I almost got cheated by thismoney changer in Chinatown. Was changing quite a few currency at time same time and when it came to Vietnam Dong, i didn't check with him what is the rate. I just passed him the money and told him Vietnam Dong. He did some calculation and gave me a rate of 1SGD to 7340VND. I was like, WTF? So low? He actually dared to say "Now US Currency strong". Even if the US dollar is strong, 7k plus Dong is seriously way too low. Well, the Dong is alrealdy in my hand and i told him it is not possible to have such a low rate. He just gave me that "not my business" look and then went on to serve another customer. I just walked over to the next changer and he quoted me 1SGD to 12,000VND. I feel so cheated so i went back and demanded that the rate around is 12K. He asked his colleague inside and then mumble some stuff in Tamil, and then asked me for my Dong that i have just exchanged. The guy inside did some recalculation and he gave me the rate of 1 SGD to 12000 VND. He didn't even bother to say sorry or anything. WTH! I will boycott that store from now on. The rate at other stores are about the same anyway. I went there because the queue was short.

So lesson learnt, always ask clearly the rate of the currency that you are changing and if he gives a stuck up attitude, just walk away.

Btw, the lot 1 money changer also has very bad customer service. Thinking abt it just makes my blood boil!

What a quiet afternoon at Changi airport. Now sitting at the terminal 1 viewing gallery. Not much activity on the tarmac except for 2 garuda plane. Going to depart to Jakarta and Bali respectively. Even the usually noisy gallery is exceptionally quiet today, apart from some chit-chatting.

what a way to hang out in the afternoon. and thank god for wireless@SG. can chit chat with someone and view planes at the same time. shall wait for evening peak hour to arrive to witness more action on the tarmac. but that would mean hell when going home.

saw this avid photographer (maybe one from airliners.net) snapping away when a MH plane landed. he must be bored with the limited action today. and now changi doesn't have a decent viewing gallery with a view of the runway. He would be much happier if there is one. Just saw a SQ plane roaring off but he could not get a decent shot of the bird. just some side view of the jet. he has since moved on to other locations. eh.. not much other location also.

GA897 bound for Jakarta has just pushed back and is now taxiing towards the runway. now the garuda jet has gone out of my sight. shall wait for another garuda B737 to depart.

This is what one would do when he is totally bored. What a way to spend a relaxing afternoon alone.

FIC 08

22nd June 2008 (Earth Lab)

Exactly one year ago (22nd June 2007), at the same spot

One year ago, I was still a freshie, still unfamiliar with NUS. Came for the camp, hoping to make new friends so that i won't be lonely on the first day of school. As a freshie, i really had fun at the camp and have met wondeful people. Decided to give the post of FIC P.D. a shot.

One year later, standing in the pic at a Project Director, really happy at the outcome of the camp. Seeing freshies coming to the camp, I feel old alreadly.

First up, Geog Soc Freshmen Immersion Camp (FIC) 2008 was a huge success. First major breakthrough, having 21 freshies! that is seriously a lot considering last year was only 6. Things in camp went smoothly. The freshies had fun. The councillors had fun too!

Organising the camp was indeed a huge tiring, headache affair. What my committee members can give me was just their invididual parts. What i have to do was to piece all these together. Had dunno how many sleepless nights before the camp. so glad that i was still sane during the camp and i came home in one piece.

First of all, thanks to all my freshies who are so enthu and spontaneous. Hope you all have had lots of fun and made lots of new friends during the camp!

Of course, not forgetting my councillors who made this camp possible. Wei wei, Yong Chun, Margaret, Jing Xiong, Puey Ling and Bright. Without you all, the freshies would be all over the school and would not be having fun! Thanks for being so ON!

Not forgetting my fellow 42nd MC geog soc mates:

Yuna: Thanks for helping me with all the admin stuff and please forgive me for all the late night smses.

Deguang, thanks for the help with programs, and the wonderful fright night that all of us had lots of fun!

John, thanks for helping me with the running of the camp and all the late nights settling the next day programme stuff.

Boon Kian, thanks for being our food man, bringing our food to us early morning, and driving me to around on sat!

