Wednesday, June 30, 2010

He's Back He's Back He's BACK!!!!

HE's back hes back hes back !!!!!!

HE"S BACK!!!!!

And my world's spinning again! =DDD

And I love my new bobby BoB!


Saturday, June 26, 2010

I'm Hoooked!

BY THE NOTEBOOK!!!

Good recommendation by Wei Qin. Tear-jerker with a sad but happy ending. The complete story of the love of a lifetime, not to be forgotten...
Here's a fanmade picture with a very romantic and noble quote from the movie



They really choose good and suitable casts too, had to fall in love with them and the story!
Ryan Gosling and Racheal McAdams. Aparantly they are are lovely couple offscreen too!
Somehow Racheal McAdams share something similar to my all time favourite female artist. I've watched more movies on the aeroplane than I would have ever had for the rest of the year and first saw McAdams in Sherlock Homles and she already reminded me of Shu Qi back then.
OKEy! That's all! I don't normally blog about celebs, but just this once coz the movie's REALLY NICE!!! I don't mind watching it all over again! *hiNT!*


Reserved for grad trip posts hahah

lalalallalaa

Tuesday, June 8, 2010

4th June – (Friday) Day 3 Amsterdam to Berlin

Checked out of hostel early in the morning and prepared for a long ride to germany
We had afew adventures along the way. The first one was taking 2 trains within the airport, a series of 7 or 8 escalators and running across 4 or 5 travellers within 15 minutes to catch the transit plane from Hong Kong to Amsterdam coz we were too addicted to my monopoly deal! We ended up being the last to board the plane and had the door closed behind us. The second adventure happened today. We woke up very early in the morning and left the hostel at 9am to buy the 10.30am ticket to the international transit (7 station stops away from the station where we are) and then take the 11.50am next train to Berlin. But we didn't know that the train doors closes VERY FAST like 15 secs and they wont open the door even if you ask the train conductor to! So what happened was we were slowed down by our heavy lauggages and Andy left one of the luaggage outside the train and went back up to the train to help the rest with our bags. Then BOOM! THE TRAIN DOOR JUST CLOSED BEHIND HIM! and I tell you the train door closes SUPER FAST. Not like the Singapore MRT train - ours is very slow compared to those in Europe! So the bag's outside the train and everyone else is inside the train. Just nice the train conductor was coming into our cabin to see our tickets and Yew Kuan tried to ask him to help us open the door. But he had no sense of urgency and simply continued collecting the tickets... and we can't give him any tickets coz all our Euro Passes ( the tickets) are in the bag that was left outside the train! After collecting the tickets then did the train conductor started talking to us to understand what happened @#%&*(*#@!#%&*&^%$#@!&*&^%$#@#&*(*&^%$#@&*(*&#@*(*&$#@*()(%$#@*(*&^%$#$*( and he called the station to tell them what happened. So we only got to alight 2 stops later (coz he attended to us only one stop later) to go to the service counter to wait and hope that our bag will be found. But it was not found and we decided to go back to the train station where we left the bag. We can't go anywhere else without our Euro Passes too. So we took the train back to the international transit station but the bag was still not found. Just as we were about to leave, a call came to tell us that the bag had arrived at the station which is 2 stations down, the one we were at just now. So we went back and got the Bag =P Quite an adventure eh! In the end we only arrived at Belin at 7.30pm. LOL!
Reached Germany/Berlin only at 7.30pm.
Took 2 hours to find the hostel which was just 20 minutes away from the station we alighted at.
We were totally amazed by the quality of hostel.. it was more of like a 3 star hotel to us! The beds were very comfortable too. Clean and big toilet facility with free breakfast and food for hungry ghosts at night! What more can I ask for? =D

3rd June – (Thursday) Day 2 – Amsterdam

We woke up pretty early in the morning and rented bikes from Mike’s bike tour at a discounted rate. (the same tour agency we went yesterday) Our first destination was the bags and purses museum. It’s a pretty nice vintage museum with lots of bags and purses dating as far as man civilization begin. The ones that I really like have some metal details here and there, like metal clutches or patterns sewn into the bag itself. They even have a Samsonite luggage bag fully covered with Swarovski crystals! It’s one lauggage that’s gonna cost more than any valuable you might have on you!
We had lunch right after that. Kai Wei had the popular and affordeble food destinations well researched and we ate at a burger stall. It’s rather pricey compared to Singapore burgers, like Carl’s Junior and don’t even come with fries or drink. But what they have on the menu is rather special -Wild Duck Burger with Chinese cabbage. It’s succulent, it’s addictive, it’s splendid. Till now everyone wants another go at the burger! Too bad the next time we get back to Amsterdam we wont have enough time to get it.
We found the famous ‘I AMsterdam’ near the Van Goth Museum. Apparently the big metal alphabets always change places around Amsterdam! And we were lucky enough to have chanced it there along the way to a destination! Of course, we camwhored there! =D
After that we went to the Van Goth Museum. I was sleep walking around like a Zombie! My butt hurts, my legs are sore and my eyes are tired! It’s not that the museum was boring, just that it was really the last stop and I’m too tired to be walking around the big place with nice cooling marble seats tempting me to just sit on one of them! The whole museum is filled with paintings, works of many different artists and the majority, from Van Goth himself. He died alone at the very young age and led a pretty sad and lonely life. He got famous only after he died. Like what my mom told me when I was (I had a ambition to be a artist), artists only earn money when they die, and when they are alive, they lead a sad and hard life. =( How true. 50% technique, skill and talent. 50%, the story behind the work.
We then rushed back to return bikes and managed to reach Mike’s bike shop on the spot! Otherwise we’ll really be in trouble as we can’t return the bike the next day. We are due for Berlin early in the morning.
After that we went to Rookies CafĂ©, a coffeeshop selling brownies and smoke. Shan’t really elaborate on what the place really is or what we did there.
We then went to the train station to book the ticket for tomorrow’s train and then head back to the hostel. Along the way, I had this really soft and comforting vanilla yogurt walls ice cream. I’m so gonna get that when we come back to Amsterdam again at our last stop!
I’m now back to hostel… weary, hurting toes and soles… but bathed and fresher. Its supposed to be 10.27pm now… but the sky’s still getting dark. YES! The sun was still shinning brightly in the sky at 9pm! It’s a 18 hours days here and the sun rises at 5am and fully sets at 11pm. We don’t get to see the night at all! COOL Stuff!

