last few days in milan...

ok, so ive got say... less than 10days in milan? n of these 10days, i actually have to finish my work n submit, ok ill submit for sure, jsut hope ill finish it... ok, ill finish it, just how finished it will eventually be... jsut so u know, i actually forced (with lots of effort) myself outta bed and dragged my ass to school's com centre just to i have no choice but to do work... somehow, after returning fr that short spore trip, i kinda lost my momemtum to do work, tho when i mentioned that jx replied, 'what momentum?'. ok so, i never quite had that much to start with n its seriously nothing like in spore but hey, i still get decent work done... :)
the thing abt doing work now is, i cant sit still... for real, ive got some ridiculous ache from my right butt to down my right calf... its not the usual muscle ache whatsoever, its very... serng (kinda like an itchy achey kinda feeling)... ive had it for some time, like slightly b4 i returned to spore... till now.. thats like at least 3wks...!jeese... its a heng-suay thing, sometimes i get it, sometimes i dont.. but i think, it usually happens at night especially, n thats when im home n suppose to do work! maybe its some psycho reaction n allergy to work that my right limb apparently has... u think ive got rheumatism? its weird isnt it! i mean, im freakin 22yrs old, n rheumatism on my butt?? rheumatism at 22 is bad enough, but no, ill top it by haivng it on my butt... i think the sin-sey will fall of his chair laughing when he hears of it.... does ANYONE know whats causing it? or what i can do to stop it? i gotta fly more than 12hrs back in no time, n if i cant sit... jeese.... OH! maybe ill try a sob story n try n ask the air stewardess if they can upgrade me to 1st class 'cos ive got a nerve problem from waist down..' u think? ok drats, im flying KLM, they're probably not gonna give in, SIA might still give me some hope...

OH! i cant rememeber if i told u fellas this, i was in amsterdam ( ithnk) n someone asked where we were from, n when i said 'singapore', he replied.... 'what a great way to fly....' in that sia ad tune n alll... i was stunned to the max! n thot it was damn funny too la... NO ONE has ever replied like he did... jeese... ok, story told.

anyway, im having guest here now, namely sj.. n wz is coming today.. so gonna be rather crowded... n hey, i get to hear yet another familiar voice... cooked dinner for lynn n sj, made some simple tung hoon salad with grapefruit carrot in some oriental dressing i anyhow made... n stir fried some brinjal n beef in black bean sauce just so i can clear both the brinjal n the beef... i didnt think it tasted quite right, but sj (who dont eat brinjal) was willing to eat mine...

so now that i have numbered days left in milan means ill be heading back to spore soon, but i shall DECLARE that i wont be buying nice little presents for all u peps there... im sorry...
first, such stuff r just too political, get for 1 dude, u gotta get for all man, then even worst if i get for everyone, n even counted to be sure, yet ill forget some poor chap(in good ol' janeyhia style) while everyone else has their lil share. but that chap will jsut say 'oh its ok, dont worry abt it... :)' but ya right, its never ok... cos that chap will feel that moment of awkwardness for not getting anything, n ill jsut be terribly apologetic abt it...
2nd, i gotta think WHAT to get, its seriously not easy, i hate getting sickening stuff like those like clip on koala bears wearing lil straw hats n a blue velvet vest saying 'australia' (all too familiar huh??) cos its jsut absolutely patronising... n what on bloomin earth r u gonna do with somehting like that! thus ill so kindly spare u the worry in the first place...
UNLESS i see something worth getting ( its the weight i tell u, over-weight charges is one thing, the trip from my place to the airport is hell if u remember my 1st fews entries) then hey, ure 1 lucky chap... but seriosuly,if i ahvent seen anything in 4mths, u think ill see somehting in less than 10days? think abt it.

so! the gist is, ill be back soon n ur gift from milan will be me... good ol' janeyhia (with extra pounds n italian lard inside).

who said europe not HUMID?!?!?!?

