Happy Day

Went to Upper Serangoon in the afternoon for roast duck rice!! Simply yummy! Especially for my dad since he hasn't eaten it for so many months.

After lunch, my dad drop my brother, cousin and I at TM cos' we're going to watch Initial D at 2:15pm!! WAH, how long haven't I watched a movie??? More than 3 months I think!! I was the one who bought the tickets, and my brother asked,"How come you didn't request for seat?" Then I realised I forgot all about the procedures to buy tickets. OMG. How dumber can I get?

My brother's gf also joined us. She's 1.66m. Taller than me. Grrr. She's quite plain, just smiled at us. And she didn't want to sit together in the first place. But I was like,"Sit together ok?" Heh, she got no choice ok. I'm the elder sister of her bf. *grins at having gotten the upper hand* She kept quite quiet, maybe she's those quiet person. After the movie, we separated and said bye while she waved bye. Wah, didn't even hear her speak a word.

Well, anyway, the movie was great. Hehe. Jay Chou was good! Didn't expect his acting skills be to good! I'm more and more impressed by his talents - singing, composing, playing various instruments and acting! Wah!

Then my cousin and I went shopping!! GSS ok!! Must grab at least a few things. But only a top came to my liking. How does this look?



From O.A.M.C, I bought this top for $19.50 because it was on 50% sale! I liked the skirt too, but it made me look fatter, so I didn't get it. The skirt was $89 but also on 50% sales!! Urgh. How nice if I could get it.

SE performance

After practise in school today, we proceeded to Toa Payoh Hub for a short gig for WSC Ignite event. It's gonna be a 20 min event. We were there early, and began tuning our instruments.

Then I saw my whole family and my cousin there! My goodness!! They were there to watch me (of cos' to eat dinner there too). So gan cheong with their presence! The performance was ok, though there were only 10 of us. The worst was Canon, think we were all rusty liao. I made many mistakes too. Sigh.



After that, we sat around the area for packed dinner. I didn't eat much, over-starved and food wasn't that nice anyway. Then it was plans to go movie. But I didn't really wanna watch Batman, some of them didn't want too. KY suggested for KTV. Hmm... not bad an idea. Haven't K-ge for very long. And if the whole group is willing to go, why not? We finally decided on KTV. We went in at 815pm and the allocated time for us was till 12mn. But we stayed there till 3am!!! And the total bill was $194.80!! However it was a great time together.

And this was everywhere on the walls in Kbox!!


Everytime, I went KTV was only with 1 or 2 friends, and was kinda boring. Going with a bigger group is better!

Farms Trip

Woke up early in the morning at 745am and walked to the coffee shop for breakfast. We are going to farms today. It may sound a bit boring ya? My cousin and I are going because my mum is in charge of bringing the CC educational tour group there today, and response is not very good. Hence we are there to make numbers. Haha.

The bus left at 9am, and it began to drizzle slightly. We went to otak-otak and curry puff factory first. Then frog's farm, fish farm, aloe vera farm and herbs farm. The whole trip ended at 4pm. Nothing much really to see. But I saw peanuts attached to their stems!



They are really cute!

Out!

Went out to TM today in the late afternoon. Nothing's much changed, but was quite a brand new feeling of walking there. Haven't been out walking for so long!! More than 2 wks! Suddenly feel so good to be in Singapore, with all the people I know, and people that speak my language, and no more alienated feeling.

Then I went Bugis to fetch my cousin who is coming from KL. There wasn't many people, most probably it wasn't a weekend. Feels so much comfortable to walk without having to push. Bugis Junction didn't change much, except for that expensive AB&C shop on the 3rd level. It has shrunk in size!! To make it worse, it looked very spacious (meaning very few things now). Part of the shop became another shop.

It was 9pm. I was standing at the control station waiting for my cousin. SMS came and said she'll be late, 930pm. So I waited till 930pm. Then she called. Very unexpected.

"Hello, eh, can you wait for me till 10pm? His parents ask me to go their house drink soup. Cannot reject la..."

And dunno why after replying some words, the line was cut off. So I SMS her and asked her to go ahead, though I felt cheated.