2 June 2010, (Wednesday) 1st Day, Amsterdam

We touched down about 6.25am Holland time, that’s about 12.25pm Singapore time… it makes me feel like I have stopped time for 6 hours! A 4 hours plane ride from Singapore to Hong Kong, a 1 hours plus wait in the transit playing monopoly deal and risked missing our next flight from Hong Kong to Amsterdam, a freaking 10 hours flight!
The landing at Amsterdam can be described as like a fairy tale! The plane flew through the marsh mellow clouds and landed, cushioned on the soft clouds! The mist was so heavy when we landed, we thought they were ordinary clouds in the sky and was expecting at least some glimpse of the land of Europe! And as the plane cleared the thick white cloud into a thinner mist, VIOLA! It’s the runway already!
I watched Bai Fa Mo Nv, True Legend and Confucious, three movies on the flights! =P
The hostel was hard to find, but it’s a nice place =) totally satisfied! 5 of us sharing one small simple room with one toilet. Kuan said we won’t get such luxury at the rest of the hostels though. One in particular has 8 beds so we might have to share the room with 3 others.
The city of Amsterdam’s like my dream. Little shop houses everywhere with beautiful vibrant colored flowers planted at the doorstops of every little home... that’s for the majority of the homes there. Sounds good already? Now hear the country side! A view of the lake from every homes, a little garden for you to plant little lovelies. People lazing around by the river in the marigolds, dandelions and tulips, some reading a book, some fishing, some old folks cuddling on the bench and some… just lazing around =D At the back of some houses there are great patches of grassland, where you’ll have black beauties to white stallions, cows and oxen, bunnies and sheep. We even spotted two beautiful raindeers kept as pets! There is also this cheese farm and shoes making factory. The cheese are sooo good, I’m sure I can have them every day without getting nauseous! I’ve got two smoked cheese for home and Shawn’s home! It’s the kind of life I’ve always dreamt of, the lake, the house, the horses… just build a swing for me and its perfect! The amazing thing is Amsterdam used to be a drain swamp many many years back into the history. Now, 30% of it is reclaimed land and everything, including the country side, is man made!
I am seriously considering moving to Amsterdam if I can find a job here or after retirement. The only problem is, I am probably allergic or something to the flowers there, I got pricked/ poisoned/ allergic reaction from the plants when I attempted to lie in the flower bed. Irritated me for more than half the day! We visited the countryside via bicycle. It was a 4 hours terrifying experience for me coz I was never good on the bike. The first thing I did when I moved off with the bike was to crash into a (thankfully) stationary car! The guide went “Seesh! And this is just the beginning!” I had exactly the same sentiments. I couldn’t really enjoy the ride coz most of the time I am worrying about controlling my bike! But the breeze and weather was perfect. The sun was bright (but not scorching at all!) and I am glad I had my new instantly glamorous sunglasses too! My butt and head started hurting 3 hours into the bumpy ride and I think I probably killed more brain cells and gained more pimples stressing out on the bike than sitting for exams!
In fact, I seriously ALMOST DIED FOUR TIMES today. Basically coz I wasn’t familiar nor alert about the traffic in Amsterdam! I almost got knocked down by cars two times, a cart once and a bicycle! I was totally accidently prone today too, dropped things on my own foot, scalded by leg etc…..
Lunch was great. Farlala - Its vegetarian with some fried vega stuffs in pita bread, topped with free flow salad! It’s so cool I ate lots of carrots and other greens =D Its tasty coz I was famished =P
We took another tour around the… er hmm… red light district. There was nothing much really, just that the amount of respect the people here give to prostitution as a legal job is amazing. The girls here are backed by a very very strong union and they are considered to be holding a normal job. They are even taxed at a rate of 22% by the government! They have this number which is connected to all the girls mobile and they even have the panic button in the room where they do their business! When the lights along the streets turn red, it means that the red light district is busy, come back another day. They are really THIS organized!
There is a church and a kindergarten in the red light district too and everyone treats such vice( as seen in Singapore) as something very normal and nothing surprising at all, simply coz they have lived and grew up here from hundreds of year already! Girls even go to church to meet rich guys and then go somewhere else to do their stuffs. It’s pretty sad actually, coz it feels like even the holy walls are penetrable.
It’s pretty tiring coz many of have jet lag. We really walked around a lot and cycled a total of 20km too. WQ and Andy even fell asleep without bathing! EEK! I’ve gotta plug in coz two of us here snores. Going to sleep now! Chao Chaox!!