wah lau, i tell u friends, ive been sweating even more than when i was in spore!! argh!! i woke up at an amazing hr of 9+am this mrng cos i was perspiring! its jsut yucky... weather is like spore, but here, NOT FREAKIN AIRCON, DONT EVEN HAVE FAN CAN!!! if i was here any longer i wld soooo invest in a fan... in spore i guess everywhere we're pretty much in aircon so we dont quite feel the damn heat, but here! oh goodness... its killing me... im rather sure ill be sleeping without my shirt in no time... way toooo hot... n mozzies!! argh! i can die... they r everywhere... n at night... they r ferrocious! n fat too... jeese... worst than in spore too.... but yea, i have noidea y but somehow its rather humid here... somehow....
anyway to battle the dman mozzies, i bought the no-smell mortein plug into the wall kind of thing to ward them off but it doesnt really seem to be working, if not the dman mozzies aint normal ones, but an entire commando batalion. we're burning mosquito coils too... do u even know that is?? i mean like, when was the last time u used it?!?!?! i think when i was at my grandma house in jurong b4 they developed it, n thats like, tress everywhere n i was probably 3-4yrs old? ok maybe 5... all my childhood stuff jsut seem to happen when i was 5.. that it made me think i had the most happenning yr of my life.....
ok, so we now dont smell like 3 walking chinese-food smelling chinese... but 3 walking coil-smoke smelling chinese walking ard.... not funny i tell u! n then to ADD.... my damn johnsons baby powder smells awfull! like some lao ah ma smell... yucks yucks yucks.... nowhere like the one i get in spore where all my hall friends have been greatly accustomed to other than my perfume...
i refuse to buy a new powder cos im leaving soon anyway n i soooo dont wanna spend that money for jsut a few days....
so now to sum up, i smell like a smokey lao ah ma walking ard. lagi great i say.

back in milan....

Hey peps,
Im back in milan now… (ok actually right at this very pt im in rome, waiting for my train to Milan in abt 2.5hrs but im writing my entry now cos well, I have 2.5hrs…)

Was back in spore for a dear friend n now im back to finish up my sem (1.5wks of it) n then to Barcelona n then to London n back home… I really wanted to go to Budapest n all, but after spending sooo much for my trip to spore n back, I decided to not spend anymore… my barce n london trip tix have been bought prior to this u see… so till next time, when I travel europe again… J

Anyway, in spore I ate my fill of everything I needed to eat.. from my aunty silo’s fried beehoon with I didn’t have to chop the carrots n all… to crabs , bak chor mee, kuay tutu, selegie tau huay, crystal jades xiao long bao n spring onion oil la mein, glorious jap food… it was amazing. My only complaint is that the tomatoes we get In spore is a far cry from what italy has to offer…. Oh! I found vanilla yoghurt in spore bishan ntuc! I think its ‘yoplaits’ or something like that... so mdm wong! u have vanilla yoghurt!

well im back at home now... after traveliing for 24hrs... yucks... n decided to cont this entry cos it closed suddenly due to no batt...i had a very smooth trip back to milan, unlike my trip back to spore(that one must be the worst trip ever for anyone... its jsut way too long to re-describe the whole hting....). by b4 i left for milan i was actually a tad worried man, after sucha traumatising experience on my previous trip... i prayed i wont get robbed la, wont no one will cheat me la, wont miss trains/planes la etc... even asking that no one sat next to me in the plane so i have more space... n wa-la! i didnt have anyone sitting next to me on my 12hr flight, i didnt lose anything this time, i didnt get robbed, nor missed any train/plane... only thing was i had to wait 3.5hrs to catch the train, the rest were all full... but while waiting with samsonite, i met a nun n was sitting with her till i left for my train! thats like as safe as it gets man.. being with a nun, in rome... see who dares to rob/steal ur stuff,FOR SURE go straight to hell, dont pass go, dont collect 200.... what happened was i went to look for a seat n i saw the nun so i asked her to help me watch samsonite while i run over to get a drink, cos i mean she a nun! wont run away with sam.. so ok.. then i came back with my drink n sandwich then there was a lady sitting with the nun who then asked me to sit with the nun so we can accompany each other (shld be la, in my liiiiiiiiimited italiano) so ok, i sat infornt of her... but cos she cldnt speak english n i cant italian...so we didnt quite speak much, usualy she will say somehting then i jsut smile n smile n nod n nod... so she says her rosary n prayers n i jsut try to look busy... oh! i told u fellas i was worried tavelling right, so i had a rosary in my pocket with me... n when i moved to join the nun i took it out to show her to tell her 'hey! im catholic too!'... since i cldnt say it in italian...oh well, her train was later than mine n jsut b4 i left her, the previous lady came back (oh, did i tell u she left?) so just nice! ok la, at least in that 3.5hrs, i cld go run n get coffee, go toilet etc without worring abt sam.. while the nun cld also walk ard cos her legs were getting numb i think...

