shanghai here i come!

bye readers!


i will be going to the kingdom of xiao long bao tomorrow!


i will also bring my laptop, so will try to blog if i can. :)


bye darling~ take care of yourself~ i will miss you~ hope your ear infection recover soon~

IRIS

i am hooked on this drama:

handsome actors and pretty actresses. very good storyline. wonderful plot. nice soundtracks. 


i highly recommend everyone to watch!

upcoming trip

for those who still dunno, i will be going overseas to 3 different places, from 11th june to 20th june.

11th to 15th June - Shanghai
15th to 18th June - Shenzhen
18th to 20th June - Hongkong


just now i was calculating how much costs i had incurred for this trip, and i had a big shock. thank goodness the july pay is coming in with a 0.5 month bonus + 300 bucks. 


ok here's the breakdown:


shanghai accomodation (new harbour service apartment) - S$358.00
shenzhen accomodation (days hotel luohu) - S$109.55
hongkong accomodation (casa hotel) - S$97.97


air ticket for singapore to shanghai & hongkong to singapore - S$671.44
air ticket for shanghai to shenzhen - 710 yuan (around S$148.00)


travel insurance - S$38.50 


shanghai world expo tickets - 320 yuan (around S$66.70)


GRAND TOTAL (without the shopping, meals, and other miscellanous cost) - S$1490.16


*i think i shall change minimal money so that i will spend minimal amount on shopping*


some of you might have realised why my shanghai accomodation is so expensive, when i am only staying at shanghai for 4 nights.


now i will let you noe why.


first of all, we have 7 pple. so we booked a 3-bedroom apartment and a 1-bedroom apartment. 


the 3-bedroom apartment comes with 2 twin beds and 1 single bed, one living room, 1 kitchen and 2 toilets.

the 1-bedroom apartment comes with 1 twin bed, 1 living room, 1 toilet and 1 kitchen.

they got a wonderful pool and gym.

and the location of the apartment is excellent. 
- 5 min walk to nearest metro station
- 1.5 km to 外滩风景区
- 1.0 km to 南京步行街
- 0.1 km to 云南路美食街
- 0.5 km to 人民广场
- 1.5 km to 城隍庙
- 1.2 km to 上海新天地


hence the heavy price tag on new harbour service apartment. haha.




for days hotel luohu, the location is also very convenient. near to shopping area, near to luohu metro station, and near to the railway station which we will take the train to hongkong on the 18th.

finally, for casa hotel, near yau ma tei station, and near huizhi's place! we can put our luggage at her place on the last day after we check out from the hotel, cos our flight is at 630 pm. 

counting down! 6 more days! :)

人外有人，天外有天

i just went for a dance audition at CCAB. the audition is for an opening dance item for Teacher's Conference, which is on september. the style of the dance is contemporary, and the choreographer says that as teachers we must do something special and abstract, not like those kids who do the normal 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8 counts of dance steps.


at the audition, i realised that even if the teaching fraternity is so small, yet there are still so many strong dancers. they are so strong to the extent that i doubt i can get into the performing cast. haha. nvm lah, if i cant get in, then maybe i can go perform in "Dances of the Orient".

my student

if there's really something enriching about the program, it has to be the interesting videos that the speakers showed us, and the above one is really my favourite. hahaha.

anyway he is not my student lah. :p

random

for the past two days i am back in nie for the enrichment program. the conclusion of the enrichment program is on next friday, which is a visit to science centre. after that i will chiong back home then chiong to airport because i am flying to shanghai with hw. haha.

anyway, let's see how enriched we are:

 

and i will like to share the most ultimate car plate. the picture was taken by me when i was sitting in my pe classmate's vehicle. we were on PIE (changi airport).

damn steady rite? maybe nx time when i buy a car, i want my first 3 alphabets to be SUX. hahahaahaha.

more pics from BHI tournament

(ziqi had a cramp in his leg)

(chio handballer with her designed banner)

and here comes the BONUS pic...


.




