Chip off the old block
Squeezed myself inside a small talk at my cubicle section at office today. Partly because it is one of the very few conversations that is reasonably audible (nothing to hide), very casual, spontaneous and 'funny' at the same time.
Xin talked about herself feeling that she is getting more and more like her mother. All of the things that she had said to herself that she'd never be, she eventually grow to be the same. The influence of her mother on herself is so strong that despite her resolution, she can't help but be the same. And then her mother would be ultra friendly with 'outside' people but very harsh with herself and her family.
Then Huan said it's the same for her, just that when she was in her 青春期，her mum was in her 更年期 ... etc etc and we all laughed.
I didn't say much, partly because I will 词穷 in front of them (I speak Chinese, but not up to the local standard) and stammer (one is a hot babe, the other is a '妖姬'). After all, I wasn't supposed to be in the conversation anyway. But they did speak something I've held in my mind for soo long.
Although it is not fair to generalise, everybody is still, a chip off the old block ... and sometimes 偏偏 the 'unwelcomed traits' are the ones you inherit from both sides of the gene pool.
And oh, I recovered my cap. The 师傅 saw it and left it where it was. It is the 2nd time I dropped my cap in a 'tour bus' and recovered it liaoz.
28 March
Sigh ... dropped my beloved cap of 10 years in the company shuttle bus ... hope the 师傅 kept it for me ... tml will try to get it from him ...
On another matter ... I have spent a few fruitless trips to major, minor, original and pirated CD/DVD shops and could not find the '伍佰 - 2005厉害 演唱会 DVD' that
tyw has told me about. Damn pissed about not finding something I want badly when I want, and am able to pay for. Man ... what happened to the DVD?! Where have they all gone to??
I used to think that I am a PR disaster. When I am supposed to talk and mingle, I have nothing to say, or say the wrong things or make myself look/sound stupid. I am just lucky not to have offended people I shouldn't have offended. Last saturday, at the Beijing Singapore Student's Association (SSA), I believe I have found at least 2 PR nightmares that made my PR skills look like a good dream =P
千里走单骑
I finally said goodbye to a wad of 100RMB notes in exchange for my Merida 904 on Friday. I left her at Hailiang's place and then joined them to explore 北大 and 清华 on wheels today, before cycling back home. I am excited at the new purchase but at the same time worrying about the economical sense of it all. In fact, I am really wondering when would be the next time I would take it out for a good long ride before I ship it back to SG.
I am always like dat about big purchases, but then I spend little amounts like a tap that cannot close completely; trickling away unknowingly, steadily.
Navigating through Beijing streets was not as hard as I thought it to be. As long as I know where the sun is, I could figure out my NSEW and then heard in the general direction till I hit the landmarks or the major roads. There's only one gripe though, the 四惠桥 is probably designed by a idiot.
This is one of the first times I rode a road bike, using the clips as well. I fell sideways once because I couldn't unclip (that was when I first got the bike from the seller, and making rounds inside 北大). On my way back home today, I rammed into another biker because I couldn't reach forward in time to squeeze the brakes. Luckily I was not on clips (i took them out after I reached 北大 with Hailiang and James, the cycling shoes were too small for me), if not I will look damn silly.
Btw, 清华 is soo soo beautiful! I can't believe it is actually a school. Man ... there are parts of it that looks as if it's a garden instead. Chinese Garden is so no challenge to 清华's campus ground. That being said, 清华 is also very multi faceted ... some parts of it don't even look Chinese; some parts look American to me, some just look European. And their 'SRC' is disgustingly big, I would think they could have hosted SEA games there if they wanted. And if by any chance any of you will get to study in 清华, do invest in a bike, don't bother to walk.
It took me 1.5 hrs to get home from 北大 by cycling, on a Sunday, starting at 1530hrs. Distance covered to reach 四惠东 is 23km. I'm not exactly dead tired from the cycling but the cold weather did get the better of me; my skin was feeling cold but my body is heating up and perspiring. The Columbia jacket was soaked and did not 'breathe' as promised. (Screw u all who sell counterfeit jackets at genuine prices.) Map.sogou did a great job plotting the shortest route I should take, which, although I did not follow, served as a great reference material.
