I am back!

I am back from my Guangzhou work trip. It is indeed a fulfilling trip with lots of work and play. We really work and play very hard. With each day starting ard 650am, getting ready for work and workshop that normally end ard 6pm and then followed by dinner till ard 8pm and shopping till 11pm and then work day start again with email clearing till 130am.

What is better than pictures, which can speak a thousand words of my adventure in Guangzhou.

Starting with a glimpse of the place i stayed in: The Garden Hotel:My Room:

As per the name of the hotel suggest, it comes with a beautiful garden:

The shopping streets that we went:

Some food shots:

Pictures with the team:

Dinner with the AAI team at the restaurant: Kai Yue.
Picture taken at 上下九路

Taken at the desert shop at 下九路.

Taken during our ride in Metro (aka. MRT) to the tea market where we spend 3 hrs tasting different tea. Though we spend such a long time in the tea house and lose a day in shopping but it was indeed worth it since we realli learn a lot through the process.

Taken at the Guangzhou office with Global folk: Jay Cramer and NEA team: Takashi-san and Kino-san and lastly, GC representative: Sicy.

Parting shot at The Garden

Finally, to show you my purchases for this trip:

To end this entry, i shall give u all a must-go shopping areas if you drop by Guangzhou:
1。 北京路
2。上下九路
3。站西路 - 白马服装市场 - close at 6pm
4。人民南路 -状元坊 - close at 6pm
5。恒宝广场 - 长寿路

Heard that the below places have gd buys as well but i didn't make it due to time:

1。天河城广场
2。海珠购物中心
3。沙河福广场

If you like to buy materials for clothes, you can try 海印布市场 but note that it close ard 6pm. Hence, you need to go there early.

For tea, Guangzhou has the biggest tea market in China with 6000 distrbutor located at 广州芳村大道中。

Okie that's all for now. If u enjoy shopping, Guangzhou might be the place for u + it is only few hours train ride from HKG so it can also be a gd stopover for u.

Updates

Hv you been wondering why i am missing in actions? Maybe not since i don't have much hits on my blog as well. But just to update i have actually being pretty busy for the past week embarking on a new project......ie. to arrange all the photos that we took during our Shanghai trip into a nice book. Actually this idea came from one of my friend where she will lay all the photos into the form of storybook and send it for printing and binding it into a book. Though it doesn't have the best quality of images but i find the idea very interesting and it help capture all the beautiful memories. Furthermore, it let us test out our creative juices in terms of how we want to lay the pictures and the little notes that we like to include.

Now that i have finally complete all 500+ pictures, the next step is actually sending for print. Hopefully, it will be as nice as my friend.

Another note: I will be leaving for a work trip in Guangzhou the whole of next week. Hence, i can only update on my adventure when i am back....but i doubt there will be a very interesting adventure since it is more for work. We shall see when i am back.

Reflections

Sitting in front of my laptop every sunday...surfing for jobs, reading blogs and also updating my blog has now become a sunday routine for me. However, today i am actually lack of blogging ideas and wonder what should my entry be????

This has again been a usual week for me with either being at home or at work. Apart from that, many will know that yesterday there were 777 couples who actually held their big day or exchange their wedding vows and my cousin is one of the lucky pair who decide to tie their knots. Since i rarely catch up with my relatives so it was quite a shock to see that my cousin's kids are so big already and really show that I am indeed old already... Since it has been such a long time since i last saw them and on such a joyous occasion, my poor sis and I became the main target of enquiry...when will it be our turn? Haha I bet they will have to wait for a long long long while. Luckily for us, there is still one elder cousin who is nt married yet so we just push everything to him. Wonder what will happen when he also tie the knot and we will have no one to push anymore.....

Since i guessed that this will be short entry, i also started to read thru my past enteries and started some reflections. I realli can't imagine i have actually been blogging regularly for the past 7 mths and we are already have pass the half way mark for 2007. Looking back to what i have set to achieve at the start of yr, i am really glad i am pretty much on track.....i brought my parents for a short trip, i have also been reading constantly (i have now completed the full range of Julie Garwoods books except for 2 more books), i have also contributed to the society.... Hence, i hope i can achieve the balance of the goals by the end of yr and end the yr with a "Bang".