So I went home alone, and her bf's parents fetch her to my house later. Sigh, what will you do if you were the parent, knowing the cousin is waiting and yet pulling her to the house for soup?

GRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR.... Cool down. I must not be angry. No, I'm not angry at my cousin, I'm angry at the parent!

Bad Hair Day AGAIN!

Bad bad, woke up with quite a bad hair. Most prob due to the late night. Slept at 3am last night. Even thought of going market with Mum at 5am when the market opens. Who's the cause of it? Mr. Caffeine! Had a cup of coffee at 11pm. Stupid. But it was a craving for coffee at that moment.

Had lunch at Frankel Ave. Had wantan noodles. $2 for quite a filling portion. Saw Emerald there. Waved at her. And she looked at me like I'm an alien. HELLO? Don't you remember me? The one who offered to pay cab fare for you so that I can have the music room key? When I told her my name, she was like,"Are you from my church?" DUUUUUHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

And so coincidentally, a guy creeped up from behind and said,"Shi Qin!" At that moment, I was busy SMSing my Dad cos' my Mum had to remind him not to forget the rice dumplings in his freezer some 4000km from SG. I turned around, and stared into a cleanly shaven face, facing a height of nearly 1.8m tall lean guy.

"Hey!!"

Haha! It happened to be a sec sch classmate which I haven't met for years! We chatted for a while and he was with his family there to eat the wantan mee too! I was like SMSing at the same time, and I think I kind of gave him a bad impression that I didn't want to talk to him. I quickly took down his hp number. We were like just sitting beside each other in that small coffee shop. When he left, he came over and said bye, even talked for another 2 min. He's still the nice old guy that used to sit beside me during Sec 4. Feeling guilty about didn't give him 100% attention while chatting, I sms him after I got home. And so on and so on.....

Whenever I have a bad appearance, I will always meet some people outside. And today's bad hair day made me met my sec sch fren. As I told JH, whenever I dress very very casually, I will deem to meet one of my ex-es in school. When I dress very nicely, I won't meet anybody! STUPID >.<

A friend asked me to play the keyboard. He had formed a chinese pop jam band and lack of a keyboardist. Don't even had the slightest idea how jamming works. I'm a "dead" pianist who only knows how to play from scores. But jamming is always something I wanted to try. Shall give it a go. =)

Aiming for a digital camera

Looking at Sony's Cybershot DSC-T7 and Konica Minolta's Dimage X60. Someone tell me which is better? Or are there better ones?

Criteria: I want a compact camera, but of cos' need things like good flash, good zoom, manual modes, better still if it is battery-saving! Haha!

Slam Dunk

Yoo hoo! I finished reading the 31 books of Slam Dunk comics this afternoon! Love the comic man!! Anyone who hasn't read it, should read it immediately!! I love Hanamichi Sakuragi, so shuai!!! So seh!! You're a genius!

Go here to get a summary of the story!!


The team!

U're Bored!!

Sorry, I can't help it. Just need some place to let it out...

Your boredom is killing me! How can one be so bored?? Stop asking me the same questions over and over again. Grrr.....!!!! Now, get lost!

Day 11, Beijing - Sunny

Woke up at 9am today. Packed for the last time and checked all the cupboards again. Today, we're going back home to Singapore.

Continued reading my Slam Dunk comic. Can't believe I actual became a fanatic out of this comic. Used to think that the comic was boring. But it was really fantastic! I've begin to know how to watch basketball matches. Know how to appreciate more! (Though I still prefer playing netball.)

Then we went to Pian Yi Fang to take our lunch. We had - Niu2 Wa1 (yes again!!! for the last time leh!), deep-fried pork pieces in the style of gu3 lao3 rou4 and yang2 zhou1 fried rice. Only cost RMB$78. And the portions were really big!!! We 4 people can't even finish the food.

When we went back to the apartment again, I used the video cam to take some moments of the big house. Did some last "touching, sleeping, lying" on all the bed, furniture..etc... Guess it would be the first and last time I'm gonna see that apartment.

