The adventure continues - Copenhagen

On with our second and last day in Copenhagen.. and what better way to explore the bike city than joining a bike tour? So we did some last min googling and decided to join Mike's Bike tour. It's a daily tour where e guide, Mike, brings pple arnd the city on bikes. if you want to join u just appear at the bike shop beside the train station at 1030am. Problem was he didnt turn up. After waiting for lk 45 min and we getting the helpful pple at e bike shop call him couple of times, we gave up.
In the end we decided to go on our own bike tour. With 2 other new frens we made (both wanted to join e bike tour too), Josh and Hans. Hans' parents are Danish (tho' he stays in US) hence he has been to Denmark many times, so he was e navigator of our tour. Josh was a student studying in US and was in town to kapo about COP15. It was an unexpected turn of events but nonetheless v enjoyable. It was really interesting to hear abt their travel/life stories too.

Copenhagen is really bike friendly and most of the streets in the city has a bike lane. There are many pple biking and you really feel safe tho' cars r just zooming past right by you. Strangely, both Koh and I didnt feel tired/aches after all the cycling. I guess it's really the weather, cant tink of any other reasons.

We covered most of the city (courtesy of the bike shop pple who shared with us Mike's bike tour route) but frankly i know nuts abt wat we saw. in fact, right now i only rem the little mermaid, tis other statue beside e mermaid, with a fat man sitting on a thin man, the Stroget, Nyhavn, tis star-shaped island.


We had lunch at one of the restaurants along Nyhavn (this famous street along the canal). Debs had one of his fav meal of his entire trip. He had a 'smorrebrod' which simply means open sandwich, with pickled herring. He totally feel in love with pickled herring and was always on a lookout for it.

After lunch we bid gdbye to our newfound frens and went to catch our plane to Happy Land (Amsterdam)!!!

- to be continued -

i am back..

for how long.. i duno.. at least for this trip i guess :)
want to record down the stuff i did so that i have somewhere to refer to when my memory fails me (which is like all the time)

anw.. lets start w my 5-yr anni! (which is today/yday depending on which timezone we're talking abt) been w debs for 5 years now..
we were trying to recall how we celebrated our anni e past 4 yrs and we both couldnt rem!
sigh.. so we re-read my blog! haha. but out of e 4 yrs i only blogged abt 1 yr's anni,
so the other 3 yrs are still a mystery to us, and will prob remain that way.

this yr, for our 5 yr anni, we picked a nice chic restaurant, vapiano, which we spotted walking arnd yday in stockholm in the ostermalm area. in fact, it took us lk a while to realise it was a restaurant coz e e interior was so cool and modern.
the crowd was young and and the whole atmosphere was good.
e ordering style is somewhat like marche/shokudo (we only found out after we went in)
so we were each given a card and could choose any area to sit
we ordered a pasta, the chef cooks right before you with fresh ingredients and sauces.
we also ordered a pizza. they used the beeping device tat beeps when your food is ready so you dont have to wait arnd. so far ive only seen it in e US. we also had some local beer (duno wat we drank). hahas.
den on to part 2 which is just champagne, our fav, asti martini.
over here, it's like in US where they have specialised shops selling liquor.
according to my bro, the suppermarkets are only allowed to sell liquor up to alcoholic content of 5%. to buy liqour/wine/beer with higher alcoholic content, you gotta go to the specialised shops called system bologet.

anw.. 5 yrs is an aweful long time! cant believe we made it so far.
i asked debs during tis entire period, when he tinks we were most happy, and he said now.
reason-we have money to do wat we wan now, eg. our trip to scandinavia
for me, i guess the happiest period would have to be when we got tog, coz everyting was fresh, new and exciting back den :)
i guess we are both happy with the way tings are now, thats wat's most impt.

ok.. time to post abt the trip.

DAY 1
First day in stockholm! From the airport, we took a real fast train called Arlanda Express to the city centre. took 15 min and it was so clean and efficient. Pple in this region are really huge on conservation/recycling. The heaters/radiators they use for winter is actually the by-product heat that comes from their industrial plants. They also give you incentive to recycle your bottles and cans by placing machines in supermarts where you can recycle these and get cash back. Pple in this region cycle alot too! (more later).

