ice" desert. It took two NUS students to do the job with a wtf hand sign (look carefully and you shall see) from Alex.

Final Destination "Jade Emperor Pagoda". I was sincerely hoping to see something grand. Maybe not as grand as the grand palace of Thailand but at least a little taller (my understanding of pagodas is that they are supposed to be tall), bigger and filled with a few more statues of deities. This is seriously not a site worth visiting for Singaporeans who have see many many more variety of temples in their lives. This is not withstanding the fact that this is the most out of the way tourist attraction in the city tour.

Concluded day one with ~20 fake pirated adiddas polo tees.


Day 2:

Dragged ourselves out of bed and had our first breakfast in Vietnam. We asked for coffee but they served us both coffee and tea. That is where we learn that vietnamese usually starts the day with a cup of tea.

Took a long bus ride to Cao Dai Temples. It's a temple built like a Christian church decorated with Buddhist lotus, emphasis place on direction like in Islam and Taoist influences in its rites. There are another 3 religions involved but I can't really remember. It was really an eye opener.

Front view of the temple


Different colours symbolise different "religion"

With so many tourist staring at them, taking pictures with flashes on, they still carried on with the mess.

Visited Chu Chi tunnels, indigenous product of Vietnam war and a very popular tourist destination now. Watch a super low quality video that was produced like 20 years ago? The irony is that it is shown on a huge plasma screen that will cost me more than a year worth of allowance. There's more than tunnels in that place. It's is more like a open concept museum that show case how the people lived in the extreme conditions during VW. The highlight is the tunnel where I gave up on the first exit and some ang mos didn't even bother to try since they know they will be stuck somewhere along the tunnel.

After crawling through 30 m of the infamous tunnels

Concluded the day with more than 100 hours worth of DVDs


Day 3:

Mekong delta day. Took boats everywhere in the region. Visited honey farm. Took pictures with python. Witnessed coconut sweet production line.

Kanghao tasting the wind.

Snakes like this are available everywhere for people to take picture.

Straw hats with a plastic cover.

Concluded the day with more DVDs and polo tees.

Day 4:

The designated shopping day. I bought a cheapo backpack that look sturdy enough for 12 USD. Walking in the crowded Ben Thiam Market for the next 2 hours was quite physically and more importantly, mentally demanding.

Ate Pho at Pho 2000 a shop patronized by Bill Clinton when he visited Vietnam. More shopping followed.

Girls went for their long awaited pedi and mani cures, Kanghao went to for his hair styling. Gary and I made our way back to our room. My last meal there was from the fast food chain a shrimp burger, supplemented by a baguette with some fillings from a road side store right next to it.

Concluded the day with a flight back to SG!