then when i got back, lynn came to get me at the centrale train station n jx made dinner... so al was really nice n gd... thanks mates! apreciate it big time...

so i guess when i prayed for a safe trip, it was really as safe as it gets.. i mean come on, god sent me a nun!

it will always be the 4 of us....

this was the last time the 4 of us met up (jan/feb 2006)... when sulin came back from aussie, before kel left for austria n b4 i left for milan... n b4 lena left for alaska... we had an afternoon in haji lane n arab street n after that we had tau huay at selegie....

( haiya, i can only upload this pic, i did a black-white pic of lena eating tau huay, it was really nice n seriously, its how we all remember her.... she smiling soooo widely while eating... :)

a tribute to lena, n the many things that ill always remember about u...

- miss long legs (but short body)
- being able to jump at least 1.5m high... which till now i dunno how u do it...
- love of food... n more food..
- the only person i know who will make sure that every mouthful of food has a little bit of every liao so that u can truely enjoy every mouthful
- how we cant sit opposite one another cos we both stretch out our legs n forever kickin one another...
- how we cut our horrendous hair so short in sec2 n had tonnes of problems with mrs liu n parents had to go see xiaozhang
- well, yea, ok, we did dance together in st nicks... tho u in yellow i in blue, but we ALWAYS made sure we were next to one another in combine...
- champion in high jump, long jump, triple jump...
- champion in gym... (u did trampoline, beam n vault, i think)
- gym captain
- 'winnie the pooh : cheer up!'.. that book was my first present from u in sec 1, u loved that book sooo much u kept reading it over n over again that very day, n every other time u came to my place.....
- u baked me raisin cookies for my first bday together altho we had our maths paper that day
- u liked tau huay n fish porridge
- we secretly decorated ur room for ur birthday n u kept it for as long as the streamers could stick to the walls n ceilings...
- rice dream, this rice milk u always loved but the 3 of us cld never understand y
- our sec1 form teacher sundaraji made the 3 of us stand in front of hte class on the last day of sch n made us swear 'never to tarnish the name for sec 1 wisdom 1997'
- u always insisted u had chilli eating abilities, but man... u barely had it
- sundaraji said u looked like a fish when u sat in class
- how we love our ikea red heart pillow that has 2 little hands, i still have mine u know...
- our 'dying to pee' stance which we came up with one day when u were at my place
- rice cakes with orange sugar n coconut
- the way u twitch n press ur lips together to 'diao' pple when u see someone u dont like
- we went to OBS together n together we conquered this climbing tower while tagged to one another
- u hated driving, n wont even give bumper cars at arcades a shot
- u gave me a 'best dancer' sash for my dance production this yr

(ive been trying for the longest time upload pics but for some sickening reason i cant! till the next time... ill keep trying)

lena banana, last bit for u, from ur favourite book...

whenever u r feeling blue,

it makes me feel the same way too!

it ure smiling, then its true,

i am smiling just like u...

this book is from 2, me of cos, and winnie the pooh....

lena, it will be the 4 of us... always.

amsterdam

its a really nice place that id love to go back to. really cne shops selling really ncie interesting stuff.... but we didnt ahve time to shop we so jsut did the touristy stuff... pity tho, but in some pt in my life, i definately wanna go back there...