My bro n his gf, Jaime, came to the central station to meet us. and after a quick (but expensive) lunch, we headed to his university. Extremely pretty! too bad no pics to show. but just imagine the sch buildings/hostels are spread out across a huge piece of land and everywhere you turn looks lk something that came out of e postcard. sigh. if you put me here i def will look forward to sch everyday!

so after putting down our luggage and putting on more layers of clothes, my bro brought us arnd the city centre.

We came by a xmas market selling all kinds of xmasy stuff.
it is actually v similar to our CNY market in chinatown, except that instead of pussy willow, they have xmas trees, instead of the dried sausages/ducks they have salmon/cheese/meat. There was a huge open air ice skating ring too! ryan and i went back another day to skate! hahas. e whole atmosphere was really warm and nice. they also had these stands with burning logs where you can warm your hands. v cool.

for dinner, my bro wanted us to have a uniquely swedish experience so he suggested bbq-ing (alternative to camp fire).
we went to e mart bought some chicken fillet/potatoes/salmon/falukorv (traditional swedish sausage made of pork and beef, traditionally it is made of horse meat, lucky for us, this is not the case now, btw this is mad delicious!! lk damn yumyum!!).
we prepared the food and went for a short hike through the forest and came to a 'camp site'.
it was by a lake and it was pitch dark by e time we got there. totally eerie!!
anw, e food was good and it was a really different experience.
the weather is so cold that having e charcoal burning is so soothing and warm, unlike in spore so sticky and hot. after dinner,
we went back to his hostel to have a round of drinking game.
didnt noe my bro's gf could drink so well.
we spent the first nite bunkin in w my bro and i totally concussed coz of e jet lag

DAY 2

We caught an early flight to Copenhagen the nxt day. we were there just 1 day before the start of the COP 15 hence there was alot of buzz all over the town, right from the airport when we landed. and coz of the COP15 the accom there was so limited and ex. luckily we got our air tix at a reasonable price. But it's really v interesting coz of COP15. there were posters everywhere, the WWF artic tent with the melting polar bear and the future city and the prep of the hopenhagen concert. Everyting, everywhere and everyone were pretty hyped up! too bad we didnt have time to head down to the Bella Centre which was the centre of all the action. Our first meal there we tried a Danish restaurant, pretty good food but e portions were enormous! and coz we were cold and hungry, ah koh opted for the buffet and ended up so full from lunch tat we didnt have dinner. first day in copenhagen was just spent walking at the stroget, which is tis long pedestrain street w lotsa shops. did i already mention that tings here are freaking ex? lk FREAKING ex!! hahas. we obviously did not buy anyting coz everyting here we could get in spore for cheaper!our lunch alr cost us abt 70-80 sing! (ok lar, it was a gd lunch n we had drinks.. haha)

As mentioned, the accom was real expensive. we manage to get ourselves a budget hotel and that cost lk $190 a nite. it's called CABINN hotel. so as u can imagine, the room is wat u would typically get in a cruise cabin. haha. real tiny but ok lar.. clean and was a gd resting place for our tired legs!

some pics of the events from the COP15.. first day was spent just walking arnd aimlessly till there was no more daylight (abt 4pm?)

more later.. haven uploaded the pics. im already at day 8 of my trip alr! almost at e halfway mark! yikes!!!

