to wonder or to wander?

Pretty decorations @ Orchard Road.

YAY. Thanks to the SITEX IT fair coming up end of this month (27th to 30th Nov) here, I might have a chance of getting my laptop at a cheaper price. Can't wait!

Work today only lasted just over 2 hours for me =) The bad part of this is that I (still) don't get to do actual lab work and spend time/money going to and fro from the workplace. The GOOD part, however, is that I get to explore more places in Singapore.

Who cares if I'm doing that alone anyway?

It's probably not as fun, but I'm slowly getting the hang of exploring new places by myself. This morning, I got off at Jurong mrt, explored the surrounding area a little, bought myself a cup of watermelon bubble tea, sat down at a stool, and people-watched till it was a quarter to 2pm. 

The next 2 hours or so was spent stuck in a meeting with colleagues and two Americans who were here showing us how to use a software for the new platform. It was pretty straightforward, though I fail to see how this so-called training might prove itself useful to me in the future =P One thing I noticed: many locals here (even now) still practise the "caucasian worship culture". They seem to talk more animatedly with angmohs, smile a little too wide, laugh a little to hard at their jokes, etc you get my point. 

Then I went off happily to the library (again!) to read my favourite book series- the Left Behind series. I'm now up to the 2nd last book, which means I finish a book in just two library visits as the stories are too good to NOT read! Tears welled up in my eyes when another character died; I wanted all of them to survive till the end- but of course that's impossible. It's only fiction- but it felt so real- the stories, the characters, the missions. If you're stuck in NZ with nothing to do, I highly recommend you make use of the free facility by the public libraries and borrow the left behind books =)

There's still so many places to see, walk around, take photos, and (not forgetting) shop here. Weekends would be the time to do that. Still getting used to going to church on Saturdays instead of Sundays- looking forward to that huge conference at CHC this Saturday, also I get to meet Jaslin for the first time. My first time meeting face-to-face with someone I got to know through the net, how exciting! 

Meanwhile, I'll keep myself busy uploading some photos onto facebook.

The mosquitoes seem to love me. Now I know why I love the cold weather- no mozzies!

Counting down days to new laptop

Today marks the 11th day in Singapore!

Today was full-on day. I arrived at GIS at 9am-ish, training for a new platform used for microarray was carried out for new/old staff. I didn't have the chance to do hands-on lab work yet, but was grateful of having the chance to learn new things. One thing I learnt was BE CAREFUL not to break even a microarray glass slide, which costs from $1000-2000 each. And it looks like any other microscope slide it's scary that it's so expensive. Even the alignment tool used to ALIGN the slide with a so called mixer costs the same amount as a second hand car in NZ. Don't play play.

Had free lunch courtesy of the trainers/salesmen from a distinguish supplier company. Then training continued till 4pm something. Then I went to observe another group do a totally different field of work- PCR.

Not that any of these make much sense to you.

Anyways. I saw the photos uploaded on facebook. Envy envy those of you still in Dunedin. It may have 1000 times less shops or 100 times less food places, but for me, it's home =)

A few random/not-so-random events which happened today:

1. After texting with my newly made friend (which I have yet to meet)- Jaslin, I confirmed in joining her for church this Saturday at her church, City Harvest Church. Then I got a reply saying that there's a conference going on this weekend and that Ps Benny Hinn is going to be there this Saturday!!! Is this God-given timing or what?
   
2. Was waiting at the mrt station when I saw this familiar face. Guess who? It was none other than...... the singer from pharmacy! aka Lee Hong Meng aka Evans Lee yo-yo. Barely said hello and he was on the phone, rushing off to meet someone already. Gosh I laughed at the coincidence. We both said "What are YOU doing HERE?!" haha. Classic moment.
   
3. I met Kenny Sia on the plane from Kuching to Singapore almost 2 weeks ago. =P
4. I was mistaken for a Muslim. -__-
   
5. I bought pearl milk tea for $1.20!!! So cheap compared to what we paid for those diluted ones from Golden Harvest.
   
6. Speaking of shopping, I bought a pair of shoes (for lab/walking around). I know, I know I have plenty of shoes. NIKE, very nice PURPLE ones ok. I'll claim the 7% tax rebate =)
7. Someone made it very clear to me (again): "WAH so you're actually WORKING during your holidays?" I try to convince myself this is for "the experience". Of course it is.
   