SQ is getting worse. The air stewardess are not as pretty as before. Furthermore, the food on SQ is no good. I must say Cathay's one is much better! On SQ, there is no ice-cream, no chocolate, and the taste of the food is worse than Cathay's. Is this the result of SQ cutting down on their budget? Even worse, the variety of shows on the return trip was so few, that I didn't even on it. I read Slam Dunk throughout the flight. What a bad flight.

We saw the Channel 8 newscaster - Cai4 Yin2 and her husband at the airport too. They were queueing behind us at the taxi stand. Lotsa of luggage. Honeymoon? Heh. She looked quite petite, but very chio leh!!!

Day 10, Beijing - Fine but cloudy

Went to a mall that sold some "small stuff" shops suggested by the chauffeur. Lousy place. You know what they sell? Cosmetics, but those dunno wat ulu ulu brand types, dunno made from wat ingredients! Wait apply liao, face all pimples, if worse, whole face lan diao! And all the shops sold the same stuff even combs also the same! Siao meh? Then on the 2nd level sold clothings which I've seen after visiting so many places the past few days. Actually the things in China, all the same! We left the place in 20 mins. Shitty place.

Waited for the chauffeur again! This time also half hour! Mummy got fed up again. Haha, but I made use of the time to read Slam Dunk comics! Siao liao! His explanation was he was out of the car to buy cigarettes. Believe? Chey!

Went to Shu Guo restaurant there again, ordered the Shui3 Zhu3 niu2 wa1 again!! I took photos of the food again, but this time kena said by a waitress.

"Sorry, you can't take picture of the food."

"Where did you state that no photos were allowed?" Dad angrily said.

The waitress looked frantically for the sign, but she lost!

But as obedient as how Singaporeans are, I kept the camera. The last time we came here, nobody said us also what. Somemore, the last time round, we even asked whether photos are allowed, and the waitress said ok! Dad said if we were ang mohs, they won't bother to tell us to keep the camera. Cos' they're of "higher" social status? But to me, they won't bother to tell them cos' need to use English mah, need to think how to phrase English sentences. Haha.

Then came the performances started at 7pm. Was the same, but the "change face" master was even better than the last one! He could change his face right in front of the diners! Applause for him! In addition to the performance, there was a lucky dip! The always not so lucky us didn't expect to win anything. We just continued to eat happily. *Ah, my niu wa!*

"6th prize...."

.
.
.
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""First prize... Table 51, Step 2, Mr Ng!"

"ARRRRHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Daddy!!! It's you!!!" I quickly shoved him upstage!! He was still chewing on the piece of niu wa I gave him. He quickly wiped his mouth of grease and hurried up. The whole family was taken aback by the surprise and cheered him up!

"Would you like to say a few words, Mr Ng?" The compere asked.

"Wishing everyone good health and prosperous!"

Then I heard someone shouted "Thank you!" from below.

Dad won first prize! It was a prize of RMB$200 dining vouchers and 2 free buffet steamboat vouchers at its restaurant! How lucky we were!!! Never so lucky before! It was not the amount of money, but to think we actually won the FIRST prize leh! It was this luck that Dad felt so happy for the rest of the night, forgetting his troubles at work and the draggy meeting in the late afternoon.

Happy night!

Day 9, Beijing - Foggy

Wat did I do today?

Mummy cooked mee hoon kuey for dinner. Yummilious, another home-cooked meal!! Hehe. Goes especially well with diced garlic and chilli padi we brought from SG!

Look at what I ate later in the night... It's Meiji's Yan Yan and it's orange flavoured!! Not sold in SG leh!! And it's nice!

Day 8, Beijing - Sunny

Damn, woke up and spoilt Dad's pc today. What the hell was I think I was doing, or rather, did I over-rate myself to fixing his pc?

We went Carrefour in the afternoon. Bought some groceries and returned home.

For dinner, we had pan-fried chicken drumstick cooked by my Dad. It was seasoned with garlic, sesame oil, pepper, soya souce, hua diao jiu and salt. Then pan-fried till cooked, and skin a bit chau da for the aromatic taste. Hah. Finally a home-cooked meal after dunno how many donkey days!

Day 7, Beijing - Sunny

We woke up at 8am today and had chicken porridge cooked by Mummy. Then we changed and time to go gai gai again.

