First day in Vancouver

Safely arrived in Vancouver and has more or less moved into the apartment. The rent is CAD$950, and comes with 2 rooms, 1 bathroom and a kitchen. I am sharing the bigger room with Garry and Eugene is taking the smaller room himself. Because of that, Eu is paying 330 whilst me and Garry pay 310. Not really a fair deal but we all love Eu, so it’s ok.

Went to walk around to familiarize ourself with the surroundings, and had sweet curry for lunch. Also bought some juice and fruits for the fridge.

Evening time, Eu’ auntie and uncle brought us around town and shopped at England Drug for more grocery. We also looked at another apartment at Broadway, which seems a tad bit too near the road but which is extremely convenient because of its location. Along the way, we saw quite a few warehouse stores that sells things ranging from furniture to grocery. Superstore seems the place to buy all our grocery (cheap cheap!) and so we might be going there tomorrow. Had Chinese dinner. Yum yum. Eu’s uncle’s treat. Yay.

Tidied the house a bit at night. Eugene is such a clean freak that I am happy he’s with us in the apartment.

Not celebrating National Day

Found myself slacking and watching TV too much. Didn’t know that healing an ulcer can take so long. After feeling bored and the guilt of not having started packing my bag caught up with me, I started packing. Fitted all me clothes into one luggage, and am totally amazed at how much progress I have made for the afternoon, compared to what I have thought should have been done and had not done in the morning (is there some grammer problem here?). Yay. After feeling a sense of accomplishment, I went to scan all my important documents to put in online repository.

Money woes. No money for bank draft yet. Lucky Kelly lent me 5K without much hesitation. Best friend, what can I say? Will return when my cheque arrives and clears. Respect.

Textbook problems. Must sell off some old textbooks before going off. Then transfer the rest to my sister to sell off. Cross-fingers that I can sell the GEK1510 notes off, although I strongly suspect it cannot be done as the lecturer changed. Hope for the best.

Jonathan: When a baby has spent a long time crying to himself, he should know that this does not get him anything.
Eu: I owe you 2k, but you owe me 33.6 for the text book.
Frank: You are the best.
Kelly: Dun get jealous.
Frank: Stop the stupid messages.

PS: Can import stationery to Canada or not?

Soap

What’s the probability of dropping a bar of soap while bathing and it landing on a corner? It happened today, and squashed its corner though. It led me to think of how many others in the world had, at the same time as me, dropped their bar of soap and landing it on a corner. 20? 30? 1000? Hmm... Stats... interesting....ST1232... B+....not interesting....

After thinking how privileged I am to be one of the few who has witnessed such a phenomenon, I resumed bathing, yet at the same time thinking how perfectly bored I am.

Peace

7th August
Recover-from-ulcer day. Haven’t recovered yet. =(

Need to settle bank draft fast.

Catching up

Went to meet up with my ex-OC and had a good chat with him at Venezia, Guthrie House on 5th Avenue. Excellent ice-cream, as usual. Talked about a lot of things concerning $$ and work and future...
Met up with 4B after that at City Hall. Some of us changed, and some didn’t (oxymoron statement here). Makan-ed at some ribs place at Marina (Tony Roma? Country Manna? Bananarama?), and went to play pool afterwards.

Playing pool with Chongming as partner, and Mingda and Thy as opposites was definite worth the $9.20 in entertainment value. Me and Chong won 2 sets because Mingda and Thy each own goaled once. Chong felt sympathetic to them for that and gave them back one win (why else would Chong pick up the white ball for placement to shoot the last black ball?). These are simply some of the highlights among the hits and misses (mostly super-cockup misses) of the game. If life was an anime, you would have seen us upside down with legs wavering in the air many times during that interesting 1 hr. Definitely worth the money. It’s the value of watching Shaolin Soccer compressed into 1 hour.

PS:
What have I done this holiday? Do I really lead a boring life? Let’s recount... I've......
Helped chee wee revise for NTU exams (April late mid)
Taun at Chee wee’s place + spend 1 week doing dunno what with him and joey++
Major Transition to Exercise (May Start – May Mid)
Went to Pfizer as a volunteer (May Mid – June Mid)
Helped tear down/paint a house (June Mid – June End)
Went Malaysia 3 times(April, June, August)
Went Thailand (July start)
Helped out at Matric fair (July end)
Read quite a bit of books
All the admin stuff for exchange program
One jigsaw puzzle myself, one jigsaw group
Come up with a website (quite lousy but still….)
Exercised quite a bit (nights, throughout)
Took IPPT 4 times
Bus-ed a bit around Singapore with Yusry

Malaysia Outing

Lucky I woke up late at 11am for outing to Malaysia. Zikai forgot his passport and went back to get it, so I had extra time to dilly-dally and jalan jalan Lot 1 (not that there's anything nice there to see...) Must admit that I am bad at communication and reconnaisance, cos I had been walking around Lot 1 waiting for Zk to call to tell me how much $$ to change, when I received a call that everyone's already at kranji MRT. Lucky Kranji only 2 stops away...

I am not JB kid, so stop calling me that.