i am SPLENDID

or so the shirt im wearing says.
i own 2 little miss shirts.
n both says im SPLENDID.
so i guess i am indeed splendid!
hahas. both werent bought/chosen by me.
they were just randomly given to me.
n yes, both r fr bkk
which im goin in less than 2 wks.
yay! purw shopping trip w e goldies.
hope e weaher wont kill.
n hope there wont b anymore protests

been bz at work.
oso duno wat e hell for.
seriously.
haven had time to really sit n think abt wat i wan out of my life
just living each day as it is.
not that it's a bad ting.
n not like i'll get any answers even if i really think hard

love life's been pretty gd.
nothin to elaborate on.
just tat im quite sick of pple askin me when im getting married

i feel lk i need to exercise.
n i feel tat i want to dance
DANCE DANCE DANCE

my blog is so boring even i dont read it

actually i wonder if pple do read their own blogs?
i mean i do but obv not on a daily/frequent basis
everyone who knows me well w noe that i have a pea-sized brain
in other words, i have super bad memory
it's not e selective kind where i choose to forget unhappy stuff or anyting lidat
i just dont rem stuff!
it takes a HUUUUUUUGE amt of effort for me to keep track of wat has happen/is happen/ is goin to happen
i dun rem pple's bday (thank god for fb!)
i dun rem my tutors/proj mates/many other details of my life
ok anw, e pt is, i tink tat bloggin is a great way for me to revisit wat has happened to me in e past
how i felt when i was mayb 21? as compared to now.
whether my circle of frens have changed, do i look fatter etc.
(which btw i find myself in a v undesirable shape at tis moment in my life. to e extend tat running came across my mind just now. scary!)

i guess tis space w b photoless for e nxt half yr or so.
bro brought my cam to sweden. but im oso not e cam whore kind lar
plus everyone has a cam. no pt fighting over who tks e pics
in fact, if i dun bring a cam, e chances of me appearing in pics is actually higher. hahas.

anw goin on a day trip to JB nxt mon.
hope i come back in one piece
goin bangkok w e goldies nxt long wkend
planning to do some major shopping
pls dont let me be disappointed
n my sweden air tix are booked!
thanks to val who nagged me to get my stuff done early

these few days have been feeling weird coz ah koh is not arnd
feeling quite empty and lifeless?
yah.. tats how i feel wo him :(
somehow i dun get to spend much alone time
i find tat im always occupied someway or another
on my way to work either slping/playing iphone
at work bz w work or acting bz
after work usually go out w frens/spend time w bf
i really dont get much alone time lk now (when e bf is not arnd n im only meetin frens later at nite)
alot of times i feel lk im goin through life living e motions
but not really experiencing it
duno how to explain tat kind of feeling

but right now work is duper stressful
everyone's competing to perform
i dun wan to underperform but im just not e achiever kind by nature
i dun lk fighting for recognition blahblah
oh well. corporate world sux

i shall spend some time tokin to my mum n dad now
mummy has been feeling stressed coz of work too.
hai poor ting.

i bet stupid ah koh must b enjoyin himself now on his vice trip
hope he comes back disease-free

i got iPhone!!

yay! i noe it's abit slow but i finally got an iPhone!
now i truely understand y pple love iPhone so much!
im so in love w my phone now!
wheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee~

anw finally went rider's cafe aft so long!
i love e place.. so laid back n e eggs were divine!


kk.. shall go back to playin w my phone! yay!

anyone needs financial consulting?

helping my mum to advertise. i mean everyone needs to buy insurance/financial products at some pt in their lives. it's really inevitable. it's just when you realise it. so if anyone requires any help/assistance in tis area, pls look for me n i can refer my mum!! guarantee wont pressure you into purchasin anyting lar. seriously! 

i tink pple generally feel turn off when they hear e word 'insurance' but ive seen n heard how it has benefitted pple (fr my mum of coz) n i noe how impt it really is. shall spare u all fr e soppy stories.

basically i tink insurance is really damn chim lar. n there's lk all kinds of new prods all e time. but for a layman lk me i would tink there's basically 4 kinds:

1) health/medical

2) savings/investment

3) life

4) misc eg. car/housing

yeaa.. there are some lk health/investment plans that u can just purchase using cpf. rather den letting your money (but u cant touch) sit idle. shd get these plans which w really benefit u n fam. i tink it's just as impt (if not more) to make sure ur parents r adequately covered as well (since we'll b e ones footing e bill in future). my dad didnt manage to upgrade his medisave plan n even if he wans to now, no companies w accept him coz of his diabetes. so these kind of tings u really cant wait. 

for life plans, i feel it's more for your love ones lar. u wont benefit fr it coz u'll prob b dead when they get e money. hahas. so it's more lk a inheritance u leave behind. n hsing/car insurance u need them for obv reasons.

i feel tat if u're workin, there's no reason to not set aside some funds for someting tat's so impt. yea so to cut e long story short, pls look for me friends if u ever wan to consider getting any of such plans.

