horse riding

what a great way to end my New Zealand trip! sis and i went horse riding today - something EC and i wanted to do when we were in Australia last month, but hadn't got a chance.

the horse that i'm riding on is cheetah, he's 9 years old. cheetah took a dump immediately after i sat on him, i assume that's the horses' way of welcoming people. heh.

sis' horse is called randy. he has a really beautiful brown coat.

i remember the last time i ever sat on a horse, sorry, it was a pony - was when i was 4 years old at Mandai Zoo. the zoo keeper brought me round and round a tiny fenced up area. damn lame. this one's totally different, i get to ride the horse and control it on my own, around an 800 acres piece of farm property! how cool is that?

piha beach

it's my 2nd last day in New Zealand, sure i'll miss this place. but i miss ah siao too...i found an ah siao-lookalike! although it was more interested in his nap than in me. :(

today we took a drive down to piha beach, it was cool. the amount of space and nature this country has, makes me green with envy. if only i grew up in this country, with heaps of fresh air and land.


champion chen left her traces on the ground for her worshippers.

home in 3 days

almost time to go home. i miss my ah siao...and sambal sotong. sucks to be on a 0630 flight on new years day! (which means check in at 0430?!) damn it. i envision my lonely self loitering the sydney airport - awaiting my connecting flight - with only the humidity and lethargic heat of the late singapore afternoon sun to reward me for a long day of travel. i will join the taxi queue, moving forward 7cm at a time, until i get to tell an unlucky taxi uncle who has been queueing himself for the last 3 hours, that i'm going to Tampines. his look of dread and 'sian' will make my already slightly melancholic day marginally more dramatically sian.

such thoughts could easily cause a normal person seizures, and i probably should be at the A&E by now... if not for the email from SY. she said the TP gang is picking me up from the airport, then taking me to a seafood feast to celebrate my return. it was at this moment, i became so convinced that i've made the right friends!....that is until i continued to read on. it comes with a price:- they want me to bring krispy kreme back for them, and she happily typed out their orders. i counted and counted...counted three times, and realise that we're talking about 50 doughnuts here. hmm...now, when did i start thinking again that the whole lonely cab ride thing sounds like a nice idea?

their orders are SO complicated that the krispy kreme lady at the counter is going to stare at me right through the hole in the silly doughnut and curse under her breath: 'stupid asian, never tasted doughnuts before in your life is it?!' guess the seafood feast the TP gang promised me shall be my only consolation...

my first ang moh christmas

christmas to them is very much like chinese new year to us. everyone starts stocking up food the day before cos all the shops and restaurants would be closed on christmas day. on christmas day, the entire family gathers in the house with lots of food and wine. the kiddies got up early in the morning to open their presents.

tiana is brother B's niece. sweet as she looks, but has a weird temper.

keanu is tiana's elder brother, an expert in PS2.

the feast begins after saying grace. christmas lunch was full of ham, turkey, beef steaks, salads, bread, cheese, crackers, fruits, puddings, trifles, cakes, wine, champagne and more wine.

this is the trifle that brother B made, it's like a custardy-spongecake-pudding thingy. although it's too sweet for my own good but...yummy.


the oldies chilling at the yard making small talk after lunch.

the kids and their uncles playing PS2.

really happy to be here this christmas, especially it's been years since i last spent christmas with sis. so how was your christmas, my friends? tell me all about it! heard it was raining heavily back home on christmas eve...

一种米养百种鸡

食神在世 之: stir fried chicken with spring onions (姜葱鸡肉)


...when i first saw the spring onions here, i thought it was leek. the diameter of each spring onion must be at least 1.5cm! so damn big ok. then when we went for dim sum and ordered steamed chicken feet (claws), the feet was...was almost the size of my palm! (ok to be fair, i've really small hands) but still... 吓死我！ the chicken parts that are sold in the supermarkets here must be the biggest chicken parts i've ever seen. people say 一种米养百种人, i guess it applies to chickens as well?

so much space, so little people

i realise i've not stepped into a single elevator for almost a month now. (ever since i'm in New Zealand) unlike many of us at home, people here do not live in high rise apartments. shopping malls are built on a huge land area so no need for escalators as well. you'll only find high rise buildings in the city where the land is much more expensive.

that day i was in the car with brother B on our way to play squash. it was around 5pm when he exclaimed: "look at that hedious traffic! everyone's rushing home after work." i looked left, right, center...and i asked: "huh what traffic??"...i swear i saw at most 15 cars waiting at the lights, and he thinks that's a traffic congestion. hmm....

we were at the mall another day and he said: "it's crowded aye? everyone's rushing to get christmas presents." i looked around and said: "huh what crowd??"...the 'crowd' he was referring to was something like 25 shoppers. (the store size is similar to Isetan) hmm....