Went near Taman Sentosa for late lunch of paper-wrapped chicken. Was disappointed cos tot it was the cut-into-many-sections-and-deep-fried type, but it turned out to be the use-aluminium-foil-to-wrap-herbs-and-chicken type. But it was nice anyway, esp after mentally converting the bill in RM to SGD. That always makes me happy.

Walked around The Store and Ocean a bit and bought a toiletry bag and money pouch for UBC use. Must not come to this area and expect to spend more than 1 hour here, cos really nothing much to see and do. Go Plaza Pelangi better. Can try the stone grill, eat Dim Sum, and chill out at Cheesecake Recipe.

Went to Holiday Plaza due to the boredom at Taman Sentosa, and the rest is shopping for movies. Next time must reserve at least 3 hours for the place, and/or plan out what VCDs to buy first.

ZX lost his wallet at Taman Sri Terbau, where we had a RM$142.5 sumptuous seafood dinner. It actually seems that we are a careless bunch when it comes to losing wallet, cos ZK,ZX(include this time), and I actually lost our wallets 2 times each. Not a statistic that we could boast about, but it seems that losing your wallet is not a too uncommon thing. It may actually even be an unavoidable life lesson, that we may take better care not to lose our wallets the 4th time when we've lose it the 3rd time.

Reporting the wallet loss at the mata station near the customs turn out to be one of the more amusing event of the trip. The police clerk at the desk was apparently so NOT familiar with the use of (computer/english) that she asked ZX to take over the comp and fill in the details of the loss incidence... That made me wonder if there were any liquid-paper marks on the comp screen, but that's just me being racist/nationalist =p...

Waiting for deliverance. Of the VCDs.

PS: I think I am going to die from my mouth ulcer. There should be a term under all insurances that insures for death from mouth ulcer. There should also be a clause that claims non-cover for eating fried/spicy stuff when having ulcer.

Makan out at China Town

Charity Squad Outing, with Kiam (+ gf), Chee wai, and Yanqing. Had claypot rice together with chwee kueh and chee cheong fun there. Funny how sometimes we choose our food by looking for Yummy King/Green Book/Makan Sutra signs... Food was great and so was the company.

After dinner went shopping along the new shopping streets. Dun understand why girls are so attracted to little trinklets, esp those that you hang on phone/bag. How many can you hang on your hp? One? Two? For what purpose? Perhaps I shouldn't seek for understanding. Acceptance seems much easier.

Went to Yanqing's house at Telok Kurau after chinatown and sang karaoke a bit to end the day. Koped F.I.R from her. =)

How time flies without us realising it. It's been so many moons, and how little we've changed since then, except that kiam has a gf and yanqing seems much prettier....

Corporate Affiliate Day at SoC

Went to school to get Dean’s List cert today. Super mistake like siao. Cos can’t remember the time and place, but tot it was around 945, so when woke up rush like superman into the booth and out of the house. Sms-ed Yingchuan for the exact time and place then found it to be at 1045 instead. Stupid stupid stupid. Sometimes my poor memory can just kill me. Anyway got to school early and settled my contact lens stuff. 375 degrees on both sides (reduced degree!) with slight astigmatism (15-33) does not allow for astig lenses so now I see still a bit blur blur. But they gave me 425 to compensate astig or whatever, so now I on 425. Bausch and Lomb Soflens half year supply at 65. Also bought lens solution at 18.50 for 2 pc pack, ReNu (no rub). But later saw the shop also sell OEM solution at 13 dollars, also no rub. Basket. Cunny Co-op Shop never tell me got cheaper stuff before I buy. Felt a bit cheated. Just a bit.

Is IT a pillar of Industry? (or something like that, can’t remember) I think quite obvious rite, otherwise I study computing for f***? Tot that was an obvious theme for the tea. But heck, it’s a leading question to all the talk we had by the IDA guy, OCBC lady, and NUS Venture guy. Good food at the end though. But lousy timing. Event starts at 11 but lunch at 2pm? Everyone’s stomach was growling (esp mine and Wong Liyan’s, cos I am self-centred. She sat to my left and I heard her stomach at least 2 times. She drank twice after growling. I pretend I never hear.=)

After Tea, went to Emart at Stagmont with Minq to check out the Gortex boots. Found my card got no money (when do they top up?) so cannot buy. But anyone want to buy and got no money can contact me for a small lobang. They sell at 109 a pair but can get at 80+ cos my ex-OC got spare money in his card that he want to get rid of. He’s at Stagmont, so guys take note.

Went to bio later at Lot 1. But no action there, so me and Minq were disappointed. Minq esp since he dun live in CCK and had to gimme a 25c ice-cream cone treat for his HP book prize. Btw, Minq will be going over to NTU for local SEP (5 modules there) so his CAP also freeze... Clever move to let him power up his UROP...

I am like sooooo covered for my UBC trip. NUS got school insurance with some worldwide coverage, UBC also got a 200 dollars insurance thingy that covers 1M for injuries and sickness, just got my AIG student travel insurance, and still got that NTUC insurance. I better get injured there man..... kidding.

PS:: I do still think of her. All the time.