amsterdam
- anna franks house(we actually went into the house that anne frank was hiding in n where she wrote her diary. it was really interesting n sad too... only the father survived so u can imagine how he feels.. he lost the whoel family n all... n anne frank died jsut 1 month b4 the war ended...)
- heineken museum
- red light district n window shopping (n how they were all missing cos of world cup in berlin)
- cannabis (in chocolates,canned drinks, 'coffee shops' with palm trees pictures so somehow tell u they sell hash/pot. u know, amsterdam is one the countries witht he lowest rate of strong drug users, they were the higest till the legalised soft drugs, n no, the locals dont really smoke pot etc there. n no, i didnt eat.try.smoke any of that stuff)
- schipol airport ( 1 freakin hell mother of a airport, i walked like siao jsut to get in n out)
- fries n mayo (its sooo big there, they even have chips icon on the map in the airport)
- pancakes (like french crepes, i had cheese,bacon n ginger.. not bad! but nothign special)
- canal tour
- van gogh museum
- rembrant lived there. (his house has turned into a art gallery, of cos for his work la. its his 400th annivesary this yr if anyone is interested)
- rijks museum ( saw famous stuff there too... but it was under renovation so we saw jsut the masterpieces, gd enough for me not a artsy person)
- 14 pple in a room youth hostel ( to remind myself never to book myself into a place like that, i cldnt take it la.. but its prob jsut me...gd learning experience tho)
- ww2 memorial (which contained the soil of all the countries affected by the war, n yes there is spore soil there too)

berlin

berlin
- reichstag (political house)
- hitler's bunker site
- brandenberg gate
- hotel adlon
- berlin wall
- check point charlie ( border check opt between the east n west n the cafe where they do all their spying)
- red/green traffic light man of east germany. (these r really cute, when west took over, the east said that the west can remove everthing but not their traffic lights! the westees thot they were cute too so they kept it, so sometimes u walk n see the normal looking traffic light(west) then sometimes u see really nice cute ones!(east!)
- dunkin donuts (tried butternut, its was great, tasted like hum-ching-pang)
- sachsenhausen concentration camp
- jewish museum (architectural wonder, if u look from the top, the building is shaped like a lighting bolt, all zig-zagy. beautifully done i say!)
- stasi museum (saddest museum we went, all in german, but it cld possibly have been interesting. its a museum of the spy stuff n what they were doing)
- hamberg university
- currywurst ( sausage with crispy skin, tomato ketchup n some curry powder. 1 had curry sauce thing n when we ate it, we all thot it tasted jsut like mac's chic nuggets. they r rather famous for it apparently, but i wasnt too impressed id go for a bratwurst anytime)
- liver dumpling soup (it was gd, but i was haviong 1 hell of a pukish felein the whole day i cldnt eat it.. but everyone enjoy it to boot)
- holocaust memorial park ( beautifully done n i enjoyed it,they held a competition n entries were quite amazing, like a fish bowl filled with blood, or to smash the brandenberg gate n re piece it at that site.... u get hte pic la)
- world cup stadium
- tv tower (dressed as a football in white n pink. serious. n yucks.)
overall, i enjoy quite a fair bit of berlin;s architecture, since 90% was bombed in ww2 its a rather new place. they really ahve many intersting buildings.

holocost memorial

its something u eally gotta go see urself n experience it la, i can explain to the bes tof my efforts, but it aint the same la

the grass patch is exactly above hitler's bunker

where he hid in his last few days n where he got married finally n took his cynide pills n shot himself with a gun to be sure he's dead. the germans dont wanna built anything there cos they dont exactly wanna rememeber their horrible past. plus they dont wanna built anything so the neo-nazi can come here like a pilgrim. but on hitler's bday n stuff, u'll see flowers n all...

munich

well, this is one heck of a beer place...
tonne sof beer halls, with tonne sof pple, drinking beer of all sorts, n eating 1 mother of a pork knuckle... n the german wurst... munich was clean tho, no graffitti etc... i think after going ard abit, milan is still the ugliest city....