This time, it was pretty slack. Cos' we were going to the outskirts of Beijing again to visit Peking University and Peking Tsinghua University. It was near the Ba Da Ling gate of the Great Wall. Peking University was pretty small. It was small, and looked dilapilated. The hostels were in quite a bad state. They're unlike NTU - their pantries, laundry rooms are in different buildings. The paintings on the low admin and academic buildings were peeling off already. Its lake was green - even greener than NTU Nanyang Lake. Eeks. Nevertheless, we still took some photos there.

Next we went to Tsinghua Uni. It was located very near Peking Uni, only about 5 minutes drive away. Many Universities are located around that area too. I only took 1 photo there, because it was pretty difficult to drive inside the Uni. Tsinghua is much bigger than Peking Uni. I think almost equivalent to NTU, otherwise, even bigger. The hostels looked newer and nicer.

Then we had lunch at Pian2 Yi2 Fang3 Roast Duck Restaurant. Addy: Cong2 Wen2 Qu1 Cong2 Wai4 Da4 Jie1 Jia3 2 Hao4. The Peking duck was super good. Even better than the first day's one. The best I would say. The skin was so crispy and aromatic!! Cauz, I will miss this duck forever! However, the price was even more ex. Guess wat? The room we ate lunch was a suite! Super big; inside it contained a sofa set, 13 chairs, a BIG round table and a coffee table!!! Luxiourous!!

Then we went to Xi1 Dan1 Tu2 Shu1 Da4 Sha4 (bookstore). A big one, with 4 levels. Immediately I went over to the Music category. There, I found many many books on music and many scores! But I only took 4 books, which I think were better. Some of the books didn't have good accompaniment. Best of all, some still come with demo CD. Haha! After which, it was the DVD/CD/VCD section. I quickly grabbed a DVD, and 3 CDs cos' time was running out. Then grabbed another chinese novel on the way out. Total spent in the whole bookstore only RMB$140. How cheaper can it get? Haha!

We walked to Xi1 Dan1, which was just near the big bookstore to change the Sims 2 and my Dad's CDs to some workable ones. After changing them, we were preparing to leave the place where we saw a small shop that made custom-design cups. And it was quite cheap, RMB$25 per cup!! How much was it in SG? My goodness! My younger brother saw his fave SHE cup and wanted to make one of the same design. Thinking how great it would be if they had Hacken's one too. Then my Mum suddenly turned around and said,"Didn't you have a photo of him in your wallet?"

*Pring Pring* Oh ya!!! How could I possibly forget?!!? I quickly took out his photo and mine too (I got my photo inside my wallet too!) and requested the person to make a cup for me too!!! And taa daa... here it is!!! Feeling so damn happy!! Always wanted to make this when I was in Sec 3, but always find it very expensive. But today, I own ONE!!!


Firstly, there is ME......

And my Hacken!!!

Dinner at Hong2 Yun4 Tian1 Wai4 Tian1 Can1 Ying3. Addy: Bei3 Jing1 Shi4 Dong1 Cheng2 Qu1 Dong1 Zhi2 Men2 Wai4 Hu2 Jia1 Yuan2 Xiao3 Qu1 21 Hao4 Lou2. I had niu2 wa1 again!!! I'm gonna turn into a frog one day.. croak croak!! It was nice, hot and spicy in a claypot, but the portion was quite small leh!! Another hearty dinner.

After we got home, I joined my brothers and Dadwent in table tennis. Being the lousiest among them, I began to feel bored. So I left them and went up to watch tv. Humpf.

Day 6, Beijing - Sunny

Today practically was staying in the apartment though the weather was great. Did some music theory. At 1 plus, we went out to the neighbourhood for lunch. We had... McDonald's. Haha. After that, we went to the supermarket and bought some groceries. Came back at 4pm. Tried to continue doing music, but fell asleep on bed. Sigh.

Only woke up at 620pm when Dad came back from work. Mum cooked dinner tonight. Long time never had a taste of home-cooked food. Had Japanese beef curry, bittergourd, kang kong, mushrooms and steamed egg.

Go gym later?

Nope, went swimming with Dad and Mum. Taught her again frog-style. Still can't get it. Sigh. Why?

