25th April
Sometimes I do run out of idea how I should name my posts.
Maybe because the collective stuff I want to say, is too short to be a independent post on its own, and too unrelated to be grouped as one.
Let's start from work bah.
Work is ... constantly having new challenges. And I'm pretty glad to be out of the gloomy shadows of being cast as a stupid intern. At least my immediate mentor thinks I am working faster than she expected and is pretty impressed. I still turn up at work on time, finishing my lunch on time almost daily, and leaving office on time, most of the time. I am happy working at where I am now, although I have to increasingly independent, the colleagues I should turn to are always busy. My colleagues are quite a good lot; the ladies are attractive and get along well with each other. The guys are also quite nice although they tend to be more quiet and 'dao'. Feng Huan bought us strawberries and other fruits while Luo Ling bought all of us ice cream when it got really warm inside the office. Xiang Xin was uber helpful, if not my work progress would still be 2 weeks behind. I just find it difficult to communicate with the higher levels, but well, I don't need to do so often anyway.
And we celebrated Guomao's birthday.
And we played badminton with Vietnamese and Laotians in 北大 last Sunday, just a friendly game organised by the SSA.
I have been feeling so 压抑 again. And I am getting sick of my limited wardrobe haaha, I even thought of going clothes shopping (omg).
I am also listening too much Mayday that it starts to freak me out haa. I listen to them at work and at home when I come back from office.
And 我想念
你,
你, 你, 你们 and 你们.
And I feeling lousy about my capabilities to take good pictures. It doesn't help that people keep thinking that I must be a good photog since I own such a 'good' cam. Thing is, my cam is not as advanced as the digicams that everybody own over here, and I've barely started out. I'm making do with cheap lens, struggling without in-cam adjustments, and my post editing skills are limited to auto-correction with Photoshop.
And today at work, it struck me to think of this;
Is it better to 嘴硬心软 or 心硬嘴软?
Both are ... somewhat 表里不一 ... And 23 years later, I can't generalise, less decide, if I am 嘴硬心软 or 心硬嘴软. I just know, I prefer to give people just-one-more-chance, and usually they take it.
Qingdao Trip!
I went Qingdao last last week and I've finally going to write about it!
Qingdao is a 9.5 hr ride (both train and bus) from Beijing. We spent a total of 2 days and 3 night on this trip; of the 3 nights, only 1 night is at the Hostel (Kaiyue International Youth Hostel; great place =P). The first night is on the train ride to Qingdao, the last night is on the stupid bus back to Beijing.
I have actually wanted to make a trip to 崂山, but later decided that it might be too rush to do so. Eventually, half of us made the trip to 崂山 on the second day but the other half of us stayed in Qingdao.
For those who might be interested, the
itineary itinanary itinerary is as follows:
Day 1 (15/4 Saturday)
0700 – Reach Qingdao
Buy return train tickets/breakfast/Qingdao Map
Go to hostel check in
0815 – 栈桥
回澜阁
小青岛
1000 - 基督教堂
迎宾馆
信号山
1300 – Lunch
1400 – 鲁迅公园
八大关
花石楼
1800 – Seafood Dinner at 云霄路/大麦岛海鲜一条街/台东路
Day 2 (16/4 Sunday)
0800 – St Michael’s Catholic Church
老舍公园
观海山/观象山
1000 – Qingdao Brewery
1200 – Lunch/Check Out
1330 – 海军博物馆
1800 – Depart from Train station
(Estimated time of arrival at Beijing on 17/4 0550hrs)
Something like dat lah, we made adjustments of coz, but still went all of the places mentioned. And the 海军博物馆 sucked, don't even bother.
The train ride was shiok! Simply because we invested (very correctly) on the best seats money could buy. The 9.5 hour trip was damn comfy. We were in 4 person cabins and we all had beds. Poor SJ and Jeff who joined late ... they had to squeeze with the standing crowd for the night. My conclusion, it is always worth the money.
Hmm ... I wanted to go Qingdao because it simply doesn't look China. It was once German and for a short while, Japanese. Therefore, it retained a lot of German architecture for the majority part of the tourist area. The 基督教堂 looks great, so did the St Michael’s Catholic Church. Think we coulda seen the same things in SG as well, but it is German essentially, and have history significance in their very prescence. I should have been celebrating Easter inside a church, but I end up touring churches only.
St Michael's
Artists, drawin their interpretation of St Michael's.
基督教堂.
The 栈桥-回澜阁-小青岛 cluster is ... hmm representative of Qingdao bah. U see it in front of the Tsingtao beer labelling and on all icons representing Qingdao. Hmm ... quite ok lah. Must see but also can don't so serious about it. U can see the whole cluster from the Mac (it's 2nd storey) by the sea.