New Zealand's total land area is about 270000 sq km with 4,035,461 in population. Singapore's land area is barely 682.7 sq km (after reclaimation), has 4,425,720 people (still counting). their country is almost 400 times bigger than ours, yet has lesser people. sometimes i really cannot understand why Singapore government still thinks that there are not enough people in Singapore and wants us to give birth to more. sigh.

oh by the way, it's true that 纽西兰的乳牛比新加坡的人口还要多...

食神在世 之: sweet & sour pork

the pork they sell here has a very strong taste/smell, which i don't really like. but look at this dish...lovely or what?
salivate my dear...salivate! marry me, bring me home...i want to be a tai tai!
help me...i think i a bit siao liao after the bungy. oh, and talking about siao, i miss my ah siao! wonder what's he up to? hmm...

rotorua day 2: the day i became 小龙女

continued from rotorua day 1 (see previous blog)

the sky began to clear up a little today so we went to The Luge (it's a downhill go-kart thing) it was good fun! in your 1st attempt, they'll make u do a scenic track which is easy and not too fast. when it's your 2nd try, you can hop onto the intermediate track, then the advanced track.

after my 1st attempt, i went straight to the advanced track and i crashed! haha...it was alright, i only knocked into a barrier and managed to jump out of the kart in time. i wasn't convinced so i went for a 3rd try...this time, I CRASHED BIG TIME! i was thrown out of the kart, i had one hand in front of me preparing to break fall, another on my head to protect myself. the bloody kart flipped and landed on me and i rolled down the hill!! wah lau eh...really like some Jackie Chan's movie! and the first thing that i was concerned about when i got up was: 我的头发有没有乱?!

The Luge is actually quite safe if you observe the 'speed limit'...it was because i ignored the huge warning signs telling us to slow down and went full speed at the sharp bends instead. in return, i ate some dirt, soiled my favourite jacket and now have difficulty walking cos i've this huge bruise on my thigh! ...well fortunately at the end of the thing, a chairlift transports you back up the hill cos i'm pretty sure i cannot walk anymore!

the bungy in Rotorua was a whack! it costs NZ$135 and it wasn't even any good. brother B drove 1 hour out of Rotorua to Lake Taupo so that i can bungy there. the bungy masters were having their lunch break when i signed up. i was told i could only jump 15mins later so i decided to go to the toilet first. but when i came out, they were already calling out for me! cos apparently there were many other tourists there and wants to see someone jump. guess what? i was the only one who signed up! so i had to 'perform' for the rest. how helpful is that?!

i took one last look at Lake Taupo, which i'm going to jump into later... i've been waiting for this for so long!
MOMENT OF TRUTH
bungy master: look at the camera over there and say cheese
me: nah beh cheese your head
bungy master: look forward, jump head down
bungy master: ok...and i say...3...2...1...and BUNGY!
me: eh wait wait wait...
bungy master: err...ok (and starts whistling away)
me: my insurance doesn't cover self inflicted fatalities
bungy master: it's too hard to die here today

me: zhun boh? wish me luck (and took a deep breath)
bungy master: i say 3...2...1...and BUNGY!!!
AND I TOOK THE PLUNGE
bloody hell! it's ultimate adrenaline pumping i tell ya! i imagined myself as 小龙女 flying gracefully through the cliffs chasing after my lover 杨过!


don't play play...i'm a certified suicider

there goes my maiden bungy plunge. i'm sure i want to do this again. :) but for now...i need to let my blood pressure go back to normal first...heh. we went to the Huka Falls and the view was awesome.

i looked at the gushing water and started to think how nice it'd be if i can white water raft here! :P i am an adrenalin seeking bitch! no shit about that!

everyone should try bungy i tell ya...it's the anticipation that's scary but the actual jump itself is exhilarating! if it's free i can do it 100 times! there's no better place to do it other than New Zealand itself. afterall it's a kiwi invention yeah? brother B told me about a 150m plunge over at Cherry Islands and i am thinking about it already. hehehe...

rotorua day 1: whakarewarewa

the weather was bad at Rotorua. the sky was overcast. undaunted by the rain, we went to Whakarewarewa. (it's in Maori language and pronounced as Fakarewarewa)

this place is a living Maori geothermal village, which means the Maori people actually live there and they opened up the land for the tourists to visit.

the Maori villagers will just walk to the concert hall from their houses to perform for the tourists. interesting eh? cos they literally work from home...

the underground water is naturally heated and steam rises from the cracks on the ground. the Maoris use the heated water for cooking, bathing and washing. the smell of sulphur fills the air as the water has a high content of sulphur and other minerals.

there used to be 65 geysers in the area, but now there are only 5 that are still active and this is one of them.