.

the cute twins~ hahahahahahaha.

breakers handball invitational tournament

breakers is a female handball team in sg, comprising a mixture of players from raffles hall, temasek hall, sheares hall and other places. i happen to know some of them.


so on saturday they organised a handball tournament, NTU played, and we got 2nd. i din play all the matches because i let my understudy play to gain match experience. i think he is not too bad. (of course not as good as me hahahaha). 

i am now super tanned at my neck region thanks to the low cut v neck jersey. 


after the tournament i drove to darling's house to get dumplings from her mum. the dumplings taste super delicious! even my parents gave the dumplings two thumbs-up sign! haha!

chiang mai - doi suthep

doi suthep is one of the most visited temples in chiang mai. it is located on a hilltop, and the journey up the hill is quite siong, siong for both the driver and the passengers.

after coming back from elephant nature park, both of us showered and we walked out of the hotel to look for song theaw to bring us to doi suthep. song theaw is something like a taxi which is red in color, and can fetch up to ten pple.

luckily we saw an uncle with a song theaw at the main road. so we asked him whether can go to doi suthep. he give us a very bewildered look and stared at his watch. it was already 6 pm! hahahaha. it seems that nobody will go to doi suthep at night, everyone goes there in the day. but then he tell us to wait and he went to ask another driver, and that driver agreed, and off we go!

(darling inside the song theaw)

(asking the driver to take our picture with his song theaw. again i look super tanned beside darling. hahaha.)

before reaching doi suthep, we must first conquer a super long flight of steps. thank goodness both of us stayed in KE so the steps dont look daunting to us. haha.

doi suthep is very very peaceful at night. the night wind makes the temple very cooling, and the temple bells ringing make us feel very zen. hahaha. the golden monuments shone even more brightly at night but the construction works were quite a turn off.

 

there is a viewing platform outside the temple, and from the platform can see the city landscape of chiang mai. very very beautiful~

too bad my camera not good enough to capture the breath-taking night scenery. :(

after doi suthep we went to chiang mai night bazaar. we had our dinner at this seafood restaurant. it was already 9 plus and both of us were starving like hell. the food was not too bad, especially the prawn vermicelli that really taste awesome!

after dinner we have the energy to go shopping! din buy much. most of the stalls sell almost the same stuff. darling bought a top for her dad. i bought boxing shorts for leow and mak, because both of them are learning muay thai.

we end our last night in chiang mai with a full body massage. the massage shop is just outside our hotel. very convenient. haha.

nike - running supernaked

happy birthday chio outdoor enthusiast!

because chio outdoor enthusiast made such great effort in organising birthday celebration for darling and grace tiang, but i nv make any effort in organising birthday celebration for chio outdoor enthusiast, and i feel bad, so i shall make amends by dedicating this blog post to her!

first of all, may you dance forever and shine on stage forever.



and still have outstanding flexibility many many many many years down the road.



may you eat as much as you can, and still remain slim and hot. so that your pdd partners will have no problems lifting you.



having said that, even if you sway sway put on weight, i believe ur pdd partners are responsible enough to train up and strengthen themselves so that they can lift you!

(dun worry lah this will nv happen to you)


ok lastly, a birthday cake for you. the most special birthday cake i had ever seen.


you can share it with jingkai! haha~

happy _ _th birthday!!!

a busy tuesday!

in the morning i travelled to nie in my younger sister's bf's car. he is over at somewhere protecting the nation for a week, so he kindly passed his car key to my sis and said i can drive his car if i want. woo hoo! thank you sister's bf! btw he drives a nissan latio, his car is very well-equipped, just that is a bit bigger than my dad's kia, so my first time driving it i was quite stressed and not used to it. but later on it gets better.

ok i went to nie to attend the physical education international conference. this year the conference is hosted by singapore, so there is a series of physical education workshops held at nie. i attended the dance workshop and gymnastics workshop, hopefully the workshops can give me ideas and inspirations on how to conduct pe lessons for my students.

at first i thought no one will go to the dance workshop, but omg when i reach there the response was overwhelming! the studio was squeezed with pple! there were two instructors, 1 guy and 1 gal, both are pe teachers. the guy started first with warm up and basic hip hop steps. and the gal continued with some hip hop choreography.

as for the gym workshop, it was conducted by two ex-olympians in gymnastics! one is from england, and the other one is from canada. their workshop is a bit too high level, which i think is a bit hard their ideas into my lesson if i am teaching gymnastics during pe at my sch.

after the workshops i drove to marina square to meet darling. we went to have a haircut at chapter two because we have their 10 dollar vouchers. and then we went to watch robin hood because we got free movie tickets. the chapter two vouchers and free movie tickets were given to us during the starhub urban freestyle run. hw and laval, have you used yours yet? haha.

