Tagboard Activated
Posted on: 19 January 2009
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Firstly, my tagboard is now operational. It can be accessed through the navigation bar:
Secondly, I would like to relate yesterday's experiences...
Here's a story that Michael Ross Watson used in his sermon on Sunday:
One day, James' father came home very late from work (as usual). His son, James was waiting by the door for him.
James asked, "Daddy, how much do you earn in an hour?"
His dad, somewhat annoyed by his question, replied, "$20".
After a short period of silence, James proceeded to ask his next question, "Could I borrow $10 from you?"
His dad, thinking that his son might have wanted the money for the purchase of useless toys or other redundant items, simply replied, "No."
James walked back to his room dejectedly. Whilst he was in his room, his father pondered about what he'd just done, and realised that his son might have actually needed the money. Furthermore, it wasn't often that his son came to him for money.
He walked into the room - expecting to see his son awake. Sure enough, James was sitting upright on the bed. His father gently handed the $10 note to him.
A grin spread across James' face as he reached out from beneath his pillow to pull out a few dollar notes. Upon seeing this, his father saw red again.
"Why would you need so much money for?" he shouted angrily.
James handed the $20 to his father and replied, "Here's $20. Please come home earlier tomorrow to spend 1 hour with me- just to read the Bible and do meaningful things. I'll pay for 1 hour of your time" Following the sermon, I proceeded to Jurong West Community Library to do my Community Involvement Project (CIP). I was tasked with introducing library users to the new SMS notification system. Believe me, standing for 3 hours straight was no fun at all.
Fortunately for me, I especially enjoyed myself when I was given the opportunity to guide some Indian and Bangladeshi workers on how to register for library memberships and use the library computers. My experience with talking to people was a pleasant one - all of them had the courtesy (except 1) to finish listening to what I had to say. Looking forward to my next 3 hours this Friday.
Now, that was yesterday. Today was rather interesting as well. During our lessons, our Geography teacher raised a question to the class, "Do you all know what the term 'baby boom' means?"
One of my classmates proudly shouted, "Does this terms describe the process in which a baby explodes when it is born?"
Another incident - English remedial. The teacher was reading a passage halfway when she told Derek to sit down. It went something like:
" I groped... Derek (please listen)"
That's all for today! Remember to leave a tag!
Labels: Blog Updates, Christian, Experience, school, Stories
Morons in IM
Posted on: 16 January 2009
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Recently enough (in fact, just a few minutes ago), I received a IM message from a person with the email:
sasuke_chow_@hotmail.com. Allow me to show you excerpts of a chat log - with a guy who taught he was playing me :P
Sasuke:
i am jason friend
Me:
Hi Jason's friend! What is your name?
Sasuke:
Alvin Chow. Give me your phone number ok? I am good people
Me:
62503035. You can call me only if you give me your number.
Sasuke:
0122929180
Me:
You are not picking up your call? (I wasn't calling)
Sasuke:
you say what
Me:
Right. I'm not a retard. You have 5 minutes to do a self introduction. If I'm not happy with it, this convo goes into my blog :D
Sasuke parted this conversation. Session Closed.
Moral of the story: I do not have a brain the size of a peanut. In fact, I have been widely praised for my highly evolved brain. :P If you have the chance, why not drop a message to Sasuke. Most importantly - enjoy yourself!
Labels: Experience
Happy New Year
Posted on: 01 January 2009
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There's no better way to start a new year post on my blog than to describe my experiences in Taiwan. Because I'm tired, I'll do Part 2 of my experiences on Jan 2 / Jan 3. The post below relates the first 4 days of the vacation.....
If you are not a fan of my long-winded stories, feel free to leave anytime. This will probably be one of the few articles that are not formal, not interesting and perhaps not concise :P
Here goes...
DAY ONEWe arrived at the airport. Throughout the arrival hall, there were people shouting "Huan Ying, Huan Ying!" It was only later did I realise that they were saying "Welcome, Welcome!" instead of "Exchange Gold, Exchange Gold!".
