Bad weather is killing me

2 days back it was 20 degrees celsius such that I don't need to wear any coat on the street.

Yesterday it began to turn slightly colder again, at 10 degrees celsius.

This morning when I woke up, weather dipped to zero and it was raining with snow and ice.

Today is thursday and weekend is coming soon!

Going to have a one-week off during the Chinese New Year.

Finally I can sleep in and recover the many nights of lost sleep due to cold weather. If this weather persists, I will fall sick soon.

Hangover

Yesterday had reunion dinner (年夜饭) with colleagues at a restaurant known as 明星粗菜馆 in 绿宝广场 which was an hour's bus ride from my apartment.

On bus 307

This shopping mall looks like Amsterdam to me, except for the "La Piazza" signboard which is Italian? And also the Chinese signboard which is obviously China

Ma colleagues, both of whom were drunk towards the end of the dinner

This coconut milk and a big bottle of orange kept me from being drunk, even though I've never drank so much red wine in the whole of my life before

When 小龚said that I could hold my liqour well, I could only say that for every glass of red wine I gulped down, I will take a glass of orange juice to hydrate myself... And of course, back in sg dr gave me quite a number of red wine training sessions?

This dinner has exposed me to the Chinese (in China) culture. Everyone will take turn to toast to each other. It's either 随意, which means you can just take a sip of the wine; but most of the time, they prefer to 干掉, which means you must drink all! I then recall an article that I read which said that once you take the first glass, there'll always be second and more to come. Thus, in order to not get drunk, the guest must not touch the glass wine at all from the start, & to firmly give a reason such as "I have sore throat."

This is the Sg curry crab; boss asked me to taste first if this is similar to Sg's recipe... I could only say this taste even better than the chilli crab I had back home.

Went KTV and I sang 2 songs (yang cong by yang zhong wei, & another oldie song requested by a colleague called "Nothing's gonna change my love for you") before I left home.

Can't sleep well due to the alcohol effect, which left me feeling extremely stoned.

Woke up this morning and I thought I was in Genting Highlands

My target is to sleep at 2130 tonight in order to make up for my poor sleep last night. Hoo hoo~

Hangzhou

Omg today I woke up earlier than normal work day, at 0530. Went on a tour to Hangzhou, which is a 2-hr bus ride from Suzhou. Slept throughout the journey, reluctant to wake up even upon reaching West Lake (西湖).

There's a saying which goes like this: "上有天堂，下有苏杭," which means that "just as there is paradise in heaven, there are Suzhou and Hangzhou on earth." Indeed both cities are very beautiful, but I still like Suzhou more... Although people say these two cities are where China's most beautiful women come from, I could say Singapore has more pretty women. One friend told me it was only a legend. Another friend told me over the years the pretty ones did not get married and only the ugly ones got married, thus giving birth to ugly babies. And yet another friend told me pretty ones went to big city Shanghai to look for job.

Anyway I've been to Hangzhou once in 2001 with mum, and I am back here for one purpose: to buy longjing tea. Haha. It is very tasty, in fact, we call it 吃茶(eat tea) instead of 喝茶 (drink tea) because the tea leaves are usually eaten instead of throwing away.

Bought only one small bottle, top grade longjing tea leaves, because it was very expensive at 75 rmb per bottle.

West Lake

Big tea pot

Ox is both my zodiac and horoscope; 牛上加牛

And oh, my shoes were wrapped with 鞋套 because it was raining lions and tigers, instead of cats and dogs this time round; nevertheless, rainwater still seeped into my shoes and I wondered why. Only when I reached home did I then realise that my shoes now have a MOUTH! There's a hole now! My shoes can now really talk =(


Fengshui Caves; which almost cheated us of paying for a boat ride at 25 yuan, to buy a torchlight for 10 yuan; fortunately this time round I am not to be swayed

Tram ride which was included in the admission fee

Took this photo and when I took a closer look, I realised my shoes were extremely "tak glam"

I was reminded of my trip to jiuzhaigou 九寨沟 in 2006, where I could see the bed of the lake, even though it was 9 metres deep; the water at jiuzhaigou was really crystal clear... It really lift up to its reputation of “黄山归来不看山，九寨归来不看水." I shall make a trip to Huangshan come May, maybe


Incessant rain, which is called 春雨, a rainy season as we enter the spring season; although for now, it is still 春如冬寒

Our dinner at home

Am now having stomachache because I drank 1 glass of fresh milk plus 1 cup of green tea with fresh lemon squeezed into it... must detoxify myself...

Sexual harrassment

Yesterday after work I went to a massage parlour, wanting to have a relaxing foot reflexology session.

I was brought to a room, which I didn't even realise that usually for clean massage parlours, they ought to be in full view of the public. So the masseur closed the door, and kept asking me why not have a full body massage. I thought it was only a recommendation. But as she massaged my neck, she brushed her "that one" on my holy shoulder! I felt very scared.

So I quickly sent an sms to woonling, who then called me to my rescue and talked to me on the phone.

Suddenly I asked myself why foot reflexology must close the door!

