christmas with 711!

12:20 AM

YYTHIS CHRISTMAS (:

we had a steamboat/sleepover session on christmas day!! :D
i'll let the photos do the talking.

after the steamboat, we had gift exchange!! i appreciate all of you so much :D it's really great to know that you have a bunch of great friends who'll offer you unwavering support no matter how rarely we meet.. no matter how rarely we talk..
we watched click (i slept through most of it) and "The hunch", a Thai horror flick. quite scary, i must admit. my screams made the movie scarier though.
we made an attempt to watch Final Destination 3, yet again. for the umpteenth time. but most of us couldn't make it past the roller coaster part. cuz we've watched that part 10590375 times.
yep. and we all fell asleep on the sofas or on the floor.

I LOVE SEVEN ELEVEN :D you girls rock my world!

karaoke!

6:32 PM

no one can make me smile the way you do.

went to a karaoke in chinatown yesterday with dor YY, zijie and jiang lui :D

i missed dor sOoOooo much. ):
we sang a lot! i tried my hand at harmonising but i reaaally can't make it. think i'm tone deaf when i harmonise. zijie sang "liu sha" by david tao. 4750294 times. says he's practising it. but he's already so good at it! he doesn't need to practise.

sometimes it's funny how your feelings towards someone can change within a day.. an hour. a second. but you don't know me, you don't even care. when will it be me? all i can do is to live in this little bubble until it bursts. hahaha this is preposterous.

helpless. hopeless. nevertheless.

2:03 AM

helpless, hopeless, nevertheless.

the boy was like a cornered animal, his face burning with excitement and eyes glimmering with anticipation. he was taken aback.
ashamed by all the fame showered on him. all the love. he had to hold his ground though. he wasn't one to lay his emotions out in the open. he had his guard up. he always does.
little boy don't feel afraid. you're worthy of the love we give you. you're worthy of the fame.

this has to stop someday. we're better off that way.

ocip kbox!

1:00 AM

OCIP ppl rock (:

we went kbox today.. after our meeting! er hem.
everyone sang well! but many didn't sing. they were too shy ): like kaiern lg junquan maodun and jianmin. they sang very little! jiawei was funny. he held the mic when he was singing, but he held it soooo far away it was useless! he was imba shy. but he sounds okay so jiawei don't be shy okayyy. next time we go you must be braverrr! :D my angel had some random outbursts but he was funny. his only activity was to EAT. non-stop. whahha.
i hope we have more outings next time.. so that we won't grow apart. ): it'd be sad if we become strangers like when we started out. they're really a nice bunch of people (: and i appreciate them.

thennn. some of us went to play pool. i was forced to team with lg. (omg im imba noob. i kept saying i'd be a liability!! very paiseh lor.) we played against jonny and junquan. lol. double J. (notice the jester hats i put on their heads teehee.) jonny bluffed me! said he was noob. he made many good shots though. the first and second game i was a liability to my team! sorry! we won the first and lost the second. in the tiebreaker, i was mega tyco. made many unbelievable shots. jon was super shocked. hahahaha. call me shifu! :D the LOSER i.e jonny had to pay for everything so yay -gloats- fine fine lg was the zai one okaaay.

then we went to eat! us and the pink candyfloss christmas tree!
this tree is fast becoming a regular on my blog. hahah.

yuntian and i wore black and white! :D whee. so you mo4 qi4!!

----------------
and, i have RECOVERED. :D golden throat worked miracles for many people at kbox. jonny got back his falsetto (partly) and i could reach the high notes albeit with a not veryy clear voice.

darn phlegm. sooo.

HERE'S MY SUBWAY COOOOKIE :D

on the road to recovery

1:13 PM

ON THE ROAD TO RECOVERY

thanks to my (many) efforts, i have partially cured myself of my horrible sorethroat!! :D
vitamin C is YYY!! danzen too! okay salt water helped i guess. yippee. how do i know i have partially recovered? I CAN SING! albeit with a hoarse voice. but who cares!!! i'm gonna go sing through the 4 sets of karaoke disks i bought in Shanghai! :D:D (bless me!)

When i FULLY recover, i want to...
EAT:

famous amos cookies.brownies.tong heng egg tarts.tempura.curry chicken with baguette.prata sausage!(home-made). KFC chicken.LJS fries.macdonalds' hashbrowns.tiramisuYY.chocolate cake.cheeese sausages. the best laopobing in town.fish & co seafood platter.dim sum!!.fried white carrot cake.fried oyster.Shilin XXL chicken.DQ Blizzard.sashimiYYY.udon.soba.sushi.strawberries with choc.