ART - no experience is neccessary

or so they say. 

running out of places to go/ tings to do.

we decided to go museuming.

n as expected, ms tan couldnt grace us with her presence once again.

ey ms tan, u better appear soon if not WAT babes goin to kick u out of e circle!

and so off we go to SAM. did a lil research online n found they had a new contemporary arm called the 8Q. so we went there instead.

the entrance was only 3 bucks!

there were 2 exhibitions goin on.

1) At home abroad - featured works of 5 local artist who have shown their works overseas. e one that stood out for me was tis guy who made a 22min film in german (w eng sub) n he was in it as abt 10 characters throughout the entire show. no co-stars no nothing (except there was one dancing scene i tink it was too technically challenging to super-impose himself dancing with himself). it's lk in one frame he can be the waitress, the customer, the owner of the bar all at once in different disguise. frankly e storyline sucked (totally lk ?!??!!!?). his acting skill was poor, the cross dressing was hideous. but at the end of e day it was super entertaining. it took us abt 3-5min before realising that all e characters were played by the same guy. haha. ah chua was e first to notice! good eye ah chua!

most of e other exhibits made no sense to me. 

2) This is not print! - this was more boring for me coz it was more of painting/drawings on e wall and sculptures. non-interactive stuff.

all in all totally enjoyed myself. we had e whole museum to ourselves. im not kidding, there was only 1 other ang moh which we bumped into once. other den that it was just e 3 of us. which is prob y i did enjoy myself coz we could just laff and comment on the art works w/o feeling silly.

after that was dinner at secret garden where the topic of our conversation was centered around childbirth/boys/rats/cake. felt as if we haven met up in lk a gazillion yrs coz we all couldnt stop yanking. oh well, till nxt time. n ah tan u better turn up!

love in e air

attended my coach's wedding last fri.

it was a v simple dinner, no cheesy games or entrances.

we had abt 7 tables fr our office 

shows how popular and well liked she is 

me with some of e gals fr my batch.

u noe e saying abt e bride is always e prettiest on her wedding day

all e glow on e face shit

i really tink it's true!

just look at e photo. she's totally radiating!

with everyone on my table.

e groom was pretty gd looking.

it's my first time seeing him.  

he was choking back his tears when giving is speech on stage

awww...

had a lot of gd meals recently.

tried double bay at raffles city last wk w koh's fam as a be-early mother's day cum bf's bday meal. 

e food was gd. e portions were huge. 

but it's really quite a rip off. 

had dim sum @ paramount hotel for my own mother's day cele. 

fam not goin to b arnd for tat wkend too. 

i just lovelovelove dim sum.

anw quite glad to see both my ah mas.

now tat my ah ma dont stay w me i basically dont see much of both of them.

so gd to know they are both happy :)

n i so miss my ah ma's soups 

since she moved out i haven been goin home for dinner. much. 

went for another dim sum spread at imperial treasure at tampines one e very nxt day.

told u i was a fan of dim sum :)

their xiao long bao is super juicy man! 

though i was already full to e brim i couldnt bring myself to waste e last xiao long bao.

today went demsey for samy's curry!

their dahl + naan combi is out of tis world!

i also loved the way they serve

u dun eat on plates.

basically u get seated n they place tis banana leaf in front of u.

den u just rattle off some dishes u wan

n they bring it to u on ur banana leaf

just imagine cai fan but they bring e dishes to u.

they were generous on e serving n e price is reasonable. service superb. w def b back.

hais. long wkend is over.

time to return to work n fight fight fight!!

happy for e guys my batch who are graduating.

hope they find jobs soon if they haven already.

debs's bday is nxt wk!

yikes!! ive got some idea wat to get him n where to bring him but haven made concrete plans yet.