Day 5 - Beijing, Rainy, Cloudy

Woke up at 8am. Wanted to go Tian1 An1 Men2 and Gu4 Gong1 this morning. Just as I didn't want to leave the house, I prayed it would rain. Dunno it was lucky or suay, it really did start to rain. Feeling happy, I went to continue installing my Sims 2 University. It took damn long last night and so many problems occurred. It was already installed last night, but due to my dad's PC language settings, I pressed the wrong icon and the game was UNINSTALLED. !@!"$$%£^><:*£

SO hence, I tried to install again. It took more than an hour and wasn't installed yet. Think something wrong with the disc. Sigh. Now I'm trying again.

The chauffeur was late today. His handphone was spoilt and borrowed his wife's one. Because he could not adapt to the new phone, he missed our SMS and was half hour late to pick us up to Tian An Men and Gu Gong. Mum was a bit unhappy with that. It was already 11am when he came. So we proceeded for lunch first. We had beef noodles. Name of restaurant: Dun4 Huang2 Lao2 Ma3 Jia1 Niu2 Rou4 Mian4 Lian2 Suo3 Dian4. Addy: Cao2 Yang2 Qu1 Jian4 Wai4 Da4 Jie1 Jia3 Yi1 Hao4.

At Tian An Men, the good thing was no need to pay for entrance, but if you want to look at those exhibits, you gotta pay! And each exhibit is a small room only! So not worth it!! We didn't go to any exhibits. As we walked further, we reached Gu Gong. Entrance was RMB$60!!! We didn't go in either.

We walked outside the walls of Gu Gong and there were willow trees beside a lake. The scenery was pretty nice! We walked to our meeting place for the chauffeur to pick us up. Again, he was late by more than half hour! My mum was really fed up and nearly wanted to take a cab to our next destination. But eventually, we still waited for him. His excuse was there was road block. My mum didn't believe him. But I think he didn't lie.

We went to a big bookshop at Wang2 Fu1 Jing3. 6 storeys high!! I bought many music books. Damn cheap. The best buy was the violin and piano score of Secret Garden songs!!! And the publishing wasn't those simplified ones! Happy happy!!!

We had dinner at Jiu3 Tou2 Niao3 Jiu3 Jia1. It is also a chain restuarant. We ordered many many dishes and only cost RMB$152!! And I ordered tie1 ban3 niu2 wa1 again! But the frogs tonight wasn't as tasty. The other dishes were special and nice!!

Lazy to exercise again. Sitting in front of the pc trying to install that stupid Sims 2 again. Urgh!

Day 4, Beijing, Foggy and Cool

We slept till 10am today. I cooked instant noodles for my brothers and we shared for breakfast. Then did some reading. Mum suddenly said," Hey get ready... we going out at 1pm."

Argh, I thought I could do more readings, but... grrr... Luckily the itinery for today was shopping. Hee. Went to Xi Dan. There were many shopping centres there. One of the more well-known one was Ming2 Zhu1 Xi1 Dan1. Inside it sold many stuff - clothings, bags, cute stuff, shoes... bla bla. We had lunch at one of the buildings. I ate some la mian. Quite nice. Cost RMB$10.

After the shopping, the chauffuer fetched us at around 6pm. We went to a restaurant that served Sichuan food. Name of restuarant: Shu3 Guo2 Yan3 Yi4 Jiu3 Lou2. Webbie: http://www.shgyy.com. Addy: Dong1 San1 Huan2 Jing4 Song1 Qiao2 Ban4 Jing4 Song1 Da4 Sha4. The main attraction was a "Bian Nian" master. He could change his mask in a split second! The show was really fantastic. Andy Lau wanted to learn this skill, but the troupe did not want to pass this secret skill to outsiders.

The food was ok, cos' I don't particularly like Sichuan food. But I ate niu2 wa1 (frogs). We ordered 2 kinds of cooking methods - one in ma2 la4 style and the other stir-fried. They were really fresh and tender. So YUMMY!! And damn cheap. In the ma la style, there were about 8 frogs in it and cost only RMB$68!!! And for the stir-fried one, it cost only RMB$38!!! They were so tasty! The stir-fry one was actually ordered after we finished everything, cos' they were especially tasty. Hehe.