Super high! 五月天 掀开北大百年纪念堂的屋顶！
Super happy to catch Mayday at 北大！！ Definitely shiok man! Pity the dumb dumb organiser disallow standing in the concert, threatening to halt the concert if anybody stand etc etc ... so dumb. But heck lah, when Mayday returned for encore, I couldn't take it and stood up and rock liaoz. And I totally love it when their 'security' was lax, we ran up the aisle and came very close to the fab five for their last song for the night. HIGH ah!
Ok ... thanx B*nq ...
Photos courtesy of Alex's digicam =)
19 March
Last night mum called me at my Beijing abode, feels great to hear voices from home.
Went to walk the hutongs recommended by LP, not bad really. On the long way to the place they recommended, we happened to pass by a few buildings with some sort of history significance. A really welcomed surprise anyway. Then it occured to me that a history lesson should always be complete with a field trip to the places mentioned in the lessons.
The walk ended at 宋庆龄故居. A really nice place, and she's really a great woman who worked for the good of the people, whom also never took sides in politics that would render the common folks at the losing end.
Then as we back track on the 后海 area (looks like boat quay!), we walked past a 公园 where there was a lot of elderly and children doing all sorts of activities. There are people playing table tennis, those exercise stations, chess and even swimming across the river (mind you ... it is still cold loh).
And then bo dai bo ji, got a ah-pek 'challenge' me to Chinese chess. He wasn't even playing in the first place. He just looked at me and then said I got the Chinese chess look haha and asked me to play with him. Then he got the people at the table to move away so we could play chess. Of coz I 奉陪 loh ... give him face also mah. It was pretty fun, coz I have never played chess in a park and certainly not with many ah-peks watching and commenting at the same time. Well, I conceded the game with only 1车, while he still had one set of 车马炮 ... surely no fight one lah.
Today was quite dissed about last minute changes that screwed things up a bit. Other than that, it was a great sunday for me.
Heard there is going to be a 五月天 校园演唱会 at 北大 this Thursday. I WANT TO GO!!! Hopefully Esther can get us the tickets to the concert!
Wally Me
If you guys read Dilbert, you guys will know Wally is the slacker in the company who drinks a lot of coffee.
Except for the balding top, I think I am very much like Wally. And I didn't choose to slack.
Yesterday
Yesterday.
That's how the beginning of the show, 'Crash' started. I have
tried to watched 'Crash' twice, because the DVD just gave up playing smoothly; the first disc at scene 8, the second at scene 17. (roughly lah, I can't really recall ... was quite pissed liao)
Yesterday.
Went back to office late from lunch, as usual. I don't know ... it's not out of mischief or wilful in nature; I needed to go to the bank to pay for our electricity bills. A lunch time trip to the bank is usually a half to a full hour affair.
The bad thing is, Alex and me returned to the office block's lobby at the same time with the company's CEO and all the French big shots on level 8.
The good thing is, Tracy shared the same lift as me when we went up. And she was not having lunch with them =) So I know the French big shots are not ... erm ... hitting on her or wat hehe
Yesterday.
I hit a bottle neck at work; although all I needed to do, is to figure out what I'm supposed to know. Quite mind-boggling and quite a mouthful right? I am sort of at a dilemma. If you ask too much, are you not as independent as expected to learn by yourself? If you don't, you risk misunderstanding the whole thing altogether. Sigh. Although we are assigned a mentor each, the mentor 毕竟 is not your fulltime tutor. Even NTU tutors have consultation hours. Besides the people in our department always look busy. Today then I knew how late they went home these past few weeks when I asked Xiang Xin about it; about 11pm daily.
And here I am stuck in the cubicle feeling bored and useless, acting busy most of the time, and practising my stealthy alt-tabs.
I have began to cut down on my latte intake. I have been taking one per day, usually first thing in the morning when I reach the office. I substitute my afternoon coffee with Lipton tea, thinking it might still be less caffeineted than the lattes. I have also began to eat less, and more in moderation.