dinner we went to the humble house at esplanade! i have always wanted to eat there! i got 60 dollars tung lok vouchers which i redeemed it from my credit card points! i thought humble house is like no signboard, serve those nice seafood dishes, but i am wrong! it serves local hawker food, in a very very atas manner!

chicken rice - 9.90!
laksa - 12 dollars (with oysters, scallops and prawns!)
carrot cake - 12 dollars (with fresh crab meat, scallops and prawns!)
fish bee hoon - also 12 dollars!

and their shark fin cost 32 dollars!

so here's what we ordered:

the shark fin

the carrot cake

and cheng teng, which is inside a pear! cool! cost ten dollars!

thanks to my vouchers, i paid 5.90 for the whole meal! but still, you can imagine how expensive the whole meal is, even with so few dishes. my humble house is really atas.

ok let's side track a bit to show you why the bf's car is so well-equipped:


got GPS leh! wassup! cool rite!

and here's our new hairstyle:


i look more handsome, and darling look more cute. haha. and i look so tanned beside darling.

chiang mai - elephant nature park

if anyone will ask you wat animal is linked to thailand, it will definitely be elephant. just like if u ask wat animal is linked to singapore, it will be merlion.

since we are going to chiang mai, we must definitely see elephants. originally we were supposed to go to mae sa elephant camp, to ride on elephants, and watch an elephant show, whereby the elephants will play soccer and do paintings. this place was highly recommended by my parents. they went there last year.

however just one or two days before the trip, i was reading the online forum regarding chiang mai, and one of the readers recommended elephant nature park. she mentioned that elephant nature park is a sanctuary for the elephants, a place where elephants are protected, and properly cared for. she mentioned that the elephants at mae sa were being tortured. their eyes and ears were pricked by sharp bamboo sticks if they disobey the elephant keepers. i was quite horrified by this, so i decided to cancel mae sa elephant camp and went to elephant nature park instead.

you need to book and pay in advance if you are going to elephant nature park. they will ask for your hotel, and on that day of the tour, they will send a mini van to pick you up at your hotel lobby in between 8 to 830 am.

so darling and i started to wait at the lobby at 8 am. the mini van came at 820. there were already a few ang mor guests in the van. after picking us up the van still go and pick other pple from other hotels. coincidentally there were another two singaporeans, and they also took the traumatising flight with us on sunday!

it was about an hour ride to elephant nature park. during the ride our guide, whose name is Earn, gave us a brief history of elephant nature park, which was opened in 1995, by this lady called Lek. Lek shared a special affinity with elephants and she was horrified by how the elephants were being tortured in order to become obedient slaves for mankind. so she did alot of things to help the elephants, for example concocting her own special medicine to apply on elephants wounds where their tusks were removed, talking to local tribes on treating the elephants better, etc etc. in short she is very very noble.

once we reach there, Earn asked us to wash our hands because we are going to feed elephants, so must have proper hygiene. Earn told us the characteristics of elephants, for example if they are flapping their ears, they are in a good mood and enjoying themselves. if they slam their trunk on the floor, means they PMS and we better stay far away from them.

so the first activity of the day was feeding the elephants. elephants have a super huge appetite. they chew on food for 18 hours per day. we feed them with bananas, cucumbers and pumpkins. when feeding them we must also feed properly, for example how to hold the food when feeding them, and where to stand when feeding them.




next we went to an enclosure to see the baby elephants. we also feed them water using the water hose. haha.




and then is lunch! they provided buffet lunch for us, fusion of thai + western. the food was quite good! better than the food at kantoke palace. :p




after lunch was the highlight of the day. we went into the super dirty river and bathed the elephants! quite scary and also quite an interesting experience. scary because the elephant will anyhow spray water using its trunk, and i also quite scared it will fall sideways and crush me.





we also went for the elephant's kiss. a bit gross... hahahahahahaha.




after that we watched a video on Lek and the elephants. the video showed very disturbing footages of elephants being ill-treated. darling teared a bit. i chose not to see these footages by looking down on the floor. the video was about 45 minutes and i slept quite a bit during the video.

final activity of the day was free time with the elephants, whereby we can touch them, take photos with them and also feed them again!



and it was an hour ride again back to our hotel, and i think everyone KO-ed throughout the ride.

so to everyone, if you happen to go chiang mai next time, i highly recommend you to go elephant nature park instead of mae sa elephant camp. it is 2500 baht per person, which is around 108 sing dollars. yes its a bit expensive, but think of how many elephants you can help with that money, and i believe the money is definitely for a good cause. :)