I am back to Singapore!

I touched down to home soil yesterday evening, around 11.40pm. The feeling was estatic. It's nice to be back home after being away for 6 months.

Prior to returning, I had one of the most memorable (if not the most memorable) holiday in my life. It was a nice getaway from lab work and school. Thanks Suling and her aunts for the wonderful memories. I have not been so happy for a long time.

The holiday begun immediately upon their touch-down on 22nd June. Upon checking in at Dosett Seaview, we went to 联邦 for yum cha. This is one of the best along Nathan Road, clearly showcased the quintessence of Canto food culture. Shopping at Harbour City followed and it was rounded up by the Symphony of Light along Victoria Harbour.

We went to Shenzhen and Guangzhou on Sat and Sun and for the final 3 days before our return to Singapore, we toured Ocean Park, Repulse Bay, Victoria Peak, Tai O etc. Of course, a trip to HK will not be completed without some shopping.

Near Luo Wu border in shenzhen.

With Wiskers in Ocean Park.

From Victoria Peak.

Hiking @ Sai Kung.

In Tai O.

Top amusing incidents:

1. Adidas shoe. Suling wanted to get a pair of adidas shoe very much but the 3 outlets which have the shoe don't have a new pair; they only have the display pair. In the end, after much "thinking", she decided to get the display pair with better conditions. The moral of the story is, sometimes a good horse has to back track to eat the grass coz it's greener. Lol.

2. Shoe lace. I wanted to get shoe lace in Haizhu Square in Guangzhou. It cost RMB$3 but I remembered getting it for only RMB$1 2 years ago. In the end, because of pride, I didn't go back and get it. Instead, 3 days later, I got it for HK$10. The moral of the story is, we have to pay a price for pride.

3. Incident @ Da Tong Restaurant. This lengendary dim sum restaurant is also well known for its rude service. Suling's aunt's friend complained to the manager regarding the bad service in 3 languages (Cantonese follow by English follow by Mandarin):

Suling's aunt's friend: "(Canto) 你的服务员，态度很不好。(English) Very rude you know. When I asked her for the price again, she gave me a look, show an angry face and walk away. (Mandarin) 那里可以这样 。。。"

Manager: "..."

Lol. The manager was dumbfounded (coz she don't understand). The moral of the story is, most people in the world can't change channel like we do in Singapore.

4. Sucky food at Baiyun Mountain. Nothing much to write. Just that the food sucks big time. The moral of the story is, you don't get good canto food everywhere in Guangzhou.

5. Taxi ride around Guangzhou. We took a taxi from our hotel to Tee Mall. It costs RMB$53! Holy crab. It's expensive, given the fact that cab rides in Guangzhou is relatively cheap. The driver took us almost one round Guangzhou and discussed a lot of politics with us. He even asked whether we would like to see China fighting a war with US. Suling's aunt and I chatted with him most of the time, albeit sarcastic most of the time. Most memorable part of the conversation:

Driver: "Singaporean are street-smart; if not, why will the country develop so fast in the past 30+ years ..."

Suling's aunt: "No lah, still got a lot to learn from you all; we wouldn't dare to display any tricks in front of you people."

Me: "Yah lor. If really so smart, then won't be riding in your cab for an round-Guangzhou trip..."

Driver: "..."

The moral of the story is, when we get cheated, we must make sure that the other party knows that we know we are getting cheated. Singaporeans are not that dumb afterall; get back at them with our own flavour of sarcasm.

6. Walking around the business district. Suling and I walked around Central-Admiralty area after visiting victoria peak. She begun to utter things like "IFC won by height; other than that, its not architecturally pleasing. BOC is amazing, both in lightings and structure. Lippo is like a pair of enantiomers etc." Never seen her so relax like this before. The moral of the story is, walking around a concrete jungle can be a new experience.

7. Suling's aunt and friend got "lost". I waited for them at the harbour in TST; instead they were at the harbour in Sheung Wan. Lol. The moral of the story is, know your destination before taking any transport.