munich
- olympic village (we walked thru it, nice n big, there was a 'walk on the roof' of the stadium tour but got making prior booking etc so cldnt)
- glokenspiel (dunno how to spell) (its the huge ass clock tower that has many bells that ring terribly. they didnt tune, maybe cant, they apparently change the tune every month or somehting but its sooooo bad, no one can guess what tune it was so they had to put signs to tell pple what tune it is.this thing is a, go to munich, u gotta see thing, but its way overated la... seriously, we watch n laugh at how amazing bad the tune is)
-BMW museum
- v-something market, which has durian!
- hofbrahaus (1 of the many beer halls, there standard beer size is 1 L, n they have this beer with lemonade, gd stuff, easy to drink.hof=royalty, it was the brewery of the royal family but they eentually sold it to public cos the country was getting too poor... n indeed it was a gd idea)
- bavarian history ( was previous bavaria, now part of germany n they totally disassociate themselves from the germans)
- blue n white : bavarian colours
- icon : a little 5 yr old boy with a little book(not bible but the constitution)
- place of origin of the oktoberfest (they seriously sit there the whole day eating n drinking, THE WHOLE DAY, for 2wks?)
- paulaner ( more familiar? another 1 of the beer halls htere,beer really is a religion there,in lent, the priest will brew stronger beers to drink while they abstain from food.its more filling)
- nazi origins
- deutches museum (science n technology museum, its amaizng the stuff there, form food technology to mining,materials,everythign la)
- pork knuckles (tasted like a whole chunk of sio-bak... gd stuff... but we had our share of not so nice ones...)

paris

well, i decided to list all the thigns id like to remember abt the places b4 i forget, trust me i had to think hard to even recall them....

abt paris, i had a gd time, its a beautiful city, way better than milan man... but its a freakin dangerous place to be in espcially when ure a tourist! we got followed tiwce by shaddy pple even when we were in sucha big grp! i was seriosuly scared to head back along from p[aris to milan., but that didnt happen since i went to munich for an extended holiday...

id like to go back there, tho i must say the french aint tooo friendly, they can speak english but refuse to, so we talk to them in english, they get it, n reply in french.. heh... but i was there jsut 4days but my friends who were in nice n all ... thats what they said....


paris
- champs elysee st (fashion district, WAY better than milan i feel...)
- arch de triump(historical gate like thing where napoleon marches thru tog with his dudes)
- lourve (smaller than i expected, they even ahve a da vince code book tour, to take u thru what happens in the story)
- musee de orsay (1 of the many museums, saw some famous paintings, but i saw sooo many famous paintings in the 11days that i cant rem what i saw where!)
- crash site of princess diana
- effel tower
- biggest LV
- foie gras (goooooood stufffffff)
- worst mussels ever (they smelt n tasted like horse pee, still gives me the shivers)
- centre pompidou
- 4th? most expensive place to live in
- hotel costes ( i gotta go back there some day)
- laduree (best macaroons ever together with all their other pastries)
- if u buy a wk long travel pass, make sure u fill in this orange card n stick ur photo etc, if not, its 35euros to the french

back from my escapade n rendevous...

hey peps,
ok so i was away... on a supposed little holiday to paris to meet gill,tian,tracey,kimliang,kenneth n jeremy. it was suppose to be a 4days trip, jsut a lil escapade to have some fun etc.... then on the last day, when my lugguage n all, after hearing that tian/trace/kimmy were going to munich,berlin n amsterdam, i went to the train station n changed my train ticket !! so instead of going back to milan(for sch n work...) n headed for munich(for fun n play)!! so after munich, we went to berlin n then last stop amsterdam. prior to paris, i was planing n crackin my head to see how i can fit berlin,barcelona n budapest into something like 2wks! then the golden (with extra chingching) opportunity came when they told me they were going to berlin etc.. so i went! still remember at the train station counter asking for a change of ticekt, while waiting for the man to tell us whether there r available seats to munich tog with my 3 shun-you(bad friends... ahha).. wah, the waiting moment while the dude was checking as tracy puts it 'its like waiting for my exam results man... jane, im damn sared for u!' then when the dude said 'have'... both of us were so excited! n immediately booked without even knowing if the other tix r from munich to berlin , to amsterdam etc were available...! ok, so i did have to pay a price for jsut an exciting rendevous, tix were a little more expensive cos it ws last min... but all worth.... to the last bit... plus i didnt have to plan anything, u had 3 tour guides... 3 companions, all i had to do was jsut put myself in the picture man! woohooo!

ok so now is blogging revenge time, but i must admit, im dman lazy la... way too much... i was even lazy to take pictures!plus my olympous was working well.. it was damn cold (i was totally not prep for it, i mean, when i was packing i kept telling meself 'aiya, 4 days, no need this... no need that la... '... paris was cold, munich/berlin was colder, amsterdam was lagi zhai cold man... it was like milan 2 mths back kinda cold... jeese...