I also want to get a decent road bike so I can go on weekly cycling trips with the 北大bike club, something I can ship home and use happily back in SG. But then I will have the 周转 problem again sigh. I still got a DLSR to buy, a huge China to explore and ultimately my own mouth to feed and an air ticket back to SG. In fact, I've began to feel that I would never be able to see the world in one lifetime. The world is too big. I would never be too rich, or have too much free time to see it all; especially if I want to do them while I am still young and mobile.
Snow pics
It really snowed!
paiseh ah Pris ... u were caught with ur eyes closed, again. In the other grp pic, I got 排挤ed ... so gotta use this instead...
下大雪！
It snowed like mad today!!! The history lecturer knew our hearts are not in the tutorial room liao, so he gave us all an early dismissal.
And we played soccer at a 北大'field' gazetted as a national heritage area, while it snowed! I somehow knew we were not supposed to play soccer on that field, but we played anyway. Good thing is that we (Alex, me and Yizhuang pple) won the game against the Wudaokou pple. And our banter attracted the 北大photographers to take shots at our crazy antics. I remembered at least 3 photographers fully armed with telephoto lenses came down.
Man ... it was damn fun loh. Only the few of us can boast that we played soccer in the snow, and on a Chinese National Heritage 'place'. After we won the game, the Wudaokou pple stayed to play another game within themselves. But they were sent for lunch earlier than they actually planned to, coz the campus security surrounded and chased them off the grounds.
Needs and Wants
I now know that I am not as adaptable as I would like to be. And I dunno if I prefer to be in some sort of routine life, or one that is ever changing, always receiving new challenges. Whenever I am unsettled down, I yearn for a routine to stablilize my life. Then whenever I have settled into a routine, I have a desire to break out of it.
It seems that I am one of the first to reel from the effect of missing SG food. All the imposing weather, the sickening pollution and the sucky rush and tension of city living ... makes me feel very deprived. At least I am the only vocal one about missing SG food.
I WANT:
- Chicken Rice
- 肉挫面
- Steamed promfret
- 麦片虾
- Laksa
- 铁板烧鱼
- 河粉
- 扬州炒饭
- roadbike
- badminton racquet
- table tennis racquet
- sport shoes
- a DLSR
- 1 more roll of ISO1600 film
- a new mouse (just bought one from PKU today)
- mp3 player
I NEED:
- something to boost my morale
- a better mattress to sleep on
- to exercise (badly)
- break out of routine
Heard sandstorm is going to hit Beijing in a day or two ... damn ... there goes my weekend. Might gotta stay indoors liao ... And 黄老师reminded us that a cold front is hitting us also, prepare to dip 8C to 10C.
38 妇女节
38 妇女节 is more than a lip-service in China.
There's actually a stipulated half-day holiday for all women. Despite the fact that I am not a member of the fairer sex, I thought I would stand to benefit from it; my dept manager and my 2 mentors are all female! But circumstances turned out otherwise, they all had something very important to finish, while all the other women in the rest of the company all left after lunch. So busy, I didn't dare to ask them why they are not going off.
Somemore, I hadn't much luck when it comes to asking for advises from them. It seemed to highlight to them my ignorance (maybe not to Luo Ling), and my capabilities in understanding something so basic to them.
Sigh, I was thinking of going off at about 3pm, if all 3 of them went off for their half day holiday. I am super cranky for a big part of the day. I also forgot that most of the women already left company by afternoon when I went up to lvl 8 for pantry meeting. Set aside a nice cookie for Tracy (if she pops in for a drink) then I remembered she probably left liaoz. Then I ate it up anyway.
Lattes today: 1
Lipton bags: 1
Temperature:
-1C to 10C
(I'm pretty sure it was something like 27C or 28C in the office, it is really very stuffy and hot.)
四季
Nice Song from 陈珊妮 - 四季
(sorry ... old habits die hard =P )
秋天摇着尾巴
说它其实爱着夏天
但已经是过去的事
冬天又来了
要秋天多给一点时间
还偷偷想着春天
春花秋月最寂寞
冬雨不讨人喜欢
你要夏天只爱自己
我却等你一个四季
你要夏天只爱自己
我却等你一个四季
I will miss the outgoing winter in Beijing.
Met Tracy at the level 8 pantry today afternoon hehe Definitely made my dull day bright =P Thanks to Ly!!
Uber LM Day
Right from the start of the day, nothing went right for me.