8. Hiking in Sai Kung. Upon reaching mid-way, we decide to back track via another path instead of completing section 2. This is mainly due to the flat terrain in the alternative path. In the end, we realized that the alternative path is not that nice to walk afterall (boring?). The moral of the story is, it may be more worthwhile to walk a little longer to look at breath-taking sceneries.

PS: We missed out Tai Long Sai Wan (2nd half of section 2), which was being voted as the most scenic spot in HK this year. On the whole, it was fruitful as we been to the 4 of the top 10 most scenic spot in HK - Tai O, Long Ke Wan, High Island Reservoir and Victoria Peak. Not too bad for a 4 days trip in HK. :)

9. Last minute shopping. Suling and I literally ran around for last minute shopping. Our itinerary: Causeway Bay --> Admiralty --> Kwun Tung --> Mongkok. Lol. It's like a mess. The moral of the story is, plan your shopping itinerary before you set off.

10. Umberalla @ Bosinni. Conversation:

Suling: "Wah, even the umberalla looks so nice. But quite stupid hor, come all the way to HK to buy umberalla. Wonder if they sell similar design in Singapore."

Me (jokingly): "Well, you can try to ask the sales assistant whether they stock it in Singapore."

Suling (enthusiastically): "Excuse me, I wonder whether Singapore has similar design."

Sales assistant: "... ...; err, I am sorry but I am not sure as I've not been to Singapore."

Lol.

11. Searching for entertainment. Suling have an urge to play pool and bowl. We went around but to no avail; it's either too smoky and sleazy (Golden Chicken) or not available (Olympic City). The moral of the story is, not many places are like Singapore.

12. Trip to Tai O. We went to Tai O before our flight. We reached the airport just on time, 40 mins before the flight. Luckily there is no jam in the mountainous Lantau terrain. The moral of the story is, do not gamble before your flight back home; not every day is a Sunday.

Top quotable quotes (won't mention names of the person saying :p):

1. In Guangzhou's cab. "How come the meter don't jump? (remains at RMB$7 for the first 2.4km) Wah like that what they earn? In Singapore, before the bud warms up, it's already S$4.50 during peak hour.

2. In Guangzhou. "You guess how much the wanton noodle is? It's only RMB$5. So cheap. Some more the wanton very big. So full. I can split it up into 2 portions and eat for 2 meals."

3. In Guangzhou, after the RMB$53 cab ride. "It's RMB$53! You can eat 10 bowls of wanton noodle, 20 meals. Lol."

4. In Guangzhou, after the dim sum in Da Tong. "If it's my brother-in-law, he'll walk out. Then the manager come; he'll say, "you go ask your gal lah; no service expects us to pay ah?""

5. In HK. "Hello, Chong/Dennis, I need a cab from ____ to ____ in 30mins. Can you get me one? Thanks."

6. In HK. "Next time, I will take one day to complete each colour (MRT line) and shop along all the malls along it; if not, very empty leh."

Of course. A holiday will not be perfect without a perfect companion. Suling has been a superb companion in this trip and I really enjoyed her company.

Returning home on 27th June

Time flies and it's already Wednesday 20th June. I've been in HK for slightly more than 5 months; will be returning to Singapore next Wednesday for around 1.5 weeks for commencement, catching up with family/ friends and olympiad stuff. A string of events lining up for me when I return:

1. Commencement in the evening of 4th July.
2. Invited talk on SCHO - 29th June morning @ YJ, 4th July afternoon @ACJ & 5th July morning @ NJ.
3. ICHO organic training (3rd or 4th July).
4. Monica's wedding on 1st July.
5. Catch up and watch Fantastic Four with Chee Siong, Yuan-Ting & Teck Loon (Date??); bowling, pool etc as well.
6. Spend time with family. Go JB? (Date??)
7. Dental appointment in the morning of 28th June. Meeting up with Suling?
8. Catching up with friends.