It didn't take long before we got onto the tour bus. Our tour guide was "Ceng Qing Long". He requested to be known, more affectionately, as Jackie, Jackie Chan or Ah Long. We stuck with "Ah Long" - which also has another meaning :P
Ah Long gave us a small treat (pineapple-tart cake) when we were on the bus. This proved to be a good appetizer. We were due for Taoyuan Train Station for a ride to the Night Market.
At Taoyuan Station, there was a 7-11 store. Well, nothing unusual (except that they handed colorful receipts O.o). All 29 people in the tour group were reserved, we were no different.
It was then an idea struck me about taking a photograph of my family. It was also then that I discovered that the tripod was at home. Imagine my disappointment... This tripod would have proved to be handy for the next few days. What a pity.
After a short stop at Banciao, we reached Taipei. I was greeted with a "Disabled Elevator" sign. Well, since it was disabled (or for the handicapped), we trudged up the stairs to the exit.
The Night Market was bustling with activity. Bad news? We had to find a place to eat. The night market was ruled out without much hesitation (actually we went inside for 15 minutes to check things out :P).
It was only after passing a Shopping Mall and a few roadside stalls did we manage to get to a stall selling fried rice (which was relatively empty since it was deep inside). We kept ourselves entertained with their local television channels whilst enduring a long wait for the food.
As we were making our way back, there was a beggar kowtowing on the floor. He was doing that nonstop on the hard gravel floor (ouch!). My parents dropped a note into his bowl.
Just one more road to our meeting point. But guess what? That ONE PARTICULAR ROAD had a green man flashing for 99 seconds! Nope - that does not give us more time to cross the road. In fact, it actually encourages the driver to speed off in front of us with no respect to the traffic laws at all. This is one possible reason why a time of 99 seconds was set for a 5 metre long zebra crossing.
After that, it was a bus ride back to Imperial Hotel, Taipei.
DAY TWOBreakfast was consumed before we moved on to Tamshui Fisherman's Wharf.
It didn't take long before we needed to use the washroom. I almost went into the one labeled "Lady". When I turned, what greeted me was even more hilarious (picture below).
'Opportunities to shop will be scarce...' was the advice that was given to us. We took some time to shop for souvenirs for colleagues, friends, superiors etc. When we were returning to our coach, a motorcyclist actually gave way to us (the one and only time it happened throughout our whole vacation).
Empty stomachs again. We travelled to Badasan Restaurant for our lunch. This was also the first meal that 10 people from different families had to sit together. The atmosphere was tense and we were all stiff. The food that arrived wasn't bad, but there was something missing - the lively atmosphere that I longed for.
We proceeded to Freedom Square. We had freedom to do whatever we wanted. Unfortunately, there was NOTHING that we could do there O.o
How do you tell the difference between a real / fake pearl? Well, according to Just Pearl, if you squeeze a REAL pearl in your hand, it won't turn hot. I was trying to find a furnace to prove them wrong. But besides that, their objective was to sell us their Pearl Powder / Jewelery.
This was followed by a trip to Yeliu Geopark. We were greeted by a "Wellcome" sign (yes, another spelling error). The rock formations, which were created naturally, were breathtaking. After taking a few photographs, we walked to their version of our "Pasar Malam" and bought packets of Cuttlefish and Salmon Floss (something like Pork Floss).
Taipei 101 came right after dinner.
Please pardon my poor shot below. I had to steady my hands for 5 seconds in Night-mode (which was made very challenging without my tripod) We were given the opportunity to explore the building in a stipulated time. Believe me, going up to the 88th, 89th and 91st storey wasn't cheap. It was 400 TWD per person.
The better night view shots of the Taipei Landscape will not be shown here. Instead, have a look at the Taipei 101 Wind Damper that helps protect against typhoons and earthquakes by reducing the effects of wind and vibrations on the building. This structure weighs over 600 tons.
