A new series, and it's just into the fourth episode but been crying buckets from ep1 to ep4.
It's a school-based story, with a seemingly evil/malicious/mean female teacher who looks scary when she doesn't smile. But when she smiles, that's when she's even scarier!
The stars of the show are actually the small kids. Three child leads: Kim Hyang-Gi (as Shim Ha Na), Cheon Bo-Keun (as Oh Dong-Goo) and Kim Sae-Ron (as Kim Seo-Hyun).
Very early in the show, it has been established that Shim Ha Na is just your average kid who's happy-go-lucky, born into a middle class family. Oh Dong-Goo is the resident class clown and Kim Sae-Ron is the quiet top student who's a loner. As usual, the class will have cliques and the usual rich-poor divide. Not only that, the moms have their own cliques as well. As if the kids don't have enough issues on their own, then, comes this mysterious heartless meanie of a teacher who effectively became their homeroom teacher at the start of a new term. And her sole purpose is to make them especially, Shim Ha-Na suffer. Poor girl...
Gradually, the three main leads friendship began to strengthen through their suffering together. In Episode 4, Ha-Na and gang stood up for one of the outcast student, Eun Bo-Mi, but in the end, they got betrayed by this girl. Aiyo... This Bo-Mi then became a spy for the teacher. Tsk tsk...
Apparently, the original version of this show is a Japanese drama series. Ooh.. maybe I should go watch that too!
It was after lunch and we were walking towards the MRT. An elderly lady was pushing her bicycle and she has two dogs following her plus one more in her bicycle's basket. Thought the dogs looked exotic, so was snapping their pictures.
Talked to the lady abit (I called her 阿姨) and she was more than happy to share information about her dogs. Turned out the brown dog was a stray that she picked up. She said the dog was in very bad condition initially and now, he has healed somewhat. But can see that the brown dog tires easily and sometimes will have spasm where its head twitched uncontrollably for a short while.
formerly stray
pure-bred pekingnese
Keke, tried my conversational Mandarin on a local. Not bad, quite fun! =P
Eventually, we managed to get to Tiananmen Square. Huge, huge place.
touristry shot
Ok, I lost my colleagues while we were there. Too busy snapping pictures till can't see them anymore. And there wasn't any phone signal either.
panoramic shot (an inkling of how huge that area is)
Fortunately, managed to reunite after half hour search. From that day onwards, I was known as the one who went missing.
Forbidden City outer gate
Forbidden City was literally forbidden as it wasn't open on a Monday. From there, we proceeded to the Donghuamen Night Market, enroute to Wangfujing (Princes' Manor?).
BBQ seafood stalls at Donghuamen Night Market
sellers of Xinjiang lamb skewers
Wanted to try the braised intestine, but somehow ended up with a bowl of unrecognizable porky parts. Worse, it didn't look quite cooked...Took a few bites of the braised tofu and abit of intestine before passing the bowl to my colleagues who didn't mind. Fear factor... The lamb skewer was more acceptable but I think our satay tastes better...
The food stalls kept recurring. Not sure why they needed so many stalls that sells the same stuffs...
Wangfujing is very much like Orchard Road. One can find mid to high end retail stores there.
Beijing's weather was quite likeable. Day time temperature of between 26 to 28 degrees, while night time was a much cooler 18 degrees celcius.
average day looks like this
best weather day!
Out of the seven days that we were there, there were only two days where the weather was pristine with distinctly defined colours.
Every morning after breakfast, we'd trudge our way to the Beitucheng (北土城) MRT station.
Beitucheng MRT
The exhibition venue was just two stops away at Beijing Olympic Park station. Best part of MRT transportation in Beijing? A flat fare of ¥2 per exit. Heard from colleagues that Line #1 and #2 are the most crowded. Thank goodness for our daily destination was on Line #8. For people entering the MRT stations, all bags must be scanned prior to boarding of the trains.
event's venue
empty, before it starts
our booth was placed within the animation sector
We only ate once at the exhibition venue. It wasn't nice. Super difficult to get seats, long queues and no one liked the cold food. Plus it was expensive at ¥40 per pax (for a plate of rice with tofu, vege and pork, an apple, one yoghurt and a bottle of water).