Hope I don't fall sick in the end. Anyway, I went to Shenzhen last weekend with Asanka (my apartment mate) and his labmates for some shopping and meals. My main motivation is to buy the DVDs for my mom as I wouldn't want to carry so much thing back when I accompany Suling and her aunt to Guangzhou this weekend.

It was a so-so trip. Asanka can't really appreciate dim sum as he finds them tasteless :( When he was eating mian sian, he added half a bowl of chilli sauce in. *bang bang* He told me that it's not spicy and it's too bland. He said that canton food is good but it tastes better with chilli. I was pissed lor; he doesn't know how to appreciate the taste of canto food. If I am the chef, I'll be very upset - imagine that for a bowl of really good fish soup, you need to spend hours boiling it, to drain the essence out from the "input". Then when you pass it to your customer, you expect him to appreciate the taste but instead, he dumped half a bowl of chilli in!! That destroys the hours of effort you've put in.

Ah yes, I finally get to try Sichun dishes, all thanks to Asanka (for requesting his labmates to bring him to some place where he can eat spicy food for dinner). Hmm they are ok (read "ok" which means I prefer canto food) and not as spicy as I thought (maybe not authentic enough?). I was so surprised that Asanka's labmates have a lower tolerance of spicy food than me. Lol. Initially, they were like saying they can take it and I was like "no, not for me". Then in the end, I seem to be able to take it better than them. Lol. Actually, I really can't take (or don't like?) spicy food. If I feel that it's "ok", it means that it's not that spicy afterall. ;)

Busy Week

It's going to be a busy week. Will be truly living a 24 hours day like a 48 hours day. Lol.

Anyway, saw the below poster in HK during the weekends. It is the poster for the upcoming Marvel film - Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer.

I am ok with the poster, but I have a question in mind:

Isn't Silver Surfer a good guy in Marvel? Why is his name being translated as "银魔", which literally means "silver demon"? Wierd. Also the trailer seems to portray him as a bad guy as well.

Ah yes. Heard from Suling that the book is on sale in Popular Bookstore at a price of S$15.10. Lol. Popular always give discount, as usual. Hope the sales will be good. My NUS chemistry classmate Weili, who is teaching in NJC now, emailed me to ask about resources of H3 as she heard that I've wrote a book on it. Ha.

Dreams & reality are poles apart

Indeed, dreams & reality are poles apart.

Went to see Prof. Wu just now. He sort of lectured me.

"You must stay focus! You only have 2 years here and almost half a year is gone already."

Actually it's my fault. He asked me to work on a project. I didn't actually work on it but went on to do my "dream" project. Then when he asked me to report to him my progress, I don't have much to report. So in order to prove to him that I actually done something for the past one month and not just slacked in the lab, I told him about this interesting stuff that I am working on. He didn't appear happy.

Ok it's my fault. Yah, I will focus now and stop "dreaming". I came to HK with a dream; it seems to be shattered now. I think I should place focus on my primary project and do those dream projects when I have the time.

*Stressful stressful*

Stressful again? Lol.

Die ah. Prof. Wu came back but I have got nothing to report to him. Last week was learning and installing system and network for the 24 new computers. Then I have the darn Bioanalytical Chemistry exam to worry about (in the end, I didn't study for it. Lol). The week before, I was focusing on my "dream" project. Haha. So in the end, I didn't do much. Stress to the limit.

Sigh, it's my fault also. Too stubborn. Keep doing my "dream" project. I was also disturbed by other things as well. Too many things in my mind.

Was quite pissed with the 2 CHEM398 (something like the UROPS in NUS) students yesterday. They gave me the impression that since it's holiday now, they don't want to finish up the stuff and just want to quickly settle the presentation. Despite wanting to quickly settle the presentation, they asked Xin Hao and I whether they can slow down the pace of research??? Hello, so what you you guys want? Pissed lor. Some more, now they are in "trouble" coz boss gave them the same project. They have to present separately but I am wondering how are they going to do that? Not possible lor.