Unseen Suzhou

Was on the bus home and saw endless crowds on the bridge. The KPO me decided to get off the bus to see what's happening. To my horror, here's what I have seen.

Bare in the cold weather

I am still clueless as to how the car got ramped into the river.

Left for dinner at a nearby food outlet called 好吃面. But the 面 is 不好吃 so these days I eat rice there. The tofu is nice.

As usual, I had to cross the notorious road to get to that food outlet, with traffic from all direction, where I almost got hit just last week. The motorcylist, who was a ccb woman, cursed and swore at me while I was geared with my headphone blasting lady gaga song that I don't even care to give a damn fuck face back. Stupid woman appearing out of nowhere when I've already checked my blindspot a few times.

Each time I cross that road, I feel that my life is so fragile. Hurrr~~

Snow once more

Went to the gym opposite my apartment yesterday. Got in using a trial pass from wl. Attended the cycling class. Sweat like crazy. First time I sweat in China.

Today I decided to buy 手抓饼 (shou zhua bing) for breakfast while on the way to work. It is same as roti prata, just that they don't have curry or sugar. Still remember the very first time I bought the same 手抓饼 somewhere else, I asked the aunty seller:-

Me: 有没有糖啊？[do you have sugar?]
Aunty (seller): 什么糖啊！[what sugar?]
Me: 白糖。[white sugar]
Aunty: 哪有人放糖地啊！放糖不好吃！[where got people put sugar? put sugar not nice!]
Me: 哎哟！你不懂啊！放糖才好吃！我们在新加坡都是那么吃啊！[aiyoh! you don't know lah! we put sugar in Singapore!]

Come to think of it, I had expected people elsewhere to follow the same way of eating as me initially. When I went to KFC, they had no chilli! From then on, I will never go KFC here.

3 rmb per piece

This afternoon I was in a tra-la-la mood because it started snowing heavily, then stopped again.

My colleague told me he is going to a travel agency and asked if I would like to follow him, so I tagged along and had him take a photo of me under the snow...

Bus stop outside my office

Strong wind and snow, hard to keep my eyes opened

I decided to go 观前街 to enjoy the last few days of freezing cold weather before warm weather sets in this coming friday. Had dinner at a fast food chain known as 'kungfu' selling Chinese food.

This herbal chicken soup set with steam egg and soya bean cost me 30 rmb, it's daylight robbery!

Was waiting for bus 178 home, but came a man telling us people who were waiting for buses at the bus stop:-

Man: 这里没公交车了啊！路关闭了！

Me: (in shock I asked) 啊！为什么关了啊！那怎么办啊！

Man: He told me something in Mandarin, which I could not understand. Indeed, I saw no bus at all, only buses still running at the opposite side.

Me: 为什么对面还有１７８啊？

Man: 有去不回。我送你到另一个公交站。那里有１７８。

Me: 怎么这样子地啊！哪可能有去不回呢！

Man: 真的我没骗你！　我送你到另一个公交站。５元！

Me: 你就奇那台电瓶车(motorcycle)吗？天气很冷啊。我会冷死！

Man: 不会怎么样的！

Me: 那你就载我到我家好了。

Once I got on the motorcycle, I regretted! I almost frozen to death.

My ears turned speechlessly numbed!

Plum blossom viewing

Went xishan (西山) with my china friends to view the plum blossoms.

This is Lake Taihu (太湖), the third largest lake in China

Had lunch in one of these boat restaurants (船菜)

I think these are snails, but I ate them anyway and they were yummy

A sea of plum trees

At Situ Temple (司徒庙)

Back home at dusk

Went to a bakery and saw this; however bread from Singapore aren't nice

Home-cooked food

I miss mee siam and nasi lemak the most. Unfortunately I do not know how to make them, but only normal dishes such as the ones below. My first time cooking in China. I think I did quite a good job haha. Fried onion with eggs and vegetables with meat. I like cooking but hate washing the utensils.



Cooked broccoli, mushrooms and cabbage for lunch today...



As well as the green bean soup which almost got "chao ta" because I forgot to look after the fire.



Lecturer told us yesterday that today is known as 惊蛰, which means that it will definitely rain with thunder, such that the fields (田地) will be awoken and species that hibernate for the whole of the winter will now wake up too. It rain today indeed, as well for the past few days. Today is only 3 degrees celsius. Almost frozen while waiting for bus earlier.

While walking out of school, I shall a black pouch on the floor. With my right hand I picked it up, left hand holding onto my umbrella, I opened it to see a very new touch screen handphone.

This will replace the handphone that I lost in Shanghai. People took (steal) mine without returning to me here, I shall also keep this without returning to others. Anyway this is China.



Shall take a nap now.

Random

Bought this contact lens solution from Tokyo. Like this packaging very much. Because it is blue in colour and the bottle is transparent. Only 13 sgd.

Heard a loud bomb and saw fireworks being blasted into the sky again, although cny was over.

Have been raining for the whole day so I have been feeling lazy. The weather is turning crazy too. It's supposed to be getting warmer since it's spring, but I have added another layer of clothes since yesterday night.

Another random day is gone.

Stress

When there isn't much work to do, life seems unmotivating. When there are countless task to be completed, life is understress.

I think I fall into the latter category. Piles of research to do. And tonnes of design work to be done. I think I belong more to an IT department now than in marketing!

Got hundred over pages of brochures awaiting me to be designed and published! Before I could complete my Europe section (and somemore Europe is further divided into Northern, Southern, Easten, Western and Central), boss rushed me to complete 1 brochure design on Hong Kong package that is now selling like hotcakes. Arggg!

I converted Microsoft Publisher into PDF format, which I thought would be user-friendly for my colleagues. Who knows 1 fellow told me he can't open for don't know what reason, and told me to better convert to Microsoft Word, just in case customers and suppliers don't have PDF or "don't know" how to use PDF.

Never mind that. Since Mircrosoft Publisher can't be converted into Microsoft Word, I had to "group" my images, copy and paste them onto Microsoft Word. When I re-send it to them, another fellow told me he can't open. Maybe I should be more sensitive to my situation. They are using Mircrosoft 2003 version still, instead of our 2007 version.

I think I should slow myself down and unlearn the things I have learnt back home. Now I really can't consider myself as a computer idiot here, which I so often call myself back home.

元宵节

Went Kunshan after school on sat. Did a massage for 50 yuan.

Bought a firecracker and firework which we intend to light on our balcony on yesterday night.

Fireworks at our neighbourhood

Here we have our very own in-house entertainment.....

Light up the fireworks

Firecrackers was darn deafening

How could we miss out on 汤圆 on 元宵节？团团圆圆

My wish on my 孔明灯

Launching my A380, the first to fly!

Me taking charge of my hot air balloon now

Successful launch, mission accomplished

Kula's balloon was the next to launch, followed by wl and ken.

Here comes March, happy march!