House warming

We finally had our house warming party today. I think we had quite a number of people and my dad's relatives stayed from the early afternoon till evening. That was because my dad smsed the wrong timing to everyone and they arrived like at 1pm instead of the expected 5pm. Haha. Nevermind. I guess we were still quite okay. I think the food was quite okay too. Hey. In fact it was good... because I was the one who ordered it.

So Esther, Sharon and Jeraldine stayed till like 10pm because we had too much fun. Too much fun watching Esther exotic dance in my room while the dear neighbours watched on from their balconies. How nice is that? Thanks, Esther, for the free entertainment. You dance well. *thumbs up*

Anyway after her exotic dance, we all felt we needed to cleanse our souls a little, so we played some praise and worship songs till we felt it was becoming like a mini cell group. Haha.

*Yawn* Gotta rest. Tomorrow I have my usual Sunday rush for church. =)

House blessing

The RCIY gang came over to my new place this afternoon for a small little housewarming party. Pretty cool. Father Luke came over to bless the house. I think many of the parishioners stay here because he seemed to know his way around pretty well, and when Fr Joe and Fr Luke first heard where I was moving to, they both had the same reaction. "Again?!?"

Anyway, I thought the party thing went pretty well.

Fr Luke was lame and corny as usual. Shared lame jokes. Did a little bible sharing and prayer session. Shared more lame jokes. Haha. Fr Luke is fun. I think my parents were quite amused by him. Just as he himself said - that's his trademark. Then he did his dumb blonde/smart blonde joke again, all because of Liting.

Liting: Father, father, can u tell me the dumb blonde joke again?
Fr Luke: Don't want la. You won't understand it anyway.
Liting: Oi... Father!!!
Fr Luke: Have you heard of the smart blonde joke?
Liting: No?
Fr Luke: Well, there isn't one. When they write one, I'll tell it to you.

Father can actually be funny.

Oh, we all crashed Melanie's place too. My new new neighbour opposite. Yey, then I kinda realised Crystal's gonna be my neighbour too! Now what was that I said about IHM parishioners staying here?

Oh yeah. I kinda feel bad for Kelly's little sister. I think we bullied her a little too much today. Honestly, it can't be helped... She's such a cute kid.

Juliet is also so cute. She rushed from her keyboard class, which is located at the other end of the world, carrying her keyboard stand all the way here and back home.

Anyway, thanks guys, for coming, and thanks for the gifts too!

Article on the cockroach

Remember that cockroach blog entry?

Finally found the article. They wrote in to complain that time. Do take a look at the Stomp article.

So you see, I didn't make up that story or something.

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Restaurant apologises for cockroach in soup and bad service
29 June 2007

The owner of a restaurant which received a complaint from a customer because of a cockroach found in its soup and the subsequent bad service by the manager, has issued an apology.

"Yes Mr Alvin, his wife and their guests were dining in my restaurant on Thursday night. Unfortunately a cockroach was found in their soup and my restaurant manager was very irresponsible, rude and passed very discourteous remarks. I have spoken and apologized to Mr Alvin today over the telephone. Mr Alvin was very nice, patient and courteous and accepted our apology. However I would like to also apologize to his wife and their guests for the very bad experience. Immediate actions have been taken so that such incident cannot happen again."

At about 8 pm. on 28 June 2007, Mr. Alvin, his wife and their Japanese guest, were dining at a restaurant in Rochor Road, opposite Bugis Junction.

Halfway through their steamboat spread, the 36-year-old assistant bank manager found a 'blackened' cockroach in his soup, hidden among the vegetables.

Although flabbergasted, he kept his cool and approached the restaurant manager quietly.

To his astonishment, the manager immediately became very defensive instead of apologizing.

He denied that the cockroach had came with the soup, arguing that if it had, the insect would have disintegrated.

What provoked him further was when the unapologetic manager said that the cockroach 'most like came from somewhere' implying, according to Mr. Alvin, that the customers were responsible for it.

However, Mr. Alvin told STOMP that if the cockroach had fallen into the soup during the dinner, it would not have looked so 'black' like it had been 'cooked'.

The manager then added that in certain instances, 'cockroach is used as tonic', before walking off.

Mr. Alvin's upset wife then decided to take a photo of the insect.

As she was snapping her pictures, the manager returned, picked the bowl of soup up, pushed it nearer to her and said, "No need to take picture...you can take it along with you as a gift."

Mr. Alvin told STOMP that more than the cockroach issue, he was outraged by the way the restaurant manager handled the situation.

He has urged the public to think twice before going to the restaurant.

"Service lousy, cleanliness is really questionable," he said.

"The place is air conditioned! How can they allow such incident to happen? And worse still, the kind of service...it's so embarassing with a guest around! Terrible...ridiculous! Free tonic...Cockroach!" Mr. Alvin added.

Commencement 2007

Convocation is finally over! I've officially graduated! Yey...

Convocation ceremony started at 3pm, so we arrived around 2.20pm. Met Juliet at the entrance and headed to the robing room. We almost only stepped foot into the robing room when they started blasting announcements that the robing room was closing already. Drats. They didn't tell us in advance that the robing room would close so early. Made us panick and started dressing at full speed.

Anyway, our presiding officer was Shih Choon Fong, the tawkay of NUS (NUS President). We were kinda joking and daring each other to grab him and give him a kiss and hug when we went up to receive the degree scroll. Haha. No one dared to do it in the end.

Oh. Eunice Olsen, the MP was there. She gave a speech. Yeah, I guess she can be considered my senior, since she graduated from Arts with a major in political science and philosophy.