5 more photos for your viewing pleasure.

Orchard Road- taken last week. 

Still 2 months away from Christmas and yet all the pretty colours and lights are out.

Pie Kia OR pai kia?

Btw it's a franchise selling mini pies with many flavours- very yummy, each for $2.20.

View from Greg's place @ Choa Chu Kang. 

Lovely view of the bridge connecting to the grand Raffles Hotel (that big golden building to the left- apparently a very high star hotel). We went in =P

Mirrors everywhere! Janice & I.

An underground pass leading out of Raffles Hotel.

Arrived home past 10pm. I'm getting old. And I can feel my waistline expanding already from the foooood. eeeeks.

SG- the 8th day

Sorry for the lack of updates, guys. I'm planning on a getting a new laptop soon, which would solve my problem of having very limited access to internet. I'm missing Heroes.

My accommodation is settled, or should I say, settled by my parents. They've decided that I continue to stay with my aunts as it'll be a hassle finding another place to stay and moving stuff around. It's not the nearest to work- 4 bus stops, 16 mrt stops (about 1 hour) but it'll do. Can't complain. Poor Ron- his bro's house (where he's staying now) doesn't have the basic furniture, i.e. no washing machine, stove, tv, etc. At least he's buying new furniture, slowly but surely.

Visa problem has been settled. The next problem was that due to the fact that my research supervisor is out of the country until the 24th of Nov AND another lady who's supposed to show me around and tell me what to do is also away at some conference till Tuesday I assume, I've been going to the workplace every day since last Tuesday just to see if she's back at work. Which she hasn't, of course. And no one knows when she's coming back to work, either. So disorganised! I had expected more preparation, really. Oh well. Compared to Ron's case- his supervisor is funny, loves karaoke, and even sang the monkey birthday song to him. And while I had only seen another research officer run a gel, he's done so much lab work already. Jealous-nya...

So what have I been doing in this big apple of Asia?

I've discovered the ultimate place to relax. That place, my friends, is the library. =) There are so many libraries here in SG, the one nearest to me is called Bishan Community Library. Too bad "foreigners" like myself have to pay a close to $50 membership fee to borrow books, but hey nobody said I can't just stay there for hours reading, right? ;) What's more, being the big Left Behind series fan that I am, I was soooo happy to find that this library has at least 2 copies of each book from that series.. and more! Today alone, I spent 3 hours plus reading the 8th out of 12 books in the series, but was sad to find out that one my favourite characters was killed off by the authors in the 8th book... :(

Food, of course, is a big part of the Singaporean lifestyle. I try to not eat at the same place twice, unless the food is super delicious ;) Even tried a special kind of ice cream- it's called milk tea ice cream with bubbles (just like pearl milk tea, but with tiny pearls on the ice cream!) for 4 dollars- quite expensive but can't get it in NZ. I'll try to tick off the food places to visit on my long list soon, would have to google map many of those as have no idea where they are (yet).

I wish people would smile more here. Especially in the mrts, I look around and see people frowning, falling asleep, reading the papers, listening and flaunting their ipods, avoiding eye contacts- anything but smile. All I see are people of all ages/races rushing to their destinations without a care in the world. Once in a while, I'm comforted seeing young people giving up seats in the bus/mrt for the elderly/pregnant.

Anyway. Greg and Janice are now in Kuching, Greg coming back in a few days. Went to his apartment the other day- my first experience stepping into a local SG flat! Cute niece, and may I add, Janice looks very at home with the family. hiak hiaks.

Where I work- the building on the right (Genome). 

You can see part of the skybridge which links Genome to another building (Proteos, I think)

Free shuttle buses from the mrt to each of these buildings in the biopolis

Dim sum! At the Tak Po restaurant at Chinatown with The Gns.

Ron's 20th bday at a Shanghainese restaurant (can't remember where)

We bought him a devotional book, that cute cake in the pic, and a postcard :P

With the Gns at the Qian Hu fish farm- doing a "fish spa". Paid $10 to let the little (and big) fishies nibble our toes/legs for 30 mins.  The most ticklish (and unique) experience ever- we all felt that our feet had never been so clean before :P

The merlion spewing in all its glory. heheh. The round durian-like building at the centre/right is actually a theatre/convention centre called the Esplanade; haven't been inside yet, maybe someday to watch a musical.