So, lunch on subsequent days we'd be at a nearby mall called Xin'ao Shopping Center that's about 10 minutes away.
at the mall
Just before one heads towards the mall, there's a corner nearby that looked like this:
can you spot the fake Disney characters?
If you ever see those people in costumes lurking there, please turn and run far. They're sort of like tourist trap. Unsuspecting passerby (like us) would snap their picture and all of a sudden they'd be willing to pose with you. Not one but at least 3 poses. And when you're done, they'd ask for payment which was ¥10. They'd follow you till you pay up! Hahaha. But gotta hand it to them too. In costume on a hot day is no joke. Just that they should declare upfront that they charge for posing with you. They're not right, yet not wrong too. Just opportunists.
my ¥10 shot
The shopping mall was rather new and modern. Spacious too. It has a 4D theatre, lots of restaurants, cafes, food court and retail shops.
Level 1 of the mall
Had lunch there twice and was quite happy with the food that I ordered.
Seven Nana's counter
beef curry Japanese style (¥25)
Another beef rice from a HK-style cafe. Which I think tried to be authentic but without success as two out of the three dishes that we ordered, failed. At this said HK-styled cafe (which btw, was packed during lunch hour), never order the curry chicken rice nor the claypot mushroom sausage rice.
beef brisket rice (牛腩反) from a HK-styled cha chan teng (茶餐厅)
We also found KFC near the MRT that was beside Xin'Ao Shopping Center. There's no two/three piece plate here. Just single piece fried chicken (if you must have fried chicken). Most people was observed to be eating burgers. There's no chili sauce for fast food joints. Only ketchup is available.
err...fishball soup with KFC, anyone?
doesn't taste like the 11 secret herbs and spices of the Colonel's...
This was quite the last minute opportunity. Was sent to Beijing on a work trip for an event there. Many firsts. First time applying for China visa. First time to China. First time taking a non-direct flight. First time flying to a suitably far place on my own. First time rooming with a colleague whom I've just met once. Hmm. Feels like school camp, all over again. Hahaa.
Thankfully, was booked on a Malaysian Airline flight so I got comfort plus food. Only drawback. The four hour wait in between.
RM9 kopi at KLIA to pass time
to Beijing, woOohOo!
Aisle seat for me, all the way. This way, am free to go toilet anytime without bothering anyone. Yay.
dinner
Arrived at Beijing T3 around after midnite, and my fellow colleagues travelling via AirAsia were at T2 20 minutes after mine. Beijing International Airport, specifically T3 was nice. Huge space. Spent some 15~20 minutes waiting for my luggage. -_-'''
Then, waited like another 10 minutes to take the airport shuttle to T2 which by now runs at 30 mins interval. All this while, was inhaling large volume of ciggy smoke as everyone seemed to be smoking there. Found out that T2 and T3 aint exactly near. Took about 10~15 mins bus ride before it reached.
Reunited with colleagues from KL HQ, only to find out that T2 taxi stand has a long stretch of passengers waiting for taxi. -_-'''
Then, we were approached by a guy who offered us a ride in his private car. Ok. Our encounter with the notorious black market taxi that coincidentally was in the news recently. My colleagues decided to risk it, and thus we were asked to follow them. Quite dangerous, come to think of it.
Anyway, the price was ¥300 (~SGD61) per cab and we were split into two cabs as their private car couldn't fit all our luggages plus barang barang for the exhibition.
These are young chaps, probably not more than 26 years old. Our driver revealed that he sleeps during the day and drives at night. Normal metered cab fare would've costs somewhere around ¥100~¥200.
Our driver had to rely on his GPS because he has never heard of our hotel name nor of the address. He ended up having to work abit harder for the extra ¥100 since we were lost somewhere along the way, and had to circle the same area twice before we managed to find the right way to our hotel.
Guess we were lucky because he did send us safely to the hotel, plus helped us with our luggages upon reaching the destination. =)
our hotel
twin sharing
bathroom
The Holiday Inn Express Beijing Minzuyuan was pretty modern, comfortable and clean. Just don't expect fluent English speakers nor bell-boy services.
Beijing night weather was nice, cooling at 18~19 degrees celcius. Went out for supper at nearby congee and noodles fast food shop, then slept at about 4am and our next day started around 830am.
Been having the new camera for a while now. Been wanting to put a layer of screen protector but couldn't find any till recently. Found one at Daiso ION...I think. Can't really remember.
