came across the idea today that Singapore is clean not because we want it to be, but because of the hard work of an "army of maids and cleaners". How truly enlightening. its terribly irksome when i see someone littering. but perhaps the problem has always existed just that enforcement has only been stepped up recently and the superficial cleanliness has been ripped off to reveal the ugly nature of Singaporeans. or perhaps we have been so complacent of the Lion City's clean and green reputation that people are starting to take things for granted and think a cig butt wont hurt. and its down the slippery slope we go, like when will it be that ONE CO2 molecule too many in the atmosphere? education alone isnt enough; only when we take a collective stand and act (talk about moral courage)against littering can we truly overcome this bad habit of ours. how badly do we really want a clean and green place to live in or is it just the economic sense behind it that really drives us?
a ludicrous solution for a ludicrous problem - a 10k fine should set things straight...

Blessed 2008 everyone!

was reading the papers today when i saw that the ST gp was exuberant for it's 40 years of existence. sure, by all means it's good that we are self-sufficient in terms of protecting ourselves, but being proud of marketing ammunition and weapons and what not around the world, of them being used in wars around the world now? how can someone be proud of perpetrating violence and destruction, i can never understand. weapons mongers must be only slightly better off than drug-mongers. sure, if you dont do it, im sure someone else will but why be the one? seriously.

Had the first 37th ignis gathering in 2 years! it was really enjoyable to meet up with the rest, even though 5 of them couldnt make it, largely due to being physically absent from the island nation. So 7 of us happily trotted to youk's house, where he graciously hosted a BBQ session together with his brother. the joy and art of BBQ-ing meats are slowly revealing itself, from the ORD Chalet to Xmas eve dinner to today and hopefully New Year's eve. And the night culminated in charades which was characteristically, ignISsSss. :D Shouldnt try to describe too much lest it mars the experience of the night. as always, dont try to re-discover or get the same feel from relieving the experience twice - the next time is always not as satisfying. can only look forward to the next one (cos it's not relieving an experience but another add-on) where hopefully more people can turn up. at least there was something to look forward to after work.

meeting wx tmr for kuishin bo. there needs to be some form of proper regulation. seriously.

This xmas i stayed home, feeling pensive since it's that time of the year again. as i was thinking of sec sch to JC (surprisingly i IMed yunshan abt our class gathering that i didnt attend) and to NS and i thought of the path that lie ahead, i thot it's time for closure and to move on. That of course doesnt mean that all acquaintances be forgotten and never brought to mind, but to not always linger in a state of hiding behind the pretence of youth and adolescence. Admit it people, you are getting old, archaic in fact. if your NRIC doesnt start with a "9" or "0", start thinking of geriatrics. it is always about what we leave behind AND what we gain in the days ahead. NS wasnt a bad experience, it was just different and different doesnt equate to bad. and, whether some people will be there at your funeral or fade into oblivion, only time will tell.

Moving on, i have ~8 mths to fill. language and music lessons, anyone?

Haji yesterday was a well-deserved break. Having been working for a few weeks now, a certain sense of relief washed over me as the clock strucked midnight on haji. even though im non-muslim, im glad that we celebrate this religious holdiday, simply because it was a respite from work.

Met up with the hou twins (how remarkably alike twins can look like!!!) tekko, arabko and andy and samuel (who i always see). Seems like RJ and NS changed the twins alot. sheng especially, who is SOOo much more mature now, a far cry from his ah-beng days. zheng's leaving for umich in about a wk's time and i wish to go see him off, just that the hours are really unearthly.

the meeting was nostalgic - we talked abt many things that happened in class, the most hum-drum events that meant the world to us back that. the significance of bert's slime, mr vink and yes meneo's features. all the, in retrospect, childish things that we used to do, the nicknames that we used to give, the cliques that we used to have. there are not many people that you meet in years and are able to talk to like you have known each other since time immemorial. im grateful that there are some, most from sec sch, some from ns and probably a handful from JC. pt is, there are some who fade into oblivion and that's really a pity, especially those whom dun even bother to reciprocate our efforts. it's really how much we want it, isn't it?

soon it's time to matriculate and everyone seems to be flying off. a gd half at least. i'll miss many things but perhaps i'll be more surpised by what i'll see when i return. who knows some people may already be fathers by then. :)

It's time to round up the 1st 20 years of life and move on. Life goes on. what was will now always be. closure is good.