So many places yet to visit! Finally went to town 2 days ago to see and take photos of the merlion and surrounding night scenery. Mesmerizing. It has been raining almost every night since I got here, and it was no wonder that on that clear night, many professional/amateur photographers were there to take pics of the scenery. Yeap, we did the "pretending to be swallowing water coming out from the merlion's mouth pose" of course.

So many more photos to share, I'll upload it on facebook or more here soon. As usual, missing all you Shiners- wishing all of you were here to share with my tourist-sy experience in this country!

Kiasuland adventure

I'm in Singapore!!!

The night before I came back, it was snowing.

The morning I came back at Christchurch, it was 4 degrees.

Today, it is just over 30 degrees. I'm sweating like a pig. Have to change clothes more often now. Bleh.

So, what went on so far?

It's been crazy. I'm being more blur than usual. I lost a pink umbrella I borrowed from the HR lady (oooops) and had to go back to the Sony store and another electrical store to take my folder and map respectively.

This morning, I reported to work at 9.30am. Took me 1 hour to get from where I live to work. That's a short bus ride, 17 stops of MRT rides and a free shuttle bus. I hate MRTs btw, it's soooooo crowded in the morning (peak hours). It was crammed to the point that I could count the number of spots/oh-kis on the neck of the ah ma standing in front of me. The worse thing that could happen was if someone farted.

Oh wait, it did happen.

So I got to GIS, had a 3 hour health and safety seminar (so boring the Bangladeshi uncle kept going on and on about how many people die each year from work related injury GOSH), then the HR lady told me I cannot start work unless I get my work visa! Which I couldn't get earlier as I arrived in Sg at 1-something pm on Saturday but offices close at 1pm. I intended to get it done by Saturday actually.

But as I couldn't start work at all until the visa thing is done, I went (in the rain) to meet Janice and Greg at town, where we had dim sum for lunch, then waited LONG to get a number THEN to get called to be asked to come back tomorrow to collect my visa and passport. The Grapes say I am an illegal immigrant now without a passport. 

So I have to go back to the Ministry of Manpower tomorrow morning at 8am, then rush off to work before 9.30am. Craziness. So after I did the visa thing this afternoon, we spent the rest of the day shopping around, eating good food, taking pics of the Christmas deco on Orchard road etc. It was FUN. =) Minus the heat which of course wasn't as bad at night.

So why did I suddenly decide to stay at my relatives' instead of the original hostel? I took the keys and opened the door to my room, only to find my Indian roommate sick, the room smelling of cigarette smoke, very tiny room, liquor store just downstairs, dodgy dodgy all the way. My parents insisted that I check out immediately (despite not getting back the $500 downpatment fee), stay at my aunty's house at least until I find a better place (or permanently for 3 months). 

So here I am. My phone number is (65) 82768445 should you miss me too much and had to call/text me. Plan today was to meet Chyi but AHEM girl, where are you???? Called/texted your ahem friend so many times we're convinced you'd eloped with the guy and disappeared from the face of the earth already. Ron's arriving today as well, but no chance to meet up yet as no idea what time he's arriving.

I notice that church services are mainly on Saturday afternoons. So weird! Still have to go to my dad's friend's church this Saturday, then maybe go to another one on Sunday. 

Ok then. It's late, I'm still a little jet-lagged. Waking up at 6.30am for another long and interesting day. I hope the HR lady doesn't get angry with me for losing her pink umbrella. I'll give her my black body glove umbrella, it's not pink la, but that will do for now.

Till then people. Missing you guys heaps (you know who you are) ;P

You're 4!

I just realised that this blog has been my faithful area to rant and grumble for
4 years & 1 month now (and counting)!!!

Looking back, my first post ever on blogspot was on the 1st of October 2004. Little would I know that I would maintain it until now. It's been an on and off affair, really =P I'd switched to many others before settling down with blogger- xanga, blurty, multiply, you name it. So far, blogger is still my favourite- for the many reasons of being able to customise more, easy-to-use layout, flexibility, and of course, it's free.

So I'll continue to blog until I reach the age when my fingers can no longer type, or when this blog no longer serves its purpose. But for now, thank you all for reading my barely illegible rants.

Thank YOU, dear blog, for bearing with me for the past 4 years. And with that, I'd like to wish you a happy belated 4th birthday!!!