$2 only
inside
ready for operation
Read the instructions or rather, just glanced at the graphics and proceeded confidently. I mean, how difficult can it be? It states, to peel off the film. So I did. Then became puzzled when the film didn't stick onto the screen before realizing that I tried to stick the wrong film! Scrambled to recover the sticky film which by now had been carelessly lying on the bed (and with the wrong side down!) and hence, some tiny thread or dust had stuck to a corner of the sticky film...Tsk tsk!
peel this off and discard this
Didn't want to waste the money so stuck it on anyways.
ok, so the handiwork wasn't top notch...
Underestimated the camera screen. Perhaps a 3.3 inch would be better to cover the entirety of the screen plus its sides?
It's that time again. Another year to add to the counter. It has been a quiet year and glad to have family and friends, people that cares.
cake to mark the occassion
Was getting too comfortable in comfort zone, and this year decided to spruce it up somewhat. Finally, after so looooong......found a new job! WoOOohOOOo! Haha. Dear ex-colleagues, finally joining the alumni club. Am I the last member? Keke.
Ok, it's kind of intimidating actually. Nevertheless, let's try. =)
Found myself out of ringgit on my first day in KL! And my SGD fared no better, with just $50 left. Hahaha....if not wrong, I think I took out some of the ringgit to place in another smaller bag but I didn't bring that to KL. Tsk tsk.
Hehe, needa live frugally for the next three days! Changed almost all the SGD to ringgit at the money changer so now have RM107 for the next 3 days to spend on food and transport.
Not too bad since hotel is providing breakfast. And tomorrow's transport to office has been settled. The rest, will have to depend on my colleague to fork out first. Hahah...
What is the ultimate motivation to change? Thought it was the monetary factor. But can't be, since I'd be taking an immediate pay-cut. Then, why still want to change? Do I really want to change? What do I want? But then again, does it matter what I want?
The mind is at the logic versus feelings kind of crossroads. Even the logics, reasons and rhymes seem to be cancelling out each other.
Already taken the necessary steps, so the move is almost sure, pending fulfilment of certain criterias. Ethically, there shouldn't be any backing out now.
What am I giving up?
1. Freedom (ultimate kind)
2. A few hundreds of dollars a month
3. Good relationship (or maybe the relationship was existent only in my perception?)
4. The niche factor
5. Work related travel opportunities (byebye Beijing, byebye Philippines...)
What am I hoping to gain?
1. Acquisition of new skills
2. Better career prospects in the longer run
3. Change of scenary
Not quite convincing ya. Only three versus five.
But all those were just bullshit. Ultimately, the change was propelled by the fear of being unable to step out of comfort zone. The longer I am here, the harder it will be to get out. But why do I want to get out? Things weren't bad. It was just a tad unhealthy but otherwise, still beneficial.
Precisely because there were still benefits to be reaped that's making me wishy-washy. It's like there's a paved way but I'm now choosing to dig the ground again to lay the stones, seriously the hard way? Sounds really stupid, right?
If it's so difficult, then just stay. As long as you're happy. I know of at least one person who'd say this to me.
Of course, decisions have never been easy for me. But I'd like to stick with it, once decided.
Not surprisingly, the CPF min. sum has been raised. The amount now is $148K. I'm all for Medisave ceiling to be raised because $40K for medical is just not quite enough if you're not under any insurance.
Just last year, the CPF min. sum was at $139K. Assuming an increase of $10K per year, then probably by the time I reach retirement, *calculating using fingers etc*, maybe the minimum sum would be around $300K? Of course this is just fictional assumption. Min. sum is readjusted based on inflation, life expectancies and S'poreans rising expectations of their quality of life.
For annuity plans, an investment of $100K at age 55 would probably see a guaranteed monthly payout of about $500 for the next 25 years. So, probably if want to enjoy $2K per month payout, then possibly need to invest....$400K?
Hmm.. so if one would like to enjoy $2K per month quality of life, then perhaps the minimum sum would need to be at about half a million to sustain this expectation?
Read CNA article about CPF & Medisave minimum sums here.
So rusty in interviews...what kind of first impression was I giving? Seems like the jobs that I'm looking at currently, are all employers market. Just today, there were two other candidates (before and after my slot) that's vying for the same position. Probably more since interviews are still ongoing for the next two to three weeks.