迎宾馆 is pretty majestic, feels super extravagrant, and take a special look at the very odd Mary and 2 kids glass painting. It had Oriental facial features but Western dressing. Then you can 偷偷 climb the shed at the shed beside to get panaromic view of the Qingdao shore line. And get a shot, something like this;
八大关 is a pretty big area to cover on foot. And tonnes of people take wedding photos there *&%$, taking turns and sometimes together! And u thought even ROM dun have so many couples at one go. Parts of 八大关 is nice, very euro look, it's a much cheaper alternative to take wedding photos at Qingdao then at Europe itself. Plus the weather, floral and fauna are very 配合 during spring.
花石楼 is within walking distance from the 八大关 area, which explains why they are here, again...
It was a tiring first day, as we started the day early, and most of our time are spent walking walking and walking, waiting waiting and waiting, and picture taking taking and taking. The so-called seafood paradise of China ... hmm ... jus put it this way bah, I still prefer SG style and variety of cooking seafood bah. Perhaps, it was too short a trip, too little meals to generalise.
The Brewery was fun and interesting =)
There was supposed to be 2 free drinks but they gave us more than what we should get, explains this spastic look at the bar,
at the end of the tour. We also got a free Tsingtao glass each, quite cool and I like it a lot.
The sucky part of the trip was right at the very end. We couldn't get train tickets (there's only standing seats left) back to Beijing, and we almost bought air tickets, which is twice the price of the soft sleeper seats for the train. Luckily (and unluckily) we found bus tickets which had beds instead of seats. It was 240RMB per 'seat'. The soft sleeper train ticket was 316RMB. The air ticket was 790RMB before tax and fuel surcharge.
This is only a-third of the bus. We thought we could it was something like a coach or wat that we could talk and makan chips and we bought quite a bit for the road. End up, we could only lie down .. machiam like coffin like dat. I think even coffin have more space for one than this bus bed. But there's niceties to the bus though, the bus conductoress distributed goodie bags that had biscuits and sour plums in it. She also walked around (when there was still space, you'll read why later) like air stewardess with a pot of water asking if anybody wants a drink. When I thought my nightmare should end just at that, the 'bus stewardess' laid comforters on the pathetic corridor space. At first, I thought 'how come so hoh seh, walk also soft soft so shiok'. The truth came a few junctions later ... the bugger bus let even more people board, and they slept on the corridor!! I had 2 faces right beside mine! Guys somemore! And when things fell off the upper deck, the two buggers woke up, made noise and of course woke me up as well. I gave up trying to sleep and tried to watch 霍元甲 they were showing. Then one of the buggers sat up and watch the show as well, effectively covering the already puny common screen. Pek chek xia ...
But well, the trip on the whole was fun and amicable. I wonder if I had witnessed the birth of the first Beijing GIP couple. Most importantly, the air was fresh and the sun was comforting. It was although somewhat rushed, but still a great great getaway from the Beijing. Somehow, when we returned to normal life (Beijing), we came back to the heaviest sandstorm in 5 years *&^$
Raining sand/mud/dirt
As you guys might have heard and read, there was a sand storm in Beijing yesterday. We've also read in the papers (over other pple's shoulders) that it was the worst in 5 years and over 30万 tonnes of sand/dirt/soil has landed in Beijing from the west ... sigh Well ... we've already seen snow in April liaoz, already 见怪不怪.
But it is really damn pekchek loh ... the skies are yellow in color, the cars are yellow in color, the buildings are yellow in color, the floor become yellow in color, KT's white jacket become yellow in color also. The sky color is quite a departure from the gloomy dark grey it usually is, but I would have prefered it to be Qingdao blue or green instead. A colleague taking the company bus joked that there was no need to put on 粉底 for make up haha
I went Qingdao over the last weekend. Will probably write abt it in a few days' time when I manage to get the photos, and have the mood to write. Been quite tired after work lately, lazy to write. Nonetheless, Qingdao was great! =)
Some pictures.
Time to upload some pictures liaoz. Somewhat arranged in reverse chronological order. Most of them are my 'work'. Only a few are not taken by me and they are those with myself inside =P Still got somemore ... upload them at a later date.
大观园.
Beijing have no lack of artists of all sorts of talents. This old man is practising water calligraphy, writing with both hands together, mirror image of each other. 大观园.
光天化日下，筑起四方城. 不必像我们一定要在夜深人静时才能玩. 北京胡同.
Staff making excellent use of break time, with no 顾及 of how others may see her. 鼓楼.
Choir practicing revolutionary songs. 天坛.
Water calligraphy of Chairman Mao's poem on the floor. 北海公园.
Artist 陶醉 in his own pursuit of excellence. 北海公园.
It's about self fulfillment, not about the audience, right? 北海公园.
The monster is here to change the face, and the fate, of the very things that made Beijing special. 胡同, in front of 鼓楼.
A dance troupe musicians, providing music accompaniment for a folk dance. 鼓楼.
Old man selling malt candy handicraft. 烟斗斜街, 后海.
Old man by the 'Window'. 烟斗斜街, 后海.