Graduating class of '07

Convo lasted a long long long time, and finally we got to take photos!!!















My parents. I have no idea when they took this pic.

You know, outside the University Cultural Centre, there's this huge thing which says "I was here"? Well, its a nice place to take a pic, so my dad took a pic for me. He made me pose for a long while, angling his camera seriously and making sure that all the words were in. Finally he took the pic and was satisfied, and he told me proudly to check it out.

What I saw was this...



Like hello?

I pointed out to him an alphabet was missing and he was quite embarrassed. Haha.

So he took another one.



Adelyn was here. 07/07/07.

Graduating Class of '07, FASS, NUS.

Aussie Pictures

Picures are finally up. I took well over 400 photos but finally decided to post only some of them up because I don't think my aunts will appreciate if I post too many of their pics up without their approval. Not that I didn't try to get their approval.

Day 1

Off to Melbourne.





Day 2

We arrived in Melbourne very early in the morning and the hotel wasn't exactly up for check-in. So they brought us round and round the city, making us go sightseeing and shopping till we wanted to bang our heads on the wall. Another thing was that it was darn cold. 3 degrees when we arrived in Melbourne airport.




See? It's so cold that my mum has to pretend to be an Eskimo.

Off to Queen Victoria Market early in the morning.







Oh, this guy claims to be the brother of Phua Chu Kang. Looks a little like him too, huh? He charmed the socks off us to buy nougats from him. =p

St. Patrick's Cathedral, Melbourne.




The black stone posing behind me is St. Francis of Assisi.

The interior is gorgeous.












A life-sized statue of Our Lady of Fatima.



Conservatory.









View of Melbourne City.


Foggy.










Finally off to the hotel.

Oh yeah, guess what was the first thing we did when we got to the hotel room? We spent the entire time trying to open the lock to my luggage. When it didn't work, we sawed it off.

Melbourne City night scene. Oh. We gotta cross this bridge to get to the restaurants and casino from our hotel.







Day 3

Scenery taken from the bus.




Warrock Farm.




They made us sit in this weird truck thing. I think we wasted more energy going up and down that, than if we had walked all the way.







Definition of sheep shearing:

To turn this..



Into this.



Now let me give you a 10-step sheep shearing demonstration.


Step 1: Get the tools ready.


Step 2: Hold the cutter properly like this.


Step 3: Drag the darn sheep out.


Step 4: Stick him between your legs.


Step 5: Shave.


Step 6: And shave.


Step 7: And shave.


Step 8: Keep shaving.


Step 9: Don't stop.


Step 10: A little more to go...



And voila! A shaved sheep. As clean as a man with a shaver in the morning.






Kangaroos are cute.


And gentle.


And tasty. Haha. (I took this in Sydney later on, when we had our lunch in some Chinese restaurant. Kangaroo meat.)


Wombats are lazy. Didn't see much of them.


Lunch!

Oh, we went to some optical illusion thing. What's it called? Theme park? Hardly.




Defying the law of gravity.



Mirrors everywhere.


Look who's on the menu!


That's me up there. Got sabo-ed by my mum and the boys from my group. Grr... The top half is actually vertical. That means you got to let yourself free-fall for a while.



3D train.


Where's the exit? Where's the exit?


We don't knowwwww........=(

Next stop. Koala Conservation Centre!




Koala stopped to pose for photo. =)

After Koalas we headed for Philip Island to see the little penguins swim home. Apparently, the penguins will swim out to sea during the day and return home in the evenings back to shore - to their babies, eggs and holes.




So anyway, the penguins smsed our tour guide or something to say they'll be home by 5.30pm. So we went at 5.00pm and waited for almost an hour.






Sorry. No picture of penguins because they didn't allow cameras. I secretly took some pics of ourselves, but still no penguin. =( They said we'll scare the penguins and they'll get lost and won't be able to find their homes. Whatever.


Anyway, this is the pic of the beach of which the penguins swim back to, everyday.

Day 4

Going to see the twelve apostles.

Long long long journey... Got down for lunch and took some pics along the way.





Just a casual pic of a signboard of some medical clinic.

Finally reached the twelve apostles - Port Cambell National Park.



"And so I tell you, Peter: you are a rock, and on this rock foundation I will build my church, and not even death will ever be able to overcome it. I will give you the keys of the Kingdom of heaven; what you prohibit on earth will be prohibited in heaven, and what you permit on earth will be permitted in heaven." Matthew 16:18-19







Aren't cows suppose to be one of the most hardworking animals around? Why are they all slacking?



Day 5

Off to Sydney.

Not my first trip to Sydney though. Been there once when I was a little kid in kindergarten, because my dad got posted there for a while. I think we stayed at some apartment just off Darling Harbour.


1 hour domestic flight.


Darling Habour. Sydney Opera House. Sydney Harbour Bridge.




We're sitting on Mrs Macquaries Chair. Apparently there's some story to it. Something about the governor's wife having nothing to do so she just sat on the grass patch and watched the scenery everyday. So eventually they got the convicts to build some stone chair for her.




Taking a cruise down Darling Harbour in Captain Cook III... erm.. ship? Yacht? Cruise boat? Whatever.















Sydney Aquarium













Sydney Tower.



The view from Sydney Tower is beautiful.








Day 6.

Fish Market.





Echo Point.

Strong winds and drizzle.
Taking a peek at Blue Mountains.
Forcing my smile for the camera in the cold.











Day 7

Free day.


Monorail.


Tram.



Downtown Sydney.


St Mary's Cathedral, Sydney.

Queen Victoria Building.

Day 8

Home...