Not sure where all these are going, but am trying to make a change. Wish me good luck.
Accessible via bus #251 and #194 from Jurong Point Bus Interchange. Park opens at 830am, and woke up at 7+ am, but reached there around 10. Most of the people on that bus, drops at JBP, so no worries.
park signage
ticket
gift shop at the entrance
Brought the new NX1000 with 50-200mm lens for a test drive. Was kind of excited as the park offers many shooting subjects (that never complains!). Hahaa!
Didn't really look at the park map. Just ambled along to see what I could find along the way.
After the entrance, came across an area where the penguins feed. Just in time for their 1030am feeding session. The public can feed the penguins too, for a small token sum.
small fish for the penguins
"Feed me!" The rest of the penguins waited...
Ok, so penguins are cute. Moving on. Saw macaws, so must've walked to Macaw Island.
colourful macaws
closer view
Hehe, with the macaws kind of far away, there were some unsuccessful shots. Like this one:
well, at least the lovebirds had some privacy from the lens
Nearby, is the Flamingo Pool.
flamingos amigos
do they breathe underwater?
Then, went past the Hawk Walk, which looked empty (not showing due to technical issues, replaced by performance at Pools Amphitheatre) and wound up at the Wetlands.
Was kind of shocked by the size of the birds here.
giant bald headed birds
closer view (is it the marabou stork?)
saddle billed stork
Ok, adjacent to Wetlands is the Riverine. There's an aquarium of sorts inside where one can observe the inhabitants of the river.
shooting through the glass
Haha, glass photography...failed. So went up to the surface for better chances of shooting the ducks.
isn't these, the cutest things?!
closer view
Nearing 11am, so went to the Pools Amphitheatre to catch the morning show.
waiting for show to start
flying away
The usual bird tricks include birds competing against each other, birds flying to and from the outstretched hands of audience volunteers, bird that can mimic human speech, and birds flying through hoops. Quite nice to sit through it.
Lastly, get a photo-op with the pink baby flamingos.
a picture with baby birds
From there, wandered off into Heliconia Walk. JBP has 108 heliconia species. How cool is that! This area also houses the kingfisher birds. Very pretty, these kingfishers. Oh, and also the conures. So many different ones!
blue-breasted kingfisher
sun conures (parakeet)
don't shoot, i'm shy
Next up, the Scarlet Ibis and Shore Birds enclosure.
scarlet ibis
closer view
shore birds
perched up high for a bird's eye view
Continued on to the Royal Ramble where it houses the Crowned Pigeons. The doors has heavy chains acting as a curtain to prevent accidental escape of the birds within. Sometimes the bird do come out to the human pathway, so it's really a close encounter!
are you talking about me? Scheepmaker's Crowned Pigeon
Then went on to Lory's Loft, where one can buy a cup of nectar to feed the birds.
Lory's Loft
Time for a tram ride!
riding the tram
Once the tram reached Main Station, everyone has to get off. Then, hop on to the next tram for the desired destination.
Went back to where the Hornbills and Toucans enclosures are. A rather large area. The toucan is an attractive bird with its brightly coloured beak. It looked almost like a toy!
hornbill
toucan
Some of the hornbills were banging on the cage walls with their powerful beaks. Loud. Then, went on to the Birds of Prey enclosure to see some eagles. Eagles are big. Very big.
bald eagle
After that, passed by and saw some ostrichs and then went straight to Pelican Cove.
"that's the man that'll throw us fishes" The pelicans thought silently.
to jump or not to jump, that is the question
nice wings
The African Waterfall Aviary was rather nice.
figurines at the entrance
Jurong Falls
electric blue feathered birds (superb starling)
an interesting looking little fella (livingstone turaco)
Basically, during the feeding time (1030am and 230pm), the birds would fly over to the feeding area and perch itself on various branches. So if you're standing underneath the branch, the birds are actually just right above your head or shoulder! WoOhooO! As long as they don't shit on our head, then it's ok.
The sky was getting darker then, so took the tram and went back to Main Entrance. Found the Penguin Coast there.
penguin colonies
emperor penguins
tired
JBP has quite a number of areas to cover and 4 to five hours should be sufficient.