食神在世 之: som tam & curry chicken

som tam - thai green papaya salad. they don't have green papayas here so i used fancy lettuce as a substitute and it tastes just as good! fish sauce, lemon juice, garlic, chilli...they complement one another perfectly!

had curry chicken with rice and instant pratas! heh... brother B was licking his plate clean at the end of dinner. how to resist qix's cooking? :D

going to Rotorua this weekend. this place is a must go here in the north islands of New Zealand. it's 3hrs drive out of Auckland, heaps of activities to do there. from heritage tours to jet boating, white water rafting and bungy jumping! man i really hope to bungy! it's like...suicide yet you won't need to actually die. :P

食神在世 之: tomato beef stew

not only do i love to eat, i love to cook! and you'll be surprised at the kind of dishes i can whip up too. mai siao siao...i will make a 贤妻良母 next time.

tennis pro in the making...

i hope to master all the racket ball sports. i'm quite ok in badminton, need to train up in squash, but i suck in tennis! so i'm determined to master the basics before i leave here. today brother B brought tennis rackets home after work so that he could teach me play at the court outside.

look at the sun! can you believe it's 1900hrs already?

while everything here seems to slow down...brother B's top spin doesn't. i'd just say i need more practice. ^^"

even the houseflies are slower

i wake up each day, thinking that it is already afternoon (the usual time qix wakes up) but to my very surprise, it's only... 830am?? sigh, so early, do what sia? it's getting into summer, which means longer days. the sun rises at about 0550hrs, hmm...no wonder i wake up so early thinking that it's already in the afternoon.

time passes by very slowly here, after i eat my breakfast, wash the car, go to the mall, go for a swim, pretend to workout in the gym, cook lunch, watch HK drama, go for a walk, eat junk food, stare at the walls, eat dinner, take a shower, surf the net, shit in the toilet...

THE SUN STILL HAVE NOT SET!!! argh... the sunset here is at about 2030 to 2100hrs.

i think slower, speak slower, walk slower, eat slower, the internet speed here is slower, my typing speed on MSN also slower...even my laptop also became slower ever since it's here!

you know how you can almost never hit a housefly because they're so sensitive to changes in the air motion and they fly off before you can reach them? well...i managed to hit 3 houseflies here already. even the houseflies here are slower. :S

everything seems to slow down. which, at times, may not be a bad thing. the pace in singapore, too fast. don't you always feel like you've so many things to do, yet so little time? ...i do.

perhaps i should enjoy being a slow coach here :)

a ride with my brother

sis had to work today, brother B went to play golf in the morning. don't understand why anyone can be so engrossed in such a boring sport... anyways, yeah he took me out for a ride in his nissan skyline in the afternoon. cool! we drove up to a monument on One Tree Hill. it's situated in Maungakiekie (don't ask me what's that) you can see the whole of Auckland from the top.

the monument on this hill was built by Sir John Logan Campbell.

on our way up the hill, i saw lots of sheeps and cows roaming freely. brother B told me these cattles belong to the state council. they let'em roam around the area to keep the grass down. cool aye?

and of course what that's left behind on the grass is...

on our way back, we stopped at St Heliers beach

the wind was strong and there were many people doing kite surfing. how i wish i can kite surf too! it's so cool! you can fly up into the air 20 meters high! this new watersport is slowly taking over windsurfing because of its flexibility and excitement.

museum

visited the museum with my sis during her day off. i love going to museums! i have an interest to find out the country's history, who were its natives and what were the events the country went through. err...although i must admit that i cannot remember these facts for very long. just like how i can never remember which year Raffles founded Singapore. heh...

the Maoris were one of the earliest people who lived in New Zealand and their carvings are one of the most famous in the world.

New Zealand troops were involved in many wars, including WWI/II, however in recent years, they stood firm by their anti-war policy. now their troops are strictly involved in peace keeping efforts only. oh btw i love this photo... not because i like the Nazis, just cos my primary school is Red Swastika School mah...

23rd SEA Games, Philippines 2005

i am SO HAPPY for my wonderful friends who won at the SEA Games!!!!

Women's Fly Weight:
SOE SOE MYAR from MYANMAR (Silver)

Women's Feather Weight:
NGUYEN THI HOAI THU from VIETNAM (Bronze)

Women's Light Weight:
MARY ANTOINETTE RIVERO from PHILIPPINES (Gold)
BUI THU HIEN from VIETNAM (Bronze)

Women's Middle Weight:
CHE CHEW CHAN from MALAYSIA (Gold)

i love you all and i'm very sorry for not being able to be at the Games to share your moment! if only i didn't bow out to...... (ok, the rest is history...)

*if you realised, all the winners mentioned are all not from singapore...haha