Romance Fannatic

Have u realise that i have not blogging for a while? Is it because i am still trapped in the dark pitch hole that i dug myself? Answer: No, actually after deciding, i have been more relaxed than usual....I am preparing for the worst scenario that can happen to me, ie. getting in a worst job / life w/o pay...Thanks for those who left me tips or try to change my decision.... i totally appreciate your concern for me.

So what exactly i have been busy with? Apart from my usual life that doesn't require my effort to blog.... i am also busy watching Korean drama...yah, i am a TV addict and worst a total failure with romance story...the little girl in me will start to fantasize to be the leading actress in the show...*blushing* ...hoping one day that the story will apply in my life. heehee..

This has all started because of the first korean romance drama that i watch last yr:

我爱金三顺

After which, the once famous and popular show....Princess Hours that really got me addicted. Though, i know the storyline is totally unrealistic but it still got me hock and addicted. Also maybe becos the radio DJs from 93.3 was also actively promoting the show back then...

Princess Hours was really the one that started the craze since after which friends started introducing different shows to me... so i went on to:

Full House 浪漫满屋

Sweet 18 - 新娘18

Princess Lulu

Not forgetting apart from the funny and unrealistic storyline, the eye candy of each shows is also one reason for my addiction. After Princess Lulu, the fever actually die down a little and i was back to being the realistic person. However, someone pull me to the fantasy land again with the latest series of :

Which Star are you from?

Now, introducing my latest eye candy.... the leading actor of the show:

So if anyone who has friends of similar traits and feel...dun forget ur friend here... *LAUGH*

Hopefully, after this entry, u can know another side of me... *blushing* Now i shall go back to my show of 加油，金顺！

Feelings

It's been a while since my last entry. This is largely due to the fact that over the past few weeks, i have been struggling with myself. Furthermore, i didn't actually want my blog to be filled with unhappiness and saddness. However, after much considerations, i decided to pen this thoughts down since the purpose of the blog is not only to share only the happy things but also my inner thoughts....so please bear with me.

I guess with that intro, you will have guessed i am having a replase abt my job again, right? In the past, the sudden urge to give everything all up or the fustrations about my job will only happen like once a month or so and actually this feelings will just go away within few days or after a round of retail theraphy will help pull me out of that dark pitch hole. However, for the past few weeks, the feelings were realli bad and i seriously just want to escape our of this world. Not sure if it is because now is the peak period for me or just that my patience is just running out of me. But becos of such strong sense of fustrations, it really set me thinking real hard on what should the route that i want to be?

I know many will say that all these feelings are all in me and i should not think too much and everything will be fine. Afterall, P&G is such a gd company and what about the pay check? Remember how hard it was for me to get into such a gd company or this role? bah...bah...

I totally understand all the above and that everyone has the best interest for me. However, i am really feeling miserable abt myself. I was never the kid who can achieve what i want? I don't get to enjoy the best toys that every other kids have because my parents are poor. I am not the most popular kid in school since i am not that likeable or cleverest kid. Neither have i the chance to find that person who can share my joy and saddness in life or that someone who can comfort me during my darkest / lowest point of life. Everything dependable alot on me. I know that i am still fortunate than many others since i dun have to starve myself, i have family and friends who actually care for me and i am still healthy... But all i want is to have a career that i like since i dun get to enjoy a lot of things that others have and i dun....I know that having a career that i like doesn't mean that it will be all happiness and no sadness but the fustrations from working in something you like and fustrations from working in something you dun like....it is a total different ball game in all.

I know if i leave my current role, it might not be definetly better but at least i might be happier for a short period of life since i will no longer drag myself out of bed every morning....i dun have to burst into tears when those fustrations come knocking at my door.....I dun have to feel that miserable whenever it is sunday just becos monday is coming and i have to work.....I dun have to wake up in the morning to suffer a round of panic attack.

Furthermore, if i continue to stay in my current role, the role portfolio is not helping me to get into the job i want and my pay will just keep increasing and i will get into a state that i will be too lazy to get out of that comfort zone since the opportunity cost will just get higher. Since now that i am still nt that old and i have less committment on my end hence shouldn't i just give it a try once last time. Otherwise, if i were to leave at a later stage and i will be like 29 or something, wldnt that be even more difficult in achieving what i want.