DRINK:

coffee bean pure choc.mango smoothie.iced green tea.

oh well. anything other than plain water.

SING:

all day long~ (:

sore throat

12:17 AM

THE ATTACK OF THE SORETHROAT MONSTER

i've got this horrible on-off sorethroat.
yesterday i ate KFC and it got BETTER! =/

after that it only went in one direction. down.

and i'm getting REALLY desperate now cuz ocip shanghai ppl are going KBOX this saturday! :D the seriously long-awaited outing (:
my sorethroat has persisted from day 7 of the trip till now. about.. 2 weeks?! you do the math.

sigh. so, being the internet dependent me, i went googling for fast cures :D

the #1 cure is supposed to gargle with cayenne pepper in water.
maybe i'll go to the supermarket to get it tomorrow.

i've been trying so many ways to cure my sore throat i think i can write a guide or something.

wensi's guide to healing sore throats fast. (:

DANZEN.
it's a medicine that's supposed to reduce inflammation. not working for me, yet.

GOLDEN THROAT LOZENGES.
has always worked for me throughout the years. i prefer it to strepsils (: however, this time it has let me down! even KFC gave me better relief.

SALT WATER.
urgh. i had always dreaded gargling with salt water as i thought it'd hurt. but since it's one of the most popular remedies online, i decided to try it. alright it's working fine. i don't feel that my throat is super swollen already. :D

VITAMIN C.

urgh i'm retyping all this stuff again. stupid blogger. i'm already in a foul mood. vitamin C is supposed to prevent infection and inflammation. so yeah i immediately dissolved a tablet in water and drank it. you can take 10,000 milligrams of vitamin C once the first symptoms of sore throat arise. but be sure to drink lotsa water to flush the excess vitamin C away cuz our body can't retain large amounts of vitamin C. and vitamin C is good for the skin! (that's why i have a large stash of it at home. but i'm too lazy to drink it anyway. boo.)
the watsons version tastes much better than the redoxon one. i hate the strong orangey taste so i usually dissolve it in half a cup of water and use plain water to flush away the icky after-taste. (:

OTHERS:

-"spike hair, everything will be okay" --mingren

-milk! --junquan
-strepsils --jiahao

-"no lozenges! they only give relief" --yuntian

-water! --xinyi

-"dun talk. just chat on msn." --maodun

-no cold water! --jiawei

-"use soap! it's alkaline and anti-bacterial. follow with vinegar to neutralise the alkali. or maybe you can try pouring boiling water down your throat. kills bacteria." --jonathan kee -.-

thanks everyone! :D hope my throat gets better by saturday.

it doesn't help when you're acting this way. without a doubt you're on my side? guess not.

OCIP SHANGHAI NOV 2006

2:04 PM

my cough won't go away. last night i coughed the whole night. ):
-depressed-
and the night before, i coughed until i vomitted. urgh.

everyone has updated about shanghai except me! alrighties here goes. this is a picture of us at the airport :D

THE LODGING

it was great (: we didn't have to live in rural areas and sleep in insect infested beds. we went to the YMCA hotel which was good enough. joanne my dear roommate and i got the lousiest bedroom!

:( our room didn't have a fridge or a coffee-maker. (not that we needed it, but it was just this emotional unbalance you know?) and our room was SMALL. bombshelter, we called it. but never mind. we went to qianlei and kimmin's room to play polar bear at night. every night, almost. unless we were tired after facilitation. when we got bored of polar bear, we changed the game to mafia. or ban luck. :D i really miss those shanghai nights.

THE FOOD

one word: SALTY. the meat tasted like it had been soaked in salt water for days. with just a single small piece of meat, the saltiness could make us eat 5 mouthfuls of rice (quotes yuntian. tried, tested and proven by me.) but there was good food. like the xiao long bao we ate while we were at yu yuan (: those were goooood. and and there was this uber pretty icecream shop!!! -swoons- the ice cream there was good, plus the decor was super sweet and nice. see! we sat on SWINGS. pretty pretty. there were rocking chairs too! this was one of the icecreams we ate. strawberry!!! ♥♥ the strawberries were soaked in sugar syrup beforehand. super soft and sweet. (:

oh yes! we were eating at this tavern/restaurant in shui xiang, an olden city left behind from the ming/qing era. there was this interesting dish: drunken LIVE prawns. it was all bloody and gruesome. jianmin ate a few! ohmyyy. yuntian ate too! she said it tasted like sashimi. :X

we went to eat steamboat too! mostly lamb. wasn't very tasty though. although the meat looked fresh.