Xmas will be here soon. this yr's festive season is a rather pensive one. time to catch up and reminisce of the past. time to stock take and be grateful for wad's good. to know what's not so good and move ahead in the correct direction. one of the few moments when i dont feel that there is always not enough time. i guess i'll come back, see people married, working, wretched, metamorphosised and ask myself what did i miss and left behind? and perhaps at the other end, the others will ask the same.

Taipei was rush, frenzy and excitement all rolled into one. Upon arrival, we headed straight for , braving the chilly winds and messy traffic. The square was a dizzy mix of neon signboards of myriad colours, a showcase of food, apparel, accessories and everyday needs all cramped into one dingy little walkway. Many shops had sales and offers due to the changing of seasons but prudence was the order of the day as the best was yet to be. My focus was, of course, on the many street bites that i had missed the last time round i was in taipei. At 2300, wanting to make full use of the time there, i suggested going to huaxi night market where there really wasnt much. i can only remember the melt-in-your-mouth yoghurt mochis (why arent they available here!?!?), the rather special watch that brandon bought and some itinerant hawkers peddling secondhand phones at ridiculously low prices, which made me doubt the quality of the goods. That made one whole night of solid walking.

Day two was early. too early. despite walking to taipei main station after breakfast, NONE of the shops in the underground mall was open at 1000 hrs. so after walking further down, we stumbled upon a cake shop that had great curry biscuits but i didnt buy those, preferring to wait till the last day at some out of the way shop in nanking east rd sec 5 :( and a tw version of poh kim / laser flair / wadhaveyou a few shops down. on to shinkong mitsukoshi and to this obscure shop with really tacky designs going on sale and back down to the station before deciding that we shld visit yuanling shoe st via beautiful 228 peace park (must have been the weather), where we overstayed and hence did not visit Guting and dintaifung & kaoji. re-supp at the hotel and on to shida night market, where we broke contact at the mrt station... better to read the LED signs outside the carriage doors... more streetfood and more shopping but it wasnt really the best of the many night markets we visited. would say that most of the vendors are student-entrepreneurs...but its not as bad as wad teddy said about nothing there. the XuJi SHengJianBaos were fantastic!!! and having tried many variations of those during the whole trip, i shld say that those were the best. unfortunately Gongguan was closed on wednesdays, to our horror and finding out only upon arriving, marking an early end to day 2.

Having learnt our lesson in day 2, we started later to Danshui on thursday, taking the train then walking towards YuRenMaTou to do a brief recce of the shops selling fish crackers and iron eggs, amidst others. only halfway through the traipse along the river did we realise that it wasnt a effective use of time walking so we bussed there. :) Lover's bridge and the surrounding area was picturesque but that was it. The cool weather helped of course but there really didnt seem to be alot of ppl there. probably cos it was a wkday. but Ah-ge WAS delicious (bean vermicelli wrapped in tofu skin and topped with a fishcake and bathed in sweet braised sauce). i wonder why some things were never brought to singapore like the bubble tea craze. and on the way back we decided to walk through the shops again to get the fish crackers and iron eggs and various other items that my friends got save me, who was really more interested in the food and quaint offerings native to the region. after walking for the day, it was a wise decision to deposit the stuff back at the hotel before training to Shilin. God forbid us trying to squeeze through the crowd carrying bags of crackers and eggs and whathaveyou. from 7 till 11, we split up and ploughed the streets of shilin night market. for some parts i felt like a zombie, too exhausted to think and choose. Just trudged on whereas jianhao really seemed to be in his element. eyes simply lit up at many of the wares on display. haha and i thought i bought too much for my own good. turned out that i had some of the least to check in coming back, haha. but the food centre was where i had some of my best meals. every other meal was eat-as-you-walk, one of the few things that i didnt really like, come to think of it.