I kept waking up in the middle of the night. I didn't really get to start the day quite awake.
Then I tried to pay for my air tickets from Shanghai back to Beijing, and I got my password wrong 3 times. My atm card and IB account got locked up.
Then I asked my mentor about some work related stuff.
“你怎么会没有问题问？”
*gasp
“OTA应该不容易懂得,你有什么问题要问,我找个人找个时间跟你们讲解.”
Well, the tone sounded like, "Have you been reading the things I've given you seriously?"
Sigh.
Then the internet connection at work failed intermittenly again.
The SG dinner I craved for was too exp to eat in Beijing. I had to postpone my home-food-sickness, again.
Lastly, I had a churning/gastric-aching stomach just before dinner time, and after it as well.
Uber Low Morale today.
Lattes today: 3
Milo: 1
5th March 2006
fyi: Bucky is the egoistic and sadistic cat that always bully Satchet.
It has gotten warmer, hitting a high of 16C yesterday afternoon. I have taken my rip-off Columbia jacket off my back and running around only in long sleeves + a polo tee on top. But of coz, still uncomparable to Ly.
Getting sort of low morale becoz the food here. It's starting to taste all the same to me liaoz. Whenever I ordered from the menu, I tend to stick to the stuff we always ate. Even the 小吃s all look and taste the same to me liaoz. And I am running out of ideas of what to cook. I also made rubber ribs last night ... so xian. Luckily, Ly was kind enough to be the very few who patronize.
The weather is getting kinder to me now, but I sort of miss the freezing weather liaoz. So 矛盾, I can't wait to see the real spring arrive, and yet when winter starts to leave, I can't bear to see it go. Maybe I should buy more rip-offs winter clothings, one for my sis, and one for my vanity. The changing weather should be able to help me force the vendors to lower the price.
By the way, quite a lot of photos I did not post them on the blog itself. You guys can click on the 'Flickr Badge' to goto my photos sharing page. Or you guys can click on
http://www.flickr.com/photos/yaohui/ to take a look at them.
Today's temperature:
-2C to 12C
Nescafe 'Intense':
1 for the breakfast
Looking forward to the 胡同walk with Hailiang and his roommate in the afternoon today. Hope his gas meter man turns up quickly so we have more time together.
冤情雪！
Ly and his icy-muddy shoes. Remember why we left 颐和园 early?
While it snowed lightly and intermittenly for most of yesterday, it suddenly turned into a heavy snow storm at about 4pm. We gathered at the window to look at the sudden snow storm that eventually lasted about 20 minutes. They were joking that with the type of sunshine and the magnitude of the snow, there must be some sort of 冤情 some where. Luo Ling said that there must have been that on payday (which is today, on the last day of every month, everywhere in China), somebody must have worked his ass for the whole month, and yet the boss never pay him a single cent.
Somehow, snowing is not as romantic as many would think. It is freezing, it makes the floor slippery, and when the snow melts, it gets disgustingly murky. Quite a sight to behold, not a condition you want to live with everyday.
Freakshow. He can perform sweating for you in the snow.
Share with you guys some snippets of conversation art pieces from Alex.
Snippet #1Context: The girls broke their key in their home's keyhole, hence requiring the services of the locksmith. So Alex called the locksmith.
“哈罗？是开锁的吗？”
Followed by some conversations that we don't include, coz they dun matter.
Locksmith: “那你们住家在那里?”
That was our first day in Beijing, obviously not very oriented yet.
Alex:“er ... 圆明园”
Locksmith over the phone:" ??! "
The rest of us: " ! !! "
Snippet #2Context: Alex and I commenced on our Operation Pineapple Tart (codenamed O.P) to remind our colleagues of our prescence, as well as to bring our relations closer.
Our dept manager:“这个是什么来的？”
Stammering Alex:“凤凰酥”
Dept manager:“？？”
me:“是凤梨酥”
-----------------------------------------
Temperature today:
Forgot to check.
Lattes today: 2, again.
Lipton tea bags: 2.
Just a sidenote: 圆明园was burned down eons ago by the invading 八国联军. It was never rebuilt but instead left 'as is', a 'live' historical site for educating the future generations.