Matt, thanks for last minute agreeing to help out in log stuff!

Jiaqi, thanks for reinbursing us so quickly and taking care of the money matters as well as logistic matters.

Alex, thanks for all the advice and for dropping by the camp despite ur work commitments. Hope i have not disappointed you as your successor.

Kelly n Ziwei, thanks for the pub poster and the T-shirt. A lot of freshie says the poster is nice! sorry to make ur work so hard!

Beejooks, thanks for helping out as a councillor and bringing lots of laughter to the camp.

Winnie, Jade, Val, thanks for coming on friday night after your work to help out with fright night.

Mel n Jade, thanks for helping me with the sponsors. We got quite a few items that are really good this year. $10 mahahttan voucher.. haha

And to Cliffy who popped by after booking out and almost missed your chance to sleep in your bed for one last time b4 flying off to japan.

And thanks to all for the Birthday Cake! I am someone who is really bad at remembering ppl's bdae (I even forgot my mum's bdae once), so for those of you whom i forgot to wish your happy bdae or wished you all happy bdae late, please forgive me....

The end of FIC also marks the end of my project director role in the 42nd Geog Soc MC. I will certainly miss the days of working together with the committee. Though tiring at times, it is really wonderful to have worked with you all. Of course, i shall not forget all the great friends that i have made through geog soc too. I think next sem will be really different if i were to step down from the committee. I feel like taking on another term, but i want to go to field studies, and with DD08, i am afraid that i am unable to commit. I don't want my school life to be all studies too.. haiz.... so let's all hang out together at our usual spot after class ok???

Realised that i have not updated for quite some time. Have been busy with many many things... Will blog more about some of the events that happened during this period. will also post more pics soon! esp the unglams ones.... haha

I was doing my transcript the whole evening and my ears are going to go deaf soon i guess. Blasting the recording on a headphone so that the speech will be clearer as i type. but for the money, i shall hang on.

Heard this song and radio and i searched for it immediately when i got home. It is 收藏 by 萧敬腾. After 一眼瞬间，now this is his first hit from his upcoming album.

No MV yet. Just a audio rip from radio.

Now all the kiasu ppl like me are all online checking out our results. Well, i am still a little little bit disappointed by this sem results. one word: stagnant. well, at least i did better than expected for methods.

so many things have happened in the past week. time just flies when one is so occupied with many things. at least for the moment, i am able to put down a few things in my head. I'm tired. I need a good break. I am learning to look at life from a new perspective.

Travel Blog

I was totally bored yesterday afternoon and suddenly, this idea came to me.

I shall start maintaining a travel blog. Since I gonna be travelling quite a bit this year, and hopefully in the years to come, why don't I maintain one to share my experiences and thoughts?

So the first Genting post is up here. Do give ur comments!

I am now blogging thru iPhone.i can't make an entry in the space below. Arch!!!!!!

opps. a big boo boo.. what i was playing with was not the iphone but the iPod touch. It looks exactly like the iphone but it does not has mobile phone capability (which was why i thought it was the iphone).

First of all, as with most apple products, the screen is really big and clear. While eliminating the keypad, it allows for the screen to be big without making the whole gadget looking enormously hideous. The wifi function allows one to access the internet in places with wireless network. It has no problems displaying most websites ( i am not too sure about other phones with such capability as i have not used them before) and being able to zoom in and out of the webpages and scrolling through the page by pushing the page around, this function is handy and so cool. Video function is as good as the ipod series.

Downsides of it. The QWERTY keyboard that appears on the screen is not meant for people with large fat fingers. I had so much difficulty logging into blogger.com and then making the above title entry. It would be good if a stylus is provided. Another problem that is present among apple players, no FM radio!


Though it is not the iphone, it does give a little sneak preview to what the iphone ill be like. Most probably I won't be rich enough to get this phone when it is being released in sg later this year. Well, I don't mind holding one such gadget if like say, someone were to give it to me free? I guess I just have to get used to the functions of this phone. My current phone isn't doing very well either. (battery is screwed). I shall wait and see if I should make such an insane investment in the days to come.

