overloaded!

oh man, my brain was strained to the max during jap lesson today. today's my first lesson in basic jap part 1. i'm learning from bunka language sch @ delfi orchard. after class ended (a gruelling 3 hr), i had a slight headache. it shows my brain is highly under utilised. hahahaha!!

the teacher, gima sensei was quite humorous. my classmates mostly kept to themselves and majority were individual learners like myself (ie. didn't come along with frens) some of them learnt jap before so they were quite familiar with the basic greetings. i was trying hard to catch up. think my biggest problem is pronounciation.

the pace was relatively fast. afterall, we've to complete basic part 1 in 8 weeks. lotsa self study is needed. time to hit the books again after a break of 4 yrs since i left uni. i think even my uni days, i dun hv to study soo hard coz most of my subjects had no exams! hahaha.....

well, at least it's a good change from the boring work routine. wish me good luck!

disappointment

went to nearby Batam over the weekend for a quick retreat. my fren n i joined the 2D1N tour. thinking it would be a good break from work. however, we're faced with various disappointment.

when we saw the bus at the ferry terminal, we almost peng shan. ours was one of the oldest looking coach there. there were many others which were newer. the consolation was that the interior of the bus was quite clean.

firstly, we were brought to Waterfront City. supposedly a place where we would join some water sports (at our own expense). however, there was no proper beach, the store was not very well maintained and the speed boats were parked haphazardly. faint! the prices were so so and there were no one participating in the water sports at all at that time. it made us wonder if anyone really joined.

then, we were given 15mins to walk ard waterfront city. since there was nothing much to see, most of us were back within 10mins+. there was an idiotic filipino couple who decided to order a pizza from the nearby resort and made the whole bus wait 45mins for them!! bloody hell. early morning got mood spoiler. the best part is, they weren't shy abt it at all!! ARGGHh....

brought to a titbits store to buy crackers. luckily i only bought 3 packets, coz later at our final stop, i realised i paid S$1 more for each pack of crackers @ the titbits store!

went to an indonesian woodcraft shop and none of us on the coach bought anything at all. not surprising since the wood crafts were not cheap.

finally we went to diamond city mall (D.C. mall). supposedly their newest and biggest shopping mall. i expected lotsa shops, some branded some local and nice layouts. guess what, it's a totally different picture. the surrounding areas of D.C. mall were slums and squatter huts. what a big turn off!

inside the shopping mall, it was spacious but yet the shops were seemingly placed in a haphazard manner. prob that kind of layout appeal to the locals. most of the little shops are selling local products. went to a fashion warehouse and managed to buy an abercrombie tee for around S$8.00! dirt cheap.

after an hr and half of shopping, we were sent to our respective hotels to rest for the night. we stayed at novotel (4 stars hotel). we got a ground floor room and it was neat. we managed to get spore's tv reception as well(which is a fortunate thing). wanted to explore the surroundings of the hotel but there was no proper footpath to walk and nearby was just bare undeveloped land and unoccupied buildings. staying in hotel was a better option.

hunger soon overcame us and we were deciding between calling for room service and going to one of the restaurants to eat. the room service was soo cheap, i pressed the calculator several times to ensure i entered the correct exchange rate. we settled with novetel's special pizza at around S$9.80. taste was quite ok and the pizza was quite big.

after dinner, we decided to hang out at a mexican pub. sadly, there was no one ard (we were very early 9pm+ SG time, 8pm+ batam time). had a drink there and didn't stay for too long. ended up watching a channel 8 movie on tv in the hotel room.

overall rating for the tour: 1 out of 5. it's too boring (perhaps we weren't adventurous enough to call a cab from the hotel and explore around). i'm never going back there again. that's for sure.

solution to late night hunger pangs

changed upon this new eating place called makansutra's glutton's bay. it's located right next to DXO (the former Embassy club). features around 8-10 stores (didn't do a mental count) and it's outdoor dining (ie. no shelters at all). it opens daily from 6pm-3am.

overheard some diners saying it's their first day opening but unfortunately there was a thunder storm earlier on around 1030pm++...hope it didn't damper their spirits. perhaps they could suggest having some umbrellas or shelter.

wasn't very crowded when i walked past at around 9pm+. prob coz it's new and no one noes about it yet. worth taking a look.

money money money

went driving ard spore yesterday with my friend. we drove to places with landed properties to admire people's houses. there're tons of ultra bloody RICH people in sg!! soooo damn jealous of them!! some of the houses are huge, somewhat castle like. some have 3-4 storeys while others have a huge garage where they park their expensive cars.

if u ever have the chance to grab a car, go to andrew road, near Mediacorp. the houses are huge, beautiful, grand and modern! we were wow-ing our way at every single house along that road. places like greenwood and coronation pale in comparison with the grandeur and beauty of the houses there.

it's very envious to see families going out to dinner, holding a bottle of wine in their hands. it reminds me of perth days. i wonder which restaurant they would go to. the restaurants along greenwood were fully packed even tho the food prices weren't that cheap.

kids born with a silver spoon are very lucky indeed. their parents bring them to expensive restaurants and bars. from young, they get a taste of the rich life. no financial worries at all. i doubt i can ever afford such a big house in sg unless i migrate to oz.

lucky lucky people... ...

goodbye dr wee

yesterday morning saw the passing of spore's 4th president, dr wee kim wee. my memory of him is the photo i took with my bandmates during our istana performance in secondary school. he was very friendly and posed with a big smile.