After weighing all the above, i decided to give myself another 6 mths and even by then i still cant find a job that i want, i will just leave my current place and pursue something else. It might not make sense for many of you as it is a big risk that i might be taking. But i just want to get away from all this fustrations and anger and be a happier person. Afterall, i actually tolerate and give myself a chance .....a whole 2 yrs....to survive in the environment. Isn't that enough?

So now, i don't need any more advice or support from anyone but just let me have my way one last time. If you really want to do something for me, then pray for me that i could really get a job that i like before Dec / Jan 08. All will turn out gd and all the fears will be redundant.

Sometimes, it realli make me wonder having a clear goal in life is a gd or bad thing? It make me more determined and inflexible in life...I am just not that kind of girl who can survive just on a pay check..A lot say it is because i am still young, not sure how true is that? Maybe i will really change when i am 30+ with no more passion and energy in life....everything remains unknown for now.

Wedding

This shall be an entry with pictures and few words. Below are the few pictures from my camera on my dear friend big day. Enjoy all the pictures with the babe.

Can see the tireness from my eyes, hor? After all i woke up at 430am that morning. Gosh! But it was all for a good and joyous occasion.

Killing time since we have to wait for the relatives to arrive for the tea ceremony. By the way, the ger next to me actually caught the bride's bouquet. She might be the next in line to get married. hehe.

The morning session is finally coming to an end so this is the farewell shot before we head back home for our beauty sleep.

All ready for the wedding dinner! too bad my camera went out of battery so no more pictures to load.

First Try

Have a couple of first tries this week but no picture as i was the blur queen again since i forget my camera:

1. I perm my eyelash for the first time so now my eyelashes are curling nicely but the effect isn't as gd as i expected. Apparently, it is because my eyelashes are pretty inside my eyelids and hence cant be pulled out so the curl is only on a small portion.

2. We organise a bridal shower for the bride-to-be. We came out with a run down of events for the day and also come out a few ideas on hw to tekan the groom. So nw we can only pray that everyone will be sporting on that day so it will be all fun for everyone.

As part of the bridal shower, i also manage to have my first nail art experience. So nw i am trying very hard to ensure that they last till thursday since i am such a "chor lor" girl.

I have a feeling that i am falling ill soon. Shall stop here and update more in the future.

Phantom of the Opera

Actually the past week has been a pretty busy week for me especially since i dun noe what's happening to me at work... many meetings and everyone have new request to their project, thus have been working late at work....though my late is not like most of u will imagine since anything after 7pm for me is considered late..considering that i always leave on the dots for my role. However, i am glad that i finally make it for the Phantom of the Opera. Since i actually have to sell my first set of tickets as my buddy has other committments. Hence when i finally sold the tickets, all the weekend shows were sold out and hence we can only pick a weekday show and considering that my buddy is usually busy at work...i was pretty afraid she couldn't make it for the show. Then who will know that as we were both late and we actually went for dinner so we almost missed the first part of the show as we actually run to the entrance before they actually closed the door.

This was actually the second musical i watch in my life till date. The first was Miss Saigon. As compared, the effects and stage was definetly better than Miss Saigon. However in terms of the storyline, Miss Saigon is actually better... dun noe if it is because Phantom of the Opera was performed by more "ang moh" and there were more opera form of singing and hence there were quite a number of parts which i could'nt understand. In all, i still feel it was a great experience.

Hopefully i can achieve my dreams of watching musical or broadway in the big apple soon. Before i manage to save up for the big apple trip, i guess i will have to watch a few more musicals in spore. Still thinking if i should watch the musical - King and I?

Blissful Week

As mentioned in my previous entry, one of my closest friend is getting married and she became the offical, Mrs Lee, on Monday. I always enjoyed attending wedding and it was my childhood's dream to own a bridal shop....which i don't even know if i will ever achieve it.

Back to the solemnization, it was a pretty and blissful event where a couple exchange their vows and promise to each other for the rest of their life. Apart from the beauty of the 2 very much in love people sharing their promise for each other, you can also see the joy in the family members and friends. The pride that parents have seeing their daughters or sons moving into another phase of their lifes and opening themselves to another members to the family. This joy and happiness really makes my day, especially since it is happening to one of my closest friend.