Old man's hand, moving the pieces, orchestrating the defeat of Alex and me. 后海.
小美 and me. 清华大学.
Chinese Culture module lecturer, Prof Liu, and the SHDers. 一教，104室，北京大学.
Cheryl and me (posing, of coz). 圆明园.
Me in front of arch to 清华大学.
My last weekend
It's been a week since 香山 ... then I realised I haven't blogged for a week ... been rather busy at work, and after work gotta write my '论文' for the Chinese Culture module. So it's been work during daytime, pondering what to eat for dinner during lunch, ending up splitting for dinner almost all the time, and then reach home to do some more research and writing for the '论文'.
All the way like that, till it is Friday.
Coz my package from SG came!!!
Friday:
Went to pick up the parcel from the post office after lessons becuase when they tried to deliver on Thursday, nobody was at home. Ooooh man .. I couldn't wait ... couldn't wait for my taste of home; sambal chilli and bak-kwa, and also my jersey which I bought in sg for this GIP trip but forgot to pack in my backpack. And since I came home alone, I cooked maggi noodles with the sambal chilli. And I caught 5 episodes of 金枝欲孽.
Saturday:
Some of the SHD-ers went 春游 with the SSA people, those who didn't go wanted to shop (erm ... again) , so I decided to cycle. Actually I wanted to cycle from SHD to 古城 ... something one end of the mrt line to the other end. But as I tried to get used to the clips inside our own estate's carpark, I already fell off twice liaoz ... I sustained a bruised shoulder, both my knees grazed and cuts on my calves. Then my handle bar got crooked, and I wondered if my rear derauler's hurt or not. Most importantly ... I didn't feel confident of riding that far and coming back ... I'm also feeling some discomfort because of the previous two falls. And I need to get to 日坛 first to fix the bike, which I didn't know how long it would take anyway. I got the bike fixed up and bought a handpump there.
Aye ... I made it to 天安门 still, and almost never made it back ... I didn't even have time to have that 'flashback of your whole life played back in front of you' that pple say when you have a close shave. Left turns in left hand drive countries are different -> please remember that. This makes it the second time in my life, I got hit by a car while on bike, and I got away unscathed. I didn't even fall off the bike ... I must be the most blessed guy in the world.
苟且偷生, I made my way home and cooked (dinner for 1 again ...) sambal sotong and prawn-ball 盖饭. Shiok ah!
And I caught another 5 episodes of 金枝欲孽.
Sunday:
Went to church after a long hiatus and then I realised it is Maudy Week. I'm certain it wasn't by chance, it was by guidance. Walked around 西单 after service and found the 'can-bargain' street the SHD shoppers like to frequent soo much. Then I bought something for my Dad at the shopping mall beside. And then after I went home after lunch, I played table tennis with alex, then helped pris prepare dinner.
And I caught yet another 4 episodes of 金枝欲孽. I finished it at last!
香山
Climbed 香山 last Sunday with HL, James and Alex. Well, I was expecting it to be full of flowers but it seems that the best season to see it was during autumn, where all the maple leaves would be red. The aim to see the hill full of flowers is ... sort of impossible ... or so I would psycho myself to think; I cannot understand how all varieties of flowers can bloom at the same time. Surely there must be some sort of 'season' for each type of flowers. Like you would expect the best durians in June and December like dat.
Picture of me, at the top of the 香山, posing in front of the .. erm .. tree.
The climb up was tougher than I've expected. And for the first time in Beijing, I perspired profusely. We climbed up a '野山', meaning a hill with no proper path. But we could not give up and go down; because there was a ah-ma climbing along; James said we cannot lose to the ah-ma, so we didn't lose to ah-ma haha Sigh, we saw 3 puddles of puke, one of which was a 'live' merlion performance. Poor things ... climb until vomit. We all also 爬到脚软.
Picture taken at the bottom of the hill. Look at the difference in the clothing before, and after.
Great day out with the chaps =)
亲爱的，你怎么不在身边？
这里的空气很新鲜
-> No way
这里的小吃很特别
-> Yeah! Exotic stuff
这里的latte 不像水
-> depends. Office 的nescafe machine就很棒!
这里的夜景很有感觉
-> ok only lah
在一万英尺的天边
-> on the flight
在有港口view的房间
-> 看不到海 ...
在讨价还价的商店
->真的什么都能讨价
在凌晨喧闹的三四点
-> 北京没什么nightlife
可是亲爱的, 你怎么不在我身边?
-> 谁是我的'亲爱的'?我们有多少时间能浪费
-> 没时间浪费
电话再甜美传真再安慰也不足以应付不能拥抱 你的遥远
-> True ... true. Webcam is the next best alternative liao.
我的亲爱的你怎么不在我身边一个人过一天像过一年海的那一边乌云一整片我很想为了你快乐一点可是亲爱的 你怎么不在身边 ?
-> 唉 ... sad. The writer is panning and yearning for his/her loved ones so much, so much in excess of how I am feeling.