THE SHOPPING/NIGHTLIFE

The night scenary was awesome. i remember we walked down a very wide street with neon lights everywhere. lights of every colour.. it completely dazzled us. (: too bad i can't get the picture just yet. the buildings were also very interesting, unlike singapore's buildings which all look the same to me.

this pic was taken at the bund. shang hai tan :D ( i didn't go though. lol)

the shopping was okay. we went to xin shi jie whenever we could to play house of the dead 4 :D qianlei and i were pretty owning at that game. it was really cheap over there. but we didn't buy much cuz the prices are similar to singapore. the real shopping began when we reached those cheap shopping areas. i didn't buy much as i lost my specs and cam.. i had to buy new specs which cost me around 640 RMB. divide by 5 yourself. boo. worst thing is, they're not multi-coated. so don't laugh at me when i wear them in school. i look like some old lady or worse. oh but the ajisen ramen was SUPER cheap. super cheap i tell you. there was no service charge. one bowl of original ajisen ramen was only 15 RMB. which is likeTHREE sing dollars. ohmy. i only spent around 6 bucks sing to have a hearty meal :D super cheap.
oh yes the CDs there are cheap too. original summore. i bought 4 sets of karaoke vcds which had 3-4 discs each. which totals to 100+++ songs. ): too bad i can't sing yet. my voice is still horrible. i sound like a froggy.

THE SCHOOL/KIDS

awww. when we first arrived, the kids lined up in 2 straight rows to welcome us :D we were given star treatment. everyone was talking about us, everyone was curious. the kids mobbed us like we were celebrities :D it was really fun. i still remember a time algernon and i wanted to get into the library room but we were mobbed by kids from the preschool class. they were so adorable, tugging at our shirts. a girl tugged at algy's shirt and said "eh why is it torn?" (there was this slit at the side of our shirts to begin with) then algy was like "oh my! eh they tore my shirt!!! did they???" lol.. he actually thought our shirt didn't have the slit. the kids were dorable. kaixin was uuuuber cute. ah qiong too! and wang yan, algy's fave one. (she's the one i have my hand on)

clockwise from left: yuntian, qianlei (aka lan baobao), xinyi, gwen, me, elaine, joanne, a teacher, mingren, little boy, jonathan, wang yan, lg.

all of the kids were super enthusiastic in taking photos with us :D many mobbed us just because they wanted to take photos. one pulled my right arm, the other tugged at my left hand. i felt like a rag doll hahaha.

but it was fun (:

clockwise from left: lg, me, a seh little boy, wang yan, KAIXIN!

the kids were super helpful too. When we were moving the books from the first storey to the second storey, many children rushed over to help us carry the boxes. Also, two boys helped us with the colour-coding of the books enthusiastically. They were really sensible and willing to help. I was very delighted as colour-coding the books was a horribly boring and tedious job. I got paint all over my jacket, hands and jeans. On either day 5 or 6, it was extremely cold outside and my hands were freezing. A little girl held both my hands and then reached into her pockets to lend me a pair of gloves. The pair of gloves was so small and adorable! I was very touched. It’s amazing how they are willing to share however little they have. (this part is ripped from my reflections whahha)

OUR MASTERPIECE (:

the mural :D it's more beautiful when you see the real thing. seriously awesome. the library was completed in a flurry. the colour coding was tedious work. imagine colour coding 14081084 boxes of books. whhahah ok not so many. but still tedious.

THE PEOPLE

team B! ahhaha (excluding chunkang and maodun). you guys reaaally rock my socks off. best best team anyone could want to work with. (: everyone is so fun and so tolerant. so cooperative and caring.. yupp. best team ever.

left to right from top: jonathan, kaiern, lg, jianmin, mingren, gwen, yushan, kimmin, me, elaine, qianlei, mr lee, joanne, peishan, miss tan

and not forgetting the others too. you all are amazing (:

thanks for putting up with my constant whining and complaints.. thanks for cheering me up when i was down.. thanks for giving me a hand when i had difficulties.. thanks for listening to my jokes even though they weren't funny.. thanks for lending me your cameras to camwhore whahaha.. thanks for everything you all have done..

this was one of the best experiences of my life. and these memories, i'll carry with me for many years to come.

that day a few of us went out for a mini gathering. i hope we can have more of such gatherings to stay close together :D like KBOX soon!!!