When I told the masseur I wanted to have merely foot massage and continued chatting on the phone with woonling, I tell you, her face totally turned very black, which I felt like giving one tight kick~

So scary to be harrassed! I really thank Goddess of Mercy that I could come out in one piece.

Mid-week

This week is so fast. Already wednesday. Yesterday my colleague gave me a big pack of water chestnut. I peel off one water chestnut to eat, but almost puked. Am not used to eating water chestnut, so I boiled them to drink instead. Cooling indeed.

Today's weather turned super cold. Initially wanted to go guan qian shopping street 观前街，but decided not to cos I did not wear thick enough. Reached home and my whole body felt numbed. So frightening.

Ate instant pack of 梅菜扣肉饭which was veri nice but expensive. About 1.70 sgd. China is getting really expensive these days. Did some laundry after that. So dreadful.

Going to sleep soon.

夜上海

Went Shanghai on saturday. Was raining cats and dogs... By the time we got to Shanghai, the rain has stopped, and the weather was warmer; in fact the warmest day since my first day in China, about 14 d.c. I thought spring has come, but who knows the temperature has dropped to 0-7 d.c. again overnight, such that I did not have a good sleep last night.

We went massage in Shanghai, near to the hotel that I stayed alone on the day of my arrival, which we stayed yesterday again, cos it was value for $. Only 139 rmb per room for 2, inclusive of breakfast (buns, glutinous rice ball, hard boiled egg and soya bean milk). The massage costs me 30 rmb; cheap but wasn't up to my expectation. The masseur was more like applying lotion on my foot than a proper foot reflexology. I still miss the massage I had at Berjaya Times Square.

Went Raffles City in People's Square for dinner at Ajisen. Nice clam ramen for only 29 yuan. I guess I should quit the bad habit of converting rmb back to sgd, cos I am earning rmb now?

And I should not take taxi to work every so often, even though it costs about only 3 sgd per way? Oh! No more conversion! Today I took bus to work, for only almost 1 sgd =)

Anyhow, we went to Shanghai Technology Museum. Watched the Haunted Lighthouse at IMAX　　　4D theatre. Have to wear the glass, got water and other special effects too! My bag was wet after that. Costs 30 yuan for a short 15 minutes movie. I don't really like 4D, cos some parts were damn gross. Especially when it's showing countless number of rats heading in all direction, you could feel as though rats are really scuffling through your legs!

We went to the Bund too (上海滩）, but Shanghai was covered with heavy fog yesterday, with thick clouds hovering at half the height of the Oriental Pearl TV Tower (东方明珠塔).

I don't know why I had been so unlucky lately. While walking along the Bund, I tripped onto a wire on the road. Thank God I did not fall because my two mates were walking beside me and held onto my arms. Otherwise I could imagine both my retainers and teeth dropping off. Poor me, I am already short of 4 teeth compared to a normal being, having extracted them while undergoing the gruelling process of fixing braces.

Even more unlucky was that I lost my nokia phone yesterday while on the way back to Suzhou. I remembered I still used it to call dearie while on the bus, but it was gone later when ken and I had dinner near our place. Must be the stupid bitch from the immigration centre! While I was standing at the counter paying for my visa application fee just a few days ago, she shoo-ed me away using an old and tattered broom. Fuck it sia! I wondered if she's mute or uncivilised as to not knowing how to say a simple "ass-KILL me!"

Now I really have a phobia for broom. The last incident I had was at long john silver in centrepoint while revising for my exam. Both women! Jinxed! 死扫把星，看我不杀掉你！！！臭你妈的鸡！！！！！

So on overall，I don't like Shanghai! Too many people, too many cluttered buildings, and too noisy. I still think Suzhou is the best place to live in the whole of China. But of course, Tokyo is still the best. I miss Tokyo. I want to go Tokyo! Bring me to Tokyo! Oh no! Now I miss home...

Buttoning up after dripping some eye drops... the air is really dry

Ajisen in Raffles City

Forgot where already, everywhere looks the same to me now

Shanghai Tang boutique shop

This isn't a zoo, but Shanghai Technology Museum; I wonder what has this tigress gotta do with technology; but tell you what, I got a bit scared while taking this photo, cos I imagined this tigress to suddenly pounce on me! Think I watch too many movies such as the Night at the Museum liao

Omg! This time please kill me

Oriental Pearl TV Tower covered with fog

Rainy day

Went Rainbow Centre for dinner yesterday with ko, ate chinese sausage fried rice. Sugoi!

Ohh, we could have saved on buying utensils on our own?

While walking home wind started to blow. Woke up this morning and it was raining, did not stop until after we reached home at about 7pm.

Went Suzhou Tourism Centre with my new colleague xb today to schedule his tour guide license renewal test. Then went Master of Net's Garden for tour, despite me having many work to do. At least I can take a breather?

We walked through the back of our office building and to my delight, the scenery was super power can!

Scenery at the back of our building

Xb said this is the smallest bridge in the whole of China

I'm inspired to be a tour guide next time too

My white shoes were soiled having walked under the rain; I need to return to Nikko so that the snow can wash away the dirt