a tourist in my own country


three days and two nights turned out to be hardly enough
for some rest and relaxation at the club.
it was still nice to get away from all
the hustle and bustle of city living though,
and to enjoy the sea breeze while soaking up some rays.


we got ourselves checked in to
one of the rooms with a garden
overlooking the sea and the second link.
it had a cabinet that opened up on both sides
such that, if one was so inclined to,
one could climb from the room into the toilet
via the cupboard.


i spent an afternoon and a morning at the pool,
swimming, sunning and reading.
evenings were spent strolling out to the lighthouse,
and dreaming of owning one of the luxurious ships
that were docked at the marina.


we even went on an excursion on our second day!
took the shuttle bus from the club to jurong east,
then another shuttle from there to imm!
it was my very first time there
and i doubt i'll be going back anytime soon.

dad came to meet us after work
and we had dinner before embarking on
an exciting journey back to the club:
a long wait for the shuttle to boon lay mrt station,
followed by a bus ride on 193
that took us weaving through
all the dark avenues, drives,
streets and roads of tuas.


there's a cute guy at the club's
wakeboarding place and he got my heart thumping.
i found out we've got mutual friends
but i wonder if i'll ever see him again.

no holiday (however mini) will be complete
without a little romance,
but that's that for mine.
no flight till thursday hiphiphooray.

so i didn't win a single cent


ah well, better luck next time.

the past month has been a whirlwind of activities -
exploring new cities, meeting new faces,
spending the festive season with family and friends,
and getting reunited with the wakeboard.

this is one of my new pals, panpan


she got carsick and vomited en route to my place
when her owner drove her over for a short dogsitting session.
we then went on to take her out on a boat ride
when we went wakeboarding
and she looked totally forlorn
shivering in my arms after a dip in the water.

chinese new year saw the parents and i
driving around madly to visit as many relatives as possible
on day two when i was in town.
my girlies and the token male
come over to my place for dinner on day four,
met my extended family
and squeezed in a quick gambling session
before we left (late) for colin's annual lou hei/seafood feast:


the token male was the banker
and he won all our money
but he gave it all back by paying for meals and things for a week.

i then flew off to copenhagen
where i caught a glimpse of the famous tivoli by night:


and spent some time in a warm, jolly pub
where they sang english songs
(and did a version of hotel california at my captain's request)
and there was a baby at the next table
with a grandma who would stand up and dance around every now and then.


followed by a late dinner
of the smallest steak hereford beefstoew had to offer
because i was just too full to eat anything else.

and that was more or less what i saw of copenhagen
other than dinner on the last day of the trip
because three of us took the chance to scuttle off to sweden
since that's somewhere work won't take us to
(for now anyway).


a five-, extendable to seven, hour train ride
finally brought us to stockholm central
and we got there late in the afternoon
to catch a bit of the sun before it set.
i knew i was on the right train coz i saw a man
carrying a blue ikea bag.

did a little research but played most things by ear
and we succeeded in hunting for the cheapest hotel
that was quaint and comfortable and near the train station.
we took a scenic walk to the old town after checking in
and stopped to take some pictures with swedish mascots:


found a cosy restaurant with breast-like paintings
that sold the all-important, made-popular-by-ikea meatballs:


the meatballs were elk/moose meatballs!
and i tasted my first reindeer
which was sort of like beef and tender and yummy.
santa's sleigh is gona be one short this christmas.

we took a nice, aimless walk back to the hotel
and tried to figure out where the palace and city hall were;
stumbled upon the grand opera house
and a lovely little park with an ice-skating rink that was closed.
a phallic tower beckoned us towards the galleria and shopping area:


we went into a supermarket to hide from the cold
and bought some supplies for the night
before returning to our little room
where the other two failed to finish the six-pack
because we were just so damn tired
and we were dead to the world till the next morning.

rose and shone (if the term's ever used this way) bright and early
to have a buffet breakie provided by the hotel
before making our way to the opera house again,
where there's a little city sightseeing booth
where we could sign up for the winter combination tour.

had some time before the tour started
so we took photos of the little park in the day
and risked our lives sitting on the banks of a raging waterway
where lake mälaren met the baltic sea.


the one and a half hour bus ride brought us
around three of the biggest islands that make up stockholm
and it started out rather interesting
because we finally found out where/what things/buildings were
but it eventually got kinda dry since, after a while,
parks all looked the same and the view of different angles of a small island
was still the view of just that one island.


transferred to an ice-breaking ship to continue the second leg of the tour
but we were sorely disappointed to find out
that it was stockholm's mildest winter in duno-how-many-years
so the ship had no ice to break when it brought us out to the archipelago.
it was still terribly cold up on the deck
even though they did provide us with reindeer hide
and ikea blankets to keep hypothermia at bay.


wandered round the city centre for a bit after the tour,
hunting for magnets and other useless souvenirs
and sharing a delicious hotdog with mash and fried onions
all wrapped up in flat bread.

then it was time to get on the train again
for our journey back to copenhagen.


saw that van on one of our walks
and it totally cracked me up.

the captain and another crew were waiting for us
at the other end of our train ride
for our last dinner in denmark.
exhausted and hungry, we settled for ribs and steaks at jensen bofhus:


the steaks tasted much better than my char siew-like ribs.

i need to fly back to copenhagen soon
so that i can learn a little more about the city
than its pubs and restaurants.

am now on a one-week break
and was supposed to head over to lausanne to visit my sis
but it's her second week into the new semester in uni
and she has a must-go spanish class right smack in the middle of the day
we had planned to go skiing
so i'm staying in singapore. rah.

am gona spend a relaxing couple of days at the club
coz dad's got a 3d2n free stay at its hotel.
and hopefully catch up on some zzzs.

singapore to host first youth olympics


my dad paced in front of the telly,
waiting for the decision to be announced
by the IOC chief in lausanne, switzerland, where my sis is!
and when it was, he let out a loud YAY (mutton)
that startled all the birds in kembangan
and did a celebratory jiggle
complete with ape-like hands-over-head clapping.

he plans to donate part of the money he'll get
from winning the toto hongbao draw tonight
to the youth olympics
so that he will be invited to every event
and i'll be asked to give out the prizes for swimming.

but that's probably not going to happen
coz i am going to win the 10million bucks.
(and if i don't win, glenn will.
since he promised to buy me my dream car when he does.)

yay.

my familiar stranger


i wonder if he thinks about me
the way i think about him.


doubts, fear, frustration.
attraction, warmth, comfort.
hope.
silence.

wrong time, wrong place.
and maybe, wrong me.

because my sister asked


and i'm nice and obliging.

this is a little bit of what i have been up to:

on the second last day of 2007,
dinner was at my humble house
before hen and i went bonkers
and life imitated art:


in the third week of 2008,
there was a meeting of tazzies in sydney
filled with rain, yummy coffee, jap dinner and dessert
and i popped my motorbike cherry
by riding pillion on TAS01
and ended the night with the dirtiest jacket in the world:


end of january to first couple of days into february,
i did a frankfurt/new york
where ice skating at rockefeller center
and sticking post-it notes all over mun's office
were the highlights of my trip.


on the third day of february,
the girlies high tea-ed at goodwood,
twiddledee twiddledum twiddledah-ed
in black, grey and white,
and went flower-eat with roses from sweet kiehl's boy:


at various times, i got bored with work
and took photos of the view from my office window:


and then other things have happened
but i don't have photos for everything
so there you go nabnab,
a little peep at what has been going on in my life.
(i'm wakeboarding tomorrow hooray!)