After the hearty dinner, we proceeded back. Didn't do exercise today again, cos' I was very eager to install Sims 2 - The University which I bought for RMB$54. It looks quite original and bought from a known seller. My Mum bought many DVDs and VCDs there before. It's still installing now, hope it can be played!!

More historic moments tom. Bleah.

Day 3, Beijing, Cloudy and Foggy

We woke up very early this morning - 615am! Lucky me, Mum made us breakfast - toast, bread with kaya and hard-boiled egg and coffee. But I gave my egg to my younger brother. Better start eating less, getting REALLY fat!!!

Then we got ready and went downstairs. Our chauffeur was already there waiting for us. We sent our Daddy off to work first, then drove to the outskirts of Beijing towards the Ju4 Yong1 Guan1 gate of the Great Wall of China. We need to pay entrance fees. RMB$20. Every tourist attraction in China need entrance fees. And they are not cheap. Back to the story, we climbed up the steep steps to a higher level to take some photos. It was really scary when we descended. History of this gate: Juyongguan was an important pass of the great wall. In 1961, the state council announced it as the first state preservation unit of cultural relics. In 1987, UNESCO classified it as the world cultural heritage. Juyongguan being built originally during the Spring and Autumn Period (770-476 B.C.) came into being till Han dynasty. It acted as a link for the great wall during the northern and southern dynasties (420-589 A.D.). The extant Juyongguan was built in 1368 during the Ming dynasty. In 1993, "Ming tombs special districts" reconstructed Juyongguan thoroughly and returned its original appearance. As Juyongguan is a famous landscape combined with natural scenery and humane crafts, it was famous for its "piling green up Juyong" during Jin dynasty (1190-1195 A.D.) and was called the leader of the "eight scenes of Yanjing".

Next we proceeded to the Ba1 Da2 Ling2 gate entrance into the Great Wall. This time the entrance was RMB$60!! Cauz! It was all the way up, climbing further and further up to the next fortress. The weather was foggy and the pictures did not really come out clear. Somemore, the cold wind was blowing over the mountains and standing on top of the mountain, it was kind of unbearibly cold. I did not go all the way up cos' my legs were going nua and the height was frightening me. My 2 brothers did, they went all the way to the top and very far away. My mum and I waited in a fortress somewhere below. These China men and women were really unhygenic loh. One woman just spat on the flow and a stupid old man farted in front of me with his butt facing me!!! URGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! And the toilet ah, machiam like never cleaned for 10 years!!! Luckily the toilets now have doors. It used to be doorless, and everyone could peep in. YUCKS!

We waited for my brothers for about an hour before seeing them coming back. Hunger was killing us. We went to a restaurant there and ordered "za2 jiang4 mian4" and "shui2 jiao4". They were terrible. Eeeks. So we didn't finish the food and our hunger was only temporarily suppressed.

We next proceeded to "shi2 san1 ling2". Entrance fees RMB$60. Dingling is the first imperial tomb excavated so far in accordance with the state's plan since the founding of the PRC. It is the joint tomb of the 13th Zhu Yijun (Wu3 Di4) of the Ming dynastry and his 2 empresses (Xiao4 Duan1 and Xiao4 Ling2). The construction of this tomb was 1584. In July 1957, the underground palace was successfully opened up. Thus Dingling Museum was established on the site in 1959.

The underground palace was 27 metres below ground level. The coffins in the palace were all replicas. How to worth the money? But I realy admire the workers that build these infrastructures in the past. *claps claps claps*

*Hunger never left us* It was already 330pm. We proceeded back to the city. Our chauffuer brought us to a place where peoply fly and sell kites there. The wind was really good to fly kites. We tested out a few and bought 2. We also bought the strings, said to be composite of wire and nylon that could last up to 10 years. Cost RMB$90. Think that was quite good buy.

520pm. Finally time to fetch our Daddy off from work. Drove past the land where Olympiads 2008 will be held. A very big piece of land under construction! Our chauffeur said that a good thing about China is that, once they decided to do something, they will do it whole-heartedly. I guess the 2008 Olympiads will be great!