my debs is getting OLD.

work and play

that's me! working v hard. just look at e pile of files surrounding me. hee. tat was work during secondment (which has sadly ended). my temporary workstation was also known as e 'fishtank' coz the partition we had was made of glass. n from the outside it looks lk a fishtank. anw e last 3 mths was prob e slackest i've had at work (not considering when i just join the firm). n im totally missing it. loved e view! it was so easy to just drift and stone away. lookin at small pple n car, tinking abt where to go for lunch. best part - no one could see my comp screen and it was super secluded. oh well.

debs (my new nickname for e bf) had off last fri so i took leave n we went sentosa for a lil picnic! yay to sun/sea/champagne! but tis is one activity tat is halfway into my 'murtaugh' list.

pple who watch HIMYM would noe wat's a 'murtaugh' list. n pple who watch HIMYM would noe tat HIMYM stands for How I Met Your Mother. hee. anw it's an awesome awesome show! i find myself learning alot from the show. made me see lotsa stuff from diff perspective and i can truly relate to e show. anw, 'murtaugh' list refers to a list of tings which you're too old to do. its origins comes from Roger Murtaugh who acted in Lethal Weapon and his tagline was 'i'm too old for this'.

ok. aft so much digression, e reason for picnic at sentosa being listed in my 'Murtaugh' list is coz of e headache tat came aft. i haven had it tis bad in a looong time! n i swear we were under the shade 98% of the time. the sun really gets to me these days. 

but someting gd did happen. actually e day was fantastuc b4 the headache set in. anw, i got reminded of e honeymood period of our relationship. when we were packin up to leave, debs threw a whole bucket of ice on me! like @#&$*###$%%!!!!! haha. i obv retaliated. tis made me aware of how comfortable we've been w each other which as a result took away some of e craziness we had in our early days.

off hand some of the craziest tings we did:

- spray each other w those coloured stuff/snow during our first xmas (we were running and screaming arnd hall)

- our water war. it was really war ok! triggered by mr ryan koh who planted a PAIL of water in my rm, on top of my door such tat when i opened the door to enter my rm, i got drenched!

- drawing silly stuff on each other using marker pens. i had to rub my face so hard to wash e ink off aft

- throwing me into the pool (countless instances)

- the constant slamming me (tink WWF). but tat was when koh was still fit and i was still light. haha. 

- we pitched a 'tent' using comforters and strings in my room once to pretend we were camping. haha.

and of coz one of e most memorable tings he's done for me - making glow-in-e-dark butterflies and pasting them all over my rm for my 19th bday.

hee. i am a lucky gal :)

Bintan w/o ah tan

great trip w great company :)
yay to bintan!

mesmerized by mraz

first i must start of by thanking hj!!!

thanksss babe for askin me along for tis. 

if not im sure i would have missed a great show
loved every bit of e concert! 

his vocals are incredible!

although i only know his more popular songs

i totally enjoyed myself

right from the start to the end!

he was funny, he lookd gd, he engaged e crowd, his band was fantastic 

n the atmosphere was just great!

(i suspect 99% of e concert goers were under 30)

so YAY for the great time!

took 2 days leave.

now feelin sian coz tml need to go back to work

oh well

shall look forward to tis sat! BINTAN!

it's been postponed but nothin can deter us!!

it better not rain when we're there!

plspls dun rain!

good sunday

me n koh went for lunch at pasta fresca
it's my new fav italian place
been there twice in 3 days alr!
their menu is really extensive n it's not all that ex

den when we came back it was pouring
so we ran in the rain. haha. it was fun.
haven done crazy tings in a while.
now im all dripping wet
goin to bathe now. b4 i catch a cold :)

totally lookin forward to jason mraz!
n my bintan trip comin wkend! yay!

where is my pot of treasure?

caught red handed

ah koh did someting really out of e blue yday. 

he came to surprise me at my hse at nite. 

he's back in jurong camp for reservist tis wk.

but he can book out at nite (thou he told me he'll stay in coz no transport so no pt travellinig back n forth)

n he just appeared at my doorstep unannounced yday.

