when things are not going too well, food takes you away from your troubles! (albeit, momentarily)

watched “PostGrad”, even though it wasn’t such a good movie (i mean i wouldn’t pay the money to watch it in the theaters), but i wouldn’t mind watching it thru other means *ahem*

tried a new restaurant in Richmond, the name reminds me of that japanese restaurant in Central in Singapore called “Pasta De Waraku”
in fact, i think there is a similar one in HK too, not sure what’s the deal with all these “japanese-styled pasta”?
i haven’t tried the one in Singapore, but in my opinion, the one i had here didn’t impress
i don’t get japanese pasta, and i think i’ll stick to the italian ones thank you.

Cafe De Waraku

Eel & Egg Original Flavour Spaghetti. the noodles tasted like it was tossed with soy sauce or something maybe? looks like they were kinda stingy with the eggs!

Chicken & Mushrooms Original Flavour. the noodles had a strong mushroom taste, quite weird

Prawn & Mushrooms Original Flavour. i had this one. apparently original japanese flavour equals no flavour at all. the noodles were pretty bland, i liked the portion of pasta and ingredients though. if i ever go back there, i’ll prob try the tomato sauce ones

Tiramisu & Green Tea Mousse Cake. the cakes were ok, but the green tea one tasted like there were ice flakes in it, so i wonder if they froze it just to keep it longer?!

we haven’t been to Adonia for quite awhile, so this afternoon while we were around the UBC area, decided to go there for some nice bite-sized snacks and tea

we were so full after this! but it was too much sugar so we wanted something savory
with McDonald’s right next door, the obvious choice was fries =p
but that was a mistake.
because we found out they had Sanrio cartoon characters for happy meal toys!!!
now i’ve got this ridiculous idea to consume as many happy meals as it’ll take to get the whole collection! Kerokeropi, here i come!!!

My Melody. 1st of the entire collection (to come)!

i don’t know why, but this time felt like the worse trip back to vancouver
didn’t want to come back at all
maybe it’s because i’m already done with school, i could rightfully move back to singapore for good
but…since i already made the choice to stay here, i have to make the best out of it!

at changi airport, i was kind of late, so i ran like i never ran before to the gate, turns out i was really like the last passenger not on board
at hkia, i just couldn’t get the bloody singtel internet sms to work on my phone, after much agony, i finally talked to mummy on skype. then i couldn’t find the magazine i wanted, it was sold out, bought some crappy magazine that i later realise was so boring.
on the plane back to vancouver, i was one of the last ones to board again, not because i was late, but the queue was just too long, so i waited. on board, helped an air stewardess close the overhead cabin and sprained my thumb bloody hell i couldn’t use my fingers properly after that! and the redesigned cathay seats suck, very uncomfortable.

after all these, still, i have to be optimistic!

first day back here, apartment was all dusty, took awhile to clean things up
went down to the car park, glad that the car could still start up after 2 months

opened the mailbox and this is what i see…

2 months of shit, i must say, the postman did quite a good job of squeezing everything tightly to make it fit into that teeny box

after 15 mins of sorting out the mail, finally managed to get it neat and tidy like this, and that’s alot of magazines that i will never finish reading

and then yesterday morning, after washing up, i must have still been sleep walking or something, i slammed my whole body on the toilet door frame. ahhh how stupid can i be. like what bro always say…suay things always come all at once!!! damn suay!!!

was feeling pretty down and out after all these. i only finally managed to feel a little happier when my boss said i could work part-time for her again till i get a full-time job.
that’s such good news, a little extra money is always good.

home sweet home!!!
after 1.5 years, going back home again was a lot of fun!
apparently so much that i still want to go home even after being back here for 2 days already

the first week when i got back from hk, i didn’t really do much, then i went off again to taiwan and australia
when i finally got back from all the holidays, the first exciting thing was stefanie sun’s concert (or so i thought…such a disappointment)

july 11 2009. the really beautiful stage, that’s the only good comment i can make about the entire concert, sadly

after the concert, crazy people karaoke-ing till 4am, but it was so much fun singing speed again!

july 21 2009. primary school friends meet up again 11 years out of school, it’s funny how we still look pretty much the same

july 24 2009. kherray’s convocation at ntu, we’re finally done with school!!!

july 26 2009. bearbear and sebb were born! but they were seperated at birth! when will they ever meet again?

july 27 2009. tricia performing at music dreamer’s cafe, it’s such an amazing feeling seeing someone that i’ve known for so long pursuing a passion

july 29 2009. meeting my nephew jarrett for the first time! he’s so cute and playful!!! but he’s growing so fast, the next time i see him, he might be able to talk!

august 2 2009. family photo-taking. timing was really rushed and couldn’t find a studio etc, but i’m still kind of glad that it happened in the end.

august 2 2009. went up to johor bahru for seafood!!! yummy!!! always good and CHEAPPP!!!

august 9 2009. watched national day on television for the first time in 4 years. still touched, and realise i love singapore!

august 11 2009. golden village has this interesting concept of screening a “surprise movie” that has never been shown in singapore before. they played “the last house on the left” that night, sick movie

august 12 2009. i found our childhood candy!!! when we were young, we used to think we were so cool, sucking on this sweet as if it’s a cigarette haha

left for melbourne on the same day i got back from taiwan, i almost thought i had H1N1 on the way to the airport, but…i was thinking, what the heck, i already paid for the ticket, and i want to see jiayuan and bridgette, so i HAVE to go no matter what!!! nothing is going to stop me!!!
so i went, and i don’t regret it

middle brighton beach with all the colourful mini houses. jiayuan and me trying to escape from the “perfect storm”…

a very cool dessert place. first time meeting keith, really happy for you bridgette!

in adelaide. our crazy antics begin…hahaha!

weee!!! we are dwarfs!

weird looking cow grazing in adelaide

jiayuan’s nice housemates prepared hotpot to welcome us back to melbourne! haha

mount dandenong. helpful birds clearing the rubbish!

very first thing i got to say was we had an asshole immigration officer
he asked us so many questions as if suspecting that we were using fake singaporean passports to get into taipei…pleassseeee
this, and what happened at the end of the trip makes me hate taoyuan airport so much!
the rest of taiwan is lovely, but the airport is so bad, it makes yvr look like a 5 star hotel

waiting for the bullet train to Kaohsiung

中央公園站 the very beautiful train station near the place we stayed, this was also where one scene of 痞子英雄 was filmed!

Costco in Kaohsiung too!

fated encounter with a lady who hand-makes these stuffed toys from socks!

美麗島站 the train stations in Kaohsiung are so beautiful!!!

can’t believe we waited 2 hours for Zhang Hui Mei to show up, and she didn’t!

lots of elmo saying “save me from this box!!!”

food glorious food!!!
clockwise from top left: 磨菇雞粥 & 炸豆腐, 蜜酥雞排, 炸磨菇, 火腿肉鬆蛋三文治, 臭豆腐, 芒果雪冰沙, 紅豆牛奶冰沙
and right in the middle 阿宗麵線!!!