We then went for dinner near our apartment. We had Peking duck, cai xin, lian hua stir-fried beef, suan la pork bites, suan chu peanuts and 2 bottles of their home-made beer. WAH! Super beer. Total cost RMB$200. Damn cheap!! But the Peking duck wasn't as good as 2 days before. Not xiang. But acceptable for the price. We tucked in like we never did before. While we were about to pay the bills, it rained very heavily!! There were "bing1 bao4"!!! But not big big ones. They were small, about 0.5cm by 0.5cm. When the rain got smaller, we walked briskly back to our apartment which was like 5 mins away. We didn't go exercise today. Too tired to go le.

CP hasn't sent me the Taiwan/HK photos yet. Does it really take so long to upload and send to me? Getting really fed up.

Day 2, Beijing, Sunny

We woke up abt 830am because the housemaid was coming at 9am. I had some half-boiled eggs with bread and coffee. Hmmm....!

Then we changed and went out again at 10am. We went to this Tian1 Tan2 Gong1 Yuan2, a place the Emperor used to go where offerings were made to pray for bumper crops. RMB$35 for entrance for that dilapilated place. If it wasn't for it's history, I think it was not worth going.

We then went shopping at some place. Haha. Realise I don't know their locations cos' we went by car. The shopping centre sold all electronic stuff and some silk. Quite cheap there. But didn't get any. Wait till I get my pay, I get a camera for myself!! We had lunch outside the shopping centre - KFC, my brothers' fave. Relatively cheaper, but I won't say it's very much cheaper. Somemore, their choices were less than ours.

We went shopping again. This time at another place where bargains could be made. Bought some clothes and shoes. Saw a bag I liked but the "shou gong" wasn't good. So didn't buy. Btw, they were all imitations.

Bored of everything, we decided to head for dinner at 6pm. The restaurant is called Muo4 Gao1 Da4 Jiu3 Lou2 (http://www.bjbrt.com). It is located at Bei3 Jing1 Shi4 Cao1 Yang2 Qu1 Jian4 Wai4 Da4 Jie1 Jia3 1 Hao4, Jin1 Zi1 Da4 Sha4 1-2 Cheng2. The first storey is for eating beef noodles, the second storey is for a la carte. We had roast lamb (which I found the smell too strong and didn't eat much), seafood soup (sweet and tasty), steamed fish (the fish that had 2 eyes on one side of its head. The fish I found it too hard, steamed for too long le), stir-fried prawns (so crispy the shells could be eaten too!!) and shared a big bowl of beef noodles with rice. It was so filling and only cost RMB$242! So cheap!!

We came back and went for swim again. My brothers went for table tennis. So, lesson 2 for my mum - more practise on kicking. She can finally move in the water today, though very slowly.

Rest early today. Need to wake up at 6am to go Great Wall tom.

Singapore to Beijing, Day 0 and Day 1

Wah, the long awaited SQ flight to Beijing on 4th June had finally come! We boarded the flight at 430pm, and it took off at 510pm. The plane was small! The entertainment on board the flight was more than that of Cathay Pacific. Some of the movies were however same. But the good thing was that the movies could be "played", "paused", "re-wind" or "forward". Cathay couldn't. A disappointment was that the food on SQ wasn't that great as Cathay's. As my brother and I were seated at the last seats, we didn't get our choice of food. Anyway, both of the choices weren't great. Bleah.

It was a 5hr 35 min flight to Beijing. When we alighted, we walked from the our last seats, then the whole of the economy seats, business class seats, first class seats and I saw the cockpit! Wah! Admire the pilots man! They could fly such big monsters!!

My dad's chauffeur was already there waiting at Starbucks to fetch us! He was holding the sign "Embassy House". He is 43, seemed an honest man, a bit "bao4 ya2", and tall (about 1.8m I guess). Eventually, when he talked to us while driving, he was no doubt a good man. And a safe and careful driver too! The roads in Beijing is similar to that of Taiwan's, less the number of scooters. They also drive on the left hand side.