in e end, e surprise was all his. hahas.

i happen to be out with perry.

i tried to tell him but he was in camp (read no communication) 

i called him b4 i went out (but he didnt pick up)

but lucky for him. we were just in e neighbourhood. planned to go cheesecake cafe at siglap but was closed.

so in e end went back my hse to pick him n e 3 of us went for drinks.

ok here's some background. 

perry's my ex-bf though i just tink of him as a gd fren now lar. it's been way too long anw. 

aiyah. e pt of my whole story is im glad e 2 of them get along so well.

n im really glad my bf isnt e jealous kind. 

i mean looking at e facts man, it doesnt look gd rt.

bf in camp, den i go out w ex-bf behind his back (unintentionally lar)

i tink normal guys might tink otherwise. 

oh n im really glad perry's attached now. hope tis one last. she's a gd catch man.

 

sad life

yea. i just cooked myself some instant noodles.

n tat's after i drove myself out to buy e instant noodles (didnt feel lk eating anyting else alone)

can u believe it? there's nothing edible at home!

except CNY goodies which doesnt count.

such a sad life. parents out having fun. 

bf having fun in camp (just called me saying he drank 6 cans of beer! lk hello! i noe it's cheap but u dun have to die there!)

me. sad lil soul stuck at home 

for pple who duno me. or not well enuff.

i need to tk my meals. at mealtimes.

i NEED to eat. if not i'll feel faint, get a headache or just feel unwell. u noe. lk cant function properly.

i dun snack. not usually anw.

coz i eat proper food during mealtimes.

tat was 1 huge prob when ah koh n i had drastically diff lifestyles 

hence slping patterns during my first yr at work while he was in his final yr.

i always woke up early feelin hungry while he just snores away. 

den i have to wait lk 2-3hrs for him to wake up/wash up b4 we grab food

usually after much of my whinning/ kicking/ threatening

yea. vday came n went. funniest ting was when i joined e gang at settlers at smu on fri (vday eve).

i was commenting 'where got pple buy vday gift from robinsons one!' (refering to tis huge robinson bag beside chris) n in e end, it turned out to b my vday gift! hahas! shall reveal wat it is in my nxt post!

p.s. im v surprised n touched at e same time tat there r still pple reading tis! im really encouraged to blog more frequently again :)

help me!

i dun wan to stop blogging. really.
it's just tat most of e time im too lazy.
i tink tis l-word is ruining my life. seriously!
i tink being lazy is one of my worst character traits.
pple who noe me w noe e extend of my laziness.
sometimes even i amaze myself.
n it's not just laziness. it evolves.
becoz of my laziness i tend to b more passive
u noe.. not so on e ball. only do tings being thrown to me (if absolutely necessary)
over time tis got ingrained in me n i adopt a 'take it easy' kinda attitude to life.
the way i see tings is tat there's nothin tat i can live w/o
everyting happens for a reason. no need to fight it unnecessarily
tis 'chill' perspective to life worked pretty well for me in e past
but now im at a point in life where i feel tat my time is running out
in fact i've been tinkin tat for some time now
there's a million tings i wanna do before i die
life is slipping thru my fingers.
it's high time i chuck tis heck care attitute aside for sometime
n really do tings tat i will regret not doing
so i need some help frens. a nudge or a push. anyting!
need to slip myself out of tis comfort zone for a while to do tings i've nv dreamt of doing.
den i can come back to this kind of life
so pls help!
anw.. didnt blog to tok abt my laziness.
but dun feel lk bloggin alr.
till nxt time (which shdnt take too long if i do manage to change)

2009 JDI!

it's a new year!

hope everyone will have a gd year ahead.

be blessed with good health. gd luck and gd fortune!

as e years pass n i grow older

i feel a stronger need to live every moment of my life

n i mean really live

not just breathin in air kinda live u noe?

i feel lk i cant afford to waste time pondering whether or not to do/buy/try/join some tings

my advice to all: JUST DO IT!

2009 shall be a JDI year!