Thinking back when we first met 14 yrs back, we were just girls from different parts of singapore whom ended up in the same schools. We have our fair share of disagreement and also been there for each of us through the good and also bad times. It is never easy for people to maintain such long friendship and especially since we have now moved on to different phase of lifes and have a lot of different experiences. Hence, i am really glad to have them with me for the past 14 yrs and i realli hope that we can still continue this friendship even when each of us start to build our own families. Maybe we might not be able to meet up so often but i seriously hope we will still maintain such good friendship and even pass it on to our next generations.

Finally, Congratulations once again to the newly wed couple: Mr & Mrs Lee. Will blog more on the actual dinner and customary event end of this month.

P.s. to Mr Lee - dun u dare bully mrs lee or the rest of us will nv let u off easily. But again i trust that you will take very good care of my dear friend.

First Ever Family Tour

I am back from my first ever family trip - 8 days Jiangnan + Shanghai Tour. In short, China is a beautiful place with some boorish people. Below are some recount of some example of those boorish people:

1. There was an old grandmother from China who was sitting behind my seat during my flight to Shanghai and she actually took off her shoes and place her smelly feet in between my arm rest, poking me at times. yucks :(

2. When we were at a stop for toilet break, the old grannies actually pushed us through to the toilets. Everyone was pushing and jostling their way.

3. No one ever queue for the toilet or taxis. We actually need to fight with them in order to get into a taxi.

4. The old people actually unbotton themselves before entering the toilet and they also dislike locking the door.

Enough of those unhappy instances. I still enjoyed the trip despite the lack of shopping (it is more that it is cheaper for their sports wear which i dun wear so i didnt buy that much). Actually, we ended up buying a lot of unneccessary and expensive stuffs like longjing, 蚕丝被, crystal ball.... Above that, I still managed to enjoy a very gd performance at Hangzhou, that is 宋城千古情。It is an eternal legend of songcheng with total investments of 50 million yuan of full-length singing and dance performance, based on the historical allusions and mythologies in ancient hangzhou, merged the internal performance of singing and dance and acrobatics into an organic whole. So if ever you have a chance to go to hangzhou, it is a show not to be missed.

Other than the show, the pretty sceneries of lake, ancient houses and the chance to visit those tea planations, tea houses, pearl cultivating farm and zisha arts gallery also makes this trip unforgettable.

Finally, our luck to have one of the best local tour guide also makes our trip interesting since he helps us get the best seats during the different shows that we watched, provide interesting story during our long bus ride and also his instructions to our driver help us better nagivate through the bad traffic of china.

I shall end with some pictures from my trip:

Day 1: Singapore >Shanghai - Wuzhen-Hangzhou

Ride in the world's first commericialized operation line - Shanghai Maglev. We managed to experience a speed of 423km/hr.

As one of the water countries in Yangtze River Delta, Wuzhen displays its 2 thousands yrs history in its ancient stone bridges floating on mild water.

My favourite show: 宋城千古情

Day 2: Hangzhou-Nanjing

Hangzhou 's famous lake: 西湖 with Leifeng Pagoda in the background. Above that there is also a bridge known as The Long Bridge. It is not very long but it has a belief that couples who walk the bridge together will have a ever lasting love.

Family Potrait at the West Lake.

Visit to Longjing Tea Plantation where the guy uses his bare hands to fry the tea leaves.

Day 3: Nanjing - Wuxi

Can tell from the picture we are actually freezing to our death. This is because 50% of the Jiangnan time is raining and hence before we reach Nanjing, it was raining cats and dogs in Hangzhou. Thus the minute we reach Nanjing, the temperature is already at its lowest of 9 degrees. The place of the picture is Zhong Hua Gate.

We bought the crystal balls and took a picture with the artist as well. The crystal ball actually comes with a certificate which will prove that it is his work and it should fetch some price if we will to give it up.

Day 4: Wuxi - Suzhou

Family Potrait at Taihu Lake

Family Potrait at Taihu Lake Film and TV Studio

Wangshi Garden is one of the good example of the intricacies of Suzhou Garden artistry.

Hanshan Temple where we actually ring the bell which is believed to help bring luck and happiness.

Qili Santang Historical and Cultural Street. Beautiful lake and buildings.

Day 5 - 8: Suzhou - Shanghai

Famous Waterfront: The Bund

Mudam Tussards: With my future partners

Finally, end it here with my 2 tour guide: Mao Shi Fu & Veron

Bye Jiangnan & Shanghai!!!