So embarassing. I went to tell the whole world that i used an iphone. argh!!!

and i finally got my handphone connected to my PC through bluetooth. haha..

after the fun filled 4D3N msia trip with geog soc, it is back to work work work....

so many things to settle... and i feel i have bad management ... really need to sort things out... manpower issues is bugging me now also.. danang side is still like.. unplanned... everything is still in a mess. argh!!! the urge of not leading is just so strong sometimes...

The tuition session tonight just slipped off my mind.. even though it was written down on my organiser. i feel really really bad now cause the poor kid waited quite a while for me.. then in the end have to cancel it... this is so not me!!!

I was thinking, if i am rich, i will just book a ticket online, then fly off to somewhere.... just disappear from this world for a little while..

sorry i sound so emo.... must be too many emo shots at geog cafe in malacca...

will be updating abt the trip soon..

It's has been a tiring, busy, fun two days after exams!

geog soc hosted students from the national taiwan normal university (NTNU) 國立台灣師範大學. Since my chinese has improved, i shall blog in chinese!

这两天的交流真的非常好玩！我在跟他们聊天非常自在，这或许是应为我常用华语与家人及朋友交谈。不过我讲的华语，算是新加坡式的华语，总参杂着英语。所以在跟台湾的朋友沟通是，我必须一直提醒自己要用纯华语，不然他们会听得莫名其妙。在文化方面，我发现我们与他们非常相像。我们吃的食物，穿的衣服品牌，看的电视节目，消遣活动，几乎都是一样的。所以在一起时有非常多的话题聊。他们跟我说，新加坡的物价比当地的贵很多。若我们到台湾，一定开心死，可以在夜市吃到肚子爆。


由于他们得做个专题作业，我和matthew(顺仁??) 带着我们的小组到了甘榜各南(Kampong Glam) 作实地考查。我们先到了马来文化中心（Malay Heritage Centre), 不过到了才发现他们到了下午三点才开门，于是我们便到附近的小巷逛逛。在这里的这些旧店屋，许多都被改成了非常现代化的商店，甚至有一些与马来文化没关系的商店。在Sultan Mosque 外的那一排商店，卖的几乎都是旅客的纪念品。而我也有机会踏进会教堂看一看里头到底是什么样。


各小组做完实地考查后，我们便到狮城大厦集合。享用晚餐后，我们便带着他们沿着乌节路逛逛。最终我们走到了义安城，在那里拍了许多的照片。我在想若明晚有空的话，可能会再跟他们到处观光。


我今年因该是没时间到台北玩，不然由他们带着我们到处逛，一定非常好玩。希望我能和这一群朋友继续保持联络。我这一次尽地主之义，真的希望他们玩得很开心，并希望他们会回到新加坡！

From left 文暄，智窑，德珊，恺泽，matthew, 山峻，小管

in another 7 hours time, i shall be meeting my dear geog soc mates again. from next monday to sat, i shall be seeing them non stop. so exciting!!

and i almost forgot to mention this. Duck kena bird shit on his head! he actually rather the bird shit on his head than into his ice cream ........ poor duck....

Yeah! It's finally over. I shall not think too much about results. To think godfrey tried to tell me my results today when i met him. He mentioned that "the 2 of ur did ok" when there were 3 of us standing there. I shall assume that i am the ok one. but what does ok mean? A bloody just pass?

today's LRT paper was such an enjoyable one. I enjoyed writing the essay although my hand do hurt from all the writing. Perhaps it is also because the paper is the last paper. a wide grin on my face when the examiner said "Time's up. Stop writing". went for lunch with geog soc ppl at vivo and then a long awaited K session at 10 dollars club in chinatown. It's gonna be my regular haunt in the coming months. $10 to K frm 2 to 7. free flow drinks! cheap!

now i am planning my activity for the holidays. may n june wld be mostly geog soc stuff. then it is on to cameron highlands and saigon. hope all the trips would eventually work out. I dun wanna be stuck in old boring singapore. hopefully, i can get a job for the remaining weeks as well. I like things to be properly planned out. so hopefully, all will go smoothly!

Seriously, i dun feel 'high' today even though my papers have ended. sadz...