Cooking and Garry's Party

AM

I’m getting better at cooking, man.... Woke up early enough to do cooking. Same dishes, but level up. Content for now. 

Garry’s birthday later at Sentosa, 6pm. Gonna pack an Ang Bao for him in contribution to his voice recorder fund. Tot of buying a wireless router for our use in UBC and contribute to pay for his share as a pressie, but Eu say too expensive....haha.. I think so too. That is not an eCoNoMiCaLly viable option for us. Haha…

Sidetrack: Never did understand why birthdays are important to people. Yep, it’s the day when you are born into the world. But that’s all isn’t it? Or is there something more that I am missing out? Hmmm.....But since so many people are into this celebrate-my-birth culture, it’s often not nice to pop their balloons. Join the crowd, I will. =)
But death anniversary, that’s a different thing. That’s when people who miss you come together and think about you. To have someone miss you when you are gone, now that’s an accomplishment. Perhaps you have made a difference in their world, perhaps you still owe them money....whatever it is, you are remembered. Perhaps this reflects me as a person that likes to cry over spilt milk, but to that, I say, whateva.

There is something seriously wrong with my writing. The grammer sux, and the logic doesn’t flow right. This is not me. Perhaps being a phantom in USP reduced my writing ability, or perhaps I have never been good at it. =( Or perhaps it’s because of the lack of interaction with human due to the hols. Whatever it is, I better blog more to make more sense. Does that make any sense? Whateva.

Stupidiot = Stupid Idiot. Shortform to scold someone. Hoping this new term will take off in the future as the leading expletive, but that’s not really realistic rite? You can’t go about inventing a new expletive and hope that people will scold expletives like you want them to… Whateva.

PS:: True Colors is a nice album. Esp like the “One light year” song...PM

Slept the whole day, then went to Garry’s party. Woooh......party party party.Yay.

Garry got the best lobang for the chalet this time round... With the National Day offer, NTUC chalet, Sentosa cost 70+ for 3 nights! That’s like tan-dio lor... Anyway he had a nice swim in the pool after we dump him in with Gwen. He looked so happy in the pool like we’ve done him a great service by man-handling him and tossing him (much like salad) into the pool. Don’t understand humans.

Made Kelly eat non-vegetarian stuff. That tofu looked so innocent, who would have tot there're particles of squid in it? Even Garry dunno... Haiz. Lucky no allergic reactions or anything like that.

PS::Yingchuan is a super budgety fellow that would make a nice traveling companion. Kelly dun get jealous.

Clearing cache...

For the last week++, I have been unable to publish my blogs due to some technical issues. Do not want to remember how I lost hours of blog due to computer problems, so don’t remind me. The expletives have gone out already and I don't expect anymore to fly from my mouth.

13 days left to fly off! How exciting yet worrying. This is the first time that I will be leaving home for so long and I might probably be homesick. Just might. Those who know me would know that I don’t really have much attachment to home, but this time round, I just might. Any normal human being should miss home if they leave home for 5 months. On the contrary, what I am afraid to find out is that I will NOT miss home. I seriously do not need the confirmation that I am not normal. I more or less know that, but to have that confirmed is something .... more.

Eugene + Frank + Garry = EFG

Kudos to Eu + Garry for all the trouble that they have taken to plan the trip in Alberta. I think, of the 3, I am the most bochup about the trip. Eu will prove himself right if he disappears in Alberta and leave me totally dunno-what’s-going-on in the middle of the Rockies. Let’s hope that doesn’t happen. =)

Cooked dinner for the family tonight. Disastrous with a capital D. This shall not happen again, I hope. =(
Must polish up skill before going over to UBC. Else Garry and Eu will have to suffer....

Fish:: Did you know that frying fish must be done over a high flame? And one must not flip the fish unless the bottom side is cooked (else the skin falls off and all e meat below starts to snowball off. Disastrous avalanche that must must must be avoided if one does not want to appear amateurish. Like today. )
Wanton:: Meat to be marinated with vinegar, shao xing, soy sauce, oyster sauce, sugar, sesame oil. Fry under medium heat until you see bubbles forming on the inner portion. The outer portion of the skin will chao tar very fast if under a high flame, but that does not mean that the meat is cooked...
Onion eggs:: Always tot that the onion is supposed to be mixed with the egg mixture and fried one time over. But noooo.... Mother knows best (and I must for ONCE agree with her) that you are suppose to stir fry the onion till soft first before adding in the eggs. Nifty trick that makes the onion soft and smell/taste delicious.
Vege soup: Phuah. This is sorta the easiest thing to cook! Just dump all the veges into water over a high flame, and add meat to sweeten the soup. Make sure vege soft then can already. But it doesn’t taste fantastic, so I suspect there’s a better way to make soup....

If I wake up early enough tomorrow (6am), will attempt to cook again. Mother cooks lunch at 6+am, so must intercept. Dun ask why. It just is. There are a lot of strange things in the world and this happens to be one of them. Paranormal to a certain degree, I will agree.

Must also remember to bring along that wonderful cleaning stick (the one where you refill it with a piece of static wipe, whaddya call it?) to UBC. Addicted to using it. Tons of fun.