Day 4 saw us getting conned by daniel's recommendation. after walking from zhongxiaoshinsheng to fuxing and going up to this shoe store, we realised that it was a predominantly ladies' ware kind of place. mega bummer. but at least we got to see the not-so-touristy streets of taipei :D taipet 101 (yi-ling-yi, not yao-ling-yao as jianhao likes to say) was really not for us. too many armanis - the paragon of taipei, whereas NYNY had nothing... shinkong mitsukoshi was where we got this wonderful ice-cream mochi. and ESLITE book store was like the candy house of bookstores. bring it to singapore and i guess borders and kino would have to buck up really really hard. pity i couldnt really explore all levels of that place. :( linjiang st night market was really far from eslite but we braved the especially chilly winds that night and walked there, relying on the ground topo which i had not done in ages, but thanks to the map and my limited knowledge of chinese, we found our way there. :D linjiang was really cramped and dingy and was really nothing much, just more well-lit than shida. and we didnt get to see mr baozi, which brandon did - a brillant innovation of east-meets-west: baos disguised as donuts. haha really pretty. wonder how they taste. raohe on the other hand, was much more organised (unlike shilin), spacious (unlike linjiang) and had a good range of wares (unlike shida) AND delicious salad prawn fritters. mmm :P and there was this really friendly vendor who chased us all the way out of the night market for fear that his instructions were unclear and we'd loose our way. deeply regret not getting the red jacket from him that i really liked. oh well.

after 4 days of solid walking, i was beginning to feel the aches all over my feet,knees and thighs. so on the last day of last-minute shopping to get what-we-liked-but-did-not-before or see what-we-want-but-did-not-before, i took a bus back to nanking east rd sec 5 and got those highly recommended, award winning pineapple tarts from this out of the way shop (paid a hefty price too) then bussed to song shan rd to get to houshanpi station after taking directions from this really friendly obasan. haha. bussing alone in a foreign land was fun. toured wufenpu but most shops were closed till much later, when we were about to leave. no luck with the jacket and hence, back to ximen to get yy's shoes, which he didnt get in the end since he didnt like those on display. risotto set for lunch costing less than SGD10 (only had that once here and it was on the verge of $20...) not too bad :D last few hrs leading to the airport transfer was frantic but i guess we still made it. thanks to the driver we got to this cake shop that sold the elusive green bean cakes that brandon's mum really likes - the best i tasted during the trip: soft and chilled, melt-in-your-mouths and adequately sweet so that it did not overpower the flavour of the green bean paste. :D but ironically it was known more for its President's Cakes haha. wadever.

Despite the long boring plane rides, taipei was great with many things to see,eat and buy, not unlike bangkok. of course the wares were different and taipei was much more costly (guess i could go to bangkok twice for a trip to taipei) but we enjoyed taipei immensely, looking at the mortifying amount of stuff that we were lugging at the hotel lobby and at the check-in counter, the only other really embarrassing times being the cam-whoring episodes, especially with jianhao and his D-SLR, which was slung across his neck to announce the arrival of tourists :S i almost didnt dare look the check-in staff in the eye. haha and we were mistaken for starlight troopers but they decided against it in the end as troopers checked in more stuff! haha. dont delude yourself guys, we did check in alot of stuff and i doubt other passengers checked in much more. but isnt that what makes us uniquely singapore? but somehow some vendors mistook us for taiwanese at times hehe like how one assumed i was a student there and most probably owned one of many scooters that were parked along the many walkways of taipei. i'd probably want to visit again, this time to see yangmingshan, take a ferry ride on danshui river, go to a hot spring, visit the night markets, spend more time at eslite, spend time having proper meals and not just trashy stuff along the streets AND go to keelung. for now, it's back to the limbo between ORD and uni, and try to move on with life...