On the 91st storey, it was highly impossible to take any proper shots at all with the wind thundering against my hands. WHERE WAS MY TRIPOD? Gah. Since we couldn't take any proper shots, we *engaged* a photographer to digitally insert our pictures into the Taipei skyscraper (499 TWD for 2 shots). It was also because of this that we had to rush down the building (we were keeping the whole group waiting). To make matters worse, even though the elevators were the world's fastest, there was only 1 going down. We had to queue...
Again, we were given the opportunity to shop at another destination. However, it was more of buying foodstuff than souvenirs. A few of us desperately needed the washroom. Fortunately, we chanced upon a restaurant nearby. The waitress was kind enough to allow us to use their relieving facilities.
Yaward Hotel. Slept.
DAY THREEDragging your luggage across carpeted ground was difficult. Thankfully a porter came to help us. Unfortunately, we didn't really calculate correctly and only offered the potter 20 TWD (which he politely declined). We only realised this, to our chagrin, on the coach x.x
Food courts were a rare place to be in the places that we visited. This one boasted a mini-foodcourt as well as Delicacy shops. I munched on some Red-bean Pancake before going off to the Sun.... I meant the moon.... Or both O.o
Sun Moon Lake was packed with tourists. We bought a few fruits from the roadside stores whilst the rest of the group went into the temple. We avoided the temple - especially after the mishap that happened in Japan the last time round.
It's time we kids had some "fun". Formosan aboriginal culture Village (FACV) was our next destination. We took the cable car twice. Once to go to some deserted area and the other to get out of it O.o
Lunch was, shall we say, awful. It was later known as the "Instant Fried Rice". The rice was soggy, and it was so blend. We siblings (sister & I) conquered Space Mountain (not thrilling at all), Waikiki Wave (the wind was great), Gold Mine Adventure (Flume ride / Sliding down a steep slide on a raft), the Venetian Carousel (spinning 2 rounds per second - I was extremely dizzy after this one), Pirate Ship and finally the Monorail.
After the less-than-half-day fun, we settled into Prince Hotel - finally getting an adjoining room. The first thing I did was to make it seem like the doorway was a mirror image, making some members of my family think twice before walking through...
DAY FOURInternational Breakfast was scrumptious. Croissant, muffins - nothing short of heavenly. We grabbed our tickets to rush to the final theme park of our trip.
It was a long walk before we could event sit on any ride. We covered the Waikiki Beach (turning 360 degrees, dizzifying), Ferris Wheel (allowed us to view the whole theme park), Crazy Coaster (thrilling + jerky). Lunch was chicken, and chicken. Yep - 2 pieces each. That pretty much sums up our theme park experience.
After checking out from the theme-park hotel, we took a break at another rest point. By now, you should have noticed that we are like nomads. We have no fixed accommodation and most of the time (literally, inclusive of sleeping time), was spent on the coach travelling. Ah Long basically summed up our first four days as "Sleep, Eat, Toilet, Travel".
Another break. This time to buy MORE cuttlefish + some sugar coated donuts. When we were done, we were due for another temple visitation. This time I had diarrhea and had to be confined to a cubicle. Enough said.
Dream Mall, reputed to be one of the biggest malls in the world, was way below my passable grade. In fact, Singapore's VivoCity might prove to be a more attractive draw. On the more positive side, they succeeded in making people pay for their plastic bags. If Singapore would like to save on resources (notice I did not mention the fictional global warming), perhaps this could be an aspect that they could look into. We bought tons of instant noodles before making our way to another night market.
Oh before that, allow me to show you some of the funny signs that I saw there. If the signs are too small for you to read: Right Click - View Image
Back to the night market. The roadside stores were pretty unhygenic. Therefore, we settled with the steamboat restaurant. It was a wise decision as I was still suffering from stomach pains. The soup really warmed my stomach :)
Apart from some spelling errors in the menu, the service was awesome. The waiter was patient and helpful.
Finally, we checked into Metropolitan Hotel (which had it's fair share of Rubbish English as well). I'll share them with you tomorrow.
I'm surprised you have lasted this far. I'm surprised I've lasted this far as well. Wish all of you a Happy New Year!
Labels: Experience