We reached Embassy House, went in through the 360 deg turning glass door, took the lift to 28th floor, opened the door and were delighted to see our Daddy waiting for us in the apartment. The apartment was huge! Even bigger than my S'pore house! We bathed and ate some beef flavoured instant noodles cooked by my younger brother. (He rarely cooks for others. How honoured I am.) After everything, it was already 1am! We unpacked and settled down, and was already 130am. Time to rest for the day!

We woke up at 9am. Daddy cooked us beef porridge!!! Yummy!! First time he cooks porridge for breakfast for us!! The smooth fragrant gluey porridge was nice with pepper, ginger, sesame oil, coriander and spring onions!!

We then changed and took the lift down. Our chauffeur was already patiently waiting at the doorstep. He then took us to Kong Zi Temple. Entrance fee RMB$10. The place used to be an examination hall for scholars in the past. Some historical moments. Addy: Bei3 Jing1 Shi4 Dong1 Cheng2 Qu1 Guo2 Zhi3 Jian1 Jie1 13 Hao4. Webbie: http://www.confucius-bj.org.cn. The webbie for the capital museum: http://www.beijingmuseum.org.cn.

We then went to a restaurant for Peking Duck!! Name of restaurant: Quan2 Ju4 De2. Webbie: http://www.quanjude.com.cn. Addy: Bei3 Jing1 Qian2 Men2 Xi1 Da4 Jie1 14 Hao4. Quanjude was established in 1864 (3rd year of Tongzhi, Qing Dynasty), having a history over 140 years. There are 2 methods of making Peking duck - one is to put the duck over charcoal fire and another one is to hang the ducks in a big pot where it would be roasted by the high heat rather than the fire. This restaurant uses the latter method. When we stepped into the restaurant, we were greeted by 3 waitresses who bowed at the same time. We took the lift up to the 4th floor where the restaurant was. We ordered 1 Peking duck, some stir-fried duck intestines and a pot of dang gui black chicken soup. The Peking duck was cut up by a "shifu", separating the skin and the meat. It was to be eaten together with steamed flour skin. It was HEAVENLY!!!!! 5 stars!!! The skin was so properly roasted that the colour was evenly toned; when you bite into it, the juice from the fats under the layer of skin gave out this nice aroma, super delicious; adding the crisps of the skin. ARHHHH!!!!! Peking duck! The duck we ate was numbered 1,150,091,535 since its opening in 1864.

The chauffeur drove us around some alleys that were still un-renovated from the past like a few hundred years ago. The alleys were small, the doors had a stepover, and the walls were dilapilated. I wonder how the people still can stay inside them! Some renovated them and turned them into shops. We also drove past some walls ("wei2 qiang2") that used to block off enemy attacks in the past. Our chauffeur said it is now left with 1/4 of the whole wall due to construction of roads and buildings. The 3/4 of the walls were knocked down in the 1960s. Then we went to Asia's largest Shopping Mall. It was really HUGE, but there were only a few people. The shops were selling mostly branded stuff. We just window-shopped. We went to the basement and there was a big supermarket, equivalent to Carrefour. We bought some very cute little dumplings there!


Courtesy from my Mum's hand...

Compare and contrast between the original-sized and the mini one!

We had twin steamboat for dinner. The restaurant was small, and because it was raining, the interior was a bit dirty, plus the China people had really bad hygiene habits. Eeeks. I sat down unwillingly, and Daddy ordered food. "Ma la" and chicken soup "yuan yang huo guo". The "ma la" was a brand new experience. From all the "ma la" steamboat I've eaten, they are only a little spicy. The one I ate today can't be compared to anything!!! It gave the feeling of NUMBNESS!!! A little touch of the soup on the lips and tongue, you will feel a thousand ants nimbering!!! However, I did not like this feeling at all. I switched to cook in the chicken soup side. Haha. The food wasn't good. Not worth eating.

We returned to our apartment and changed immediately into our swimming costumes. We took the lift to the 2nd storey where the club was. It was big, equipped with swimming pool, pool table, table tennis and gym! There was also jacuzzi and suana in the swimming pool's toilet. I taught my mother how to swim. Lesson 1: kicking and hands' motion with float. She did ok la. Haha. Then we went for suana and jacuzzi. Relaxing man!! We bathed and went up back to our apartment and ate some rice dumplings again.

I slept at 2am.