ok, so now, ill jsut randomly show u fellas some pic la huh... alot of pictures ill wait for tian trace etc so share cos i only had my sort-of dependable nokia.... (stupid stupid oplympus!!!!)

first up... PARIS!(most pics, least lazy)

moulin rouge

i expected it to be way bigger ... but oh well....

effel tower

i obviously dont know how to spell,cos it looks wrong but i cant figure... i didnt go up to look see but the fact that i saw it 'live' n not form some postcard,tv,tshirt etc... made it a tad special. other than that... its jsut a metal tower la

laduree macaroons

these my friends, were the bestest ive ever had. paid alot for it but every crumb was worth it, im so glad my tummy won my brain while deciding whether ti try them. n guess what, my tummy won twice!

hotel costes

ive been listening to so much of their music i had to go see it for real! nice place but cldnt take pics n tour around much cos it was lunch time...

rose line tag on the floor

read the da vinci code? yea, this is the thing that marks the rose line

notre dame

apparently was almost torn down till some chap wrote the story.. n no... there werent any hunchback creepin ard... no gargoyles too tho...

LV

biggest in the world, they even have arty farty exhibitions that requires u to take a lift in ocmplete darkness... n they have sales pple of tonnes of nationality man! apparently there r 2 singpaoreans...

toyota? concept cars showroom

quite nice la...

centre pompidou

some art exhibition thing. its a architectural wonder la... saw some exhibits but none too impressed... n there is a damn damn dman fine line between porn n art man... kimmy agrees with me too... heh

beautiful gelato...

of fig and mascarpone

n for MUNICH!

BMW museum

it was sucha a pity that the museum was under renovation so we only saw a small but of it. n a biger pity that we cldnt go to the factory cos that requires u to book online or something..

BERLIN! (man, didnt realise how lazy i was in munich to take more pics!)

saschenhausen concentration camp

this was one of the concentration camps during mr tiny mousstach time... well, if u didnt know, munich was the where nazi all started... so confirm got conc camps.. there was another one, dachun, but we didnt have time to go see... its damn depressing la that place n a lil creepy... to think that this is where pple died n all... n there was a sad sotry(among many many others) abt 2 jewish kids who were tested like lab rats cos the survived some flu of some sort, so they wanted to find out what helped them survive it etc... based on the floor plan, it was an excellent conc camp cos everyone cld be seen n it was almost impossible for anyone to escape... only flaw was that it didnt have space for extra bunkers to be buiilt. guess the germans under estimated their eveilness...

another concept car by i-dont-know-who

hotel adlon

form the top count 3 windows from the right, n 3 down... thats where mr jackson dangled his junior

check point charlie

the Us sign saying 'you are leaving the american sector'

branbenburg gate n a huge ass soccer ball

world cup la... apparently they r expecting 40,000 prostitutes in berlin. n im serious, cos we were in amsterdam in the red light district doing 'window shopping' n many of them were not ard! all missing...! see la, thats what happen when all the men gather in 1 place to watch football...OH! the gate... yes, very historical n impt...

berlin wall

not much left la

big books (part of the germany-land of ideas for world cup) n behind is the hamberg? university, n this is the site where the germans burnt 20,000 books

ok, hamberg uni... is where einstein came up with e=mc2.

n lastly.... AMSTERDAM!

heineken factory/museum/brewery

this palce we had tonnes of fun... n 3 beers n a take home bottle opener thats really nice n pretty!if personally, i thot this was better than the van gogh n rembrant museum... but thats jsut me...

lantern shop

n we thot we'd only see these stuff during chinese new yr in the shape of a pineapple...

rembrant's night watch

its his 400th anniversary this yr.. so they did a 3d version of this pic in some park... there was 1 picture of an old lady that he did, n trace n i cldnt believe how realy n wringly the old lady's hands were... it was jsut simply amazing how anyone cld actually paint likt that....

van gogh's sunflower

i had to take a pic of it la... real one leh!

WALL's ice cream

in dutch.... called 'OLA'

ok, thats all folks, enough liao la, i got no time to upload tho nokia is great cos file size is small.. so rather chopchop...

thats the end of my rendevous escapade... ok, its time to go get groceries... ciaociao!