As my birthday draws nearer (7 more hours to be exact, taking into consideration it's 5pm now), I'm beginning to have that new year feel again. It's that goals and aims I wish to accomplish before my nex birthday. Yes, it sure does sounds like another resolution in the making. Well, everyone has unlimited wants, so here goes:

1) My target of 4 new destinations for 2008 is nearly there, with Melaka, Helsinki and London visited. So from tmr, I shall set another target... I wish to travel to another 4 overseas destinations this year, regardless whether I've been there before or not, or whether it is near or far. If my tentative Dallas conference in Oct comes true, I should have no problem attaining this target. Plus my plan for either Hokkaido or NZ in Jan 2009, suddenly this target seems not so tough already. :P

2) I hope to take the A380 SIA flight to somewhere far. Then again, SIA flies her A380 to destinations of at least 8hrs.

3) I hope to out perform with my work. So far I think I've done much more than I expected of myself, but it always seems not enuff at work...

4) I have been delaying buying of my recording equipments. Hopefully this year I will still have time to write and record at least 5 songs by year end, and 10 songs before my next birthday. But first, need money to buy the stuff.

5) I hope to find time to do some cooking, this time less with the sweet stuff, and more on my favourite savoury dishes... perhaps coming up with some new recipe at the same time.

mm.. seems not too daring with my targets.. but should be attainable bah.. :P

April Surprise

10 April 2008, my 1st birthday celebration of the year.  My great gang of ex-colleagues and now great frens.  Had a wonderful dinner cum chatting session at Swenson PS where I had a sliced birthday ice-cream cake.  Then when we were abt to leave, they presented me a brown box with the brand Raoul on it.  The first thing that came to mind was cuff links, or maybe even a tie.  As I unravel the ribbon and opened the box, my anticipation turned into a pleasant surprise.  It was a watch!  To think just 2 weeks ago I had almost lost my watch, and just last week I was thinking of finally buying myself one.  With this new watch, it will mean an unbroken chain of free watches since secondary school.. haha..

After dinner programme was just a party of 5 at Clementi coffee shop with drinks and sinful fried chicken.  But it was yet another great session.

Thank you all of you from Club CKSian!!

Europa Adventura 5

My 3D2N stay in London was very action-packed, tiring and cold... to some point even miserable. But i maganed to make new friends with my room mates. The unexpected snow (the 1st snow in over 20 years in April) brought several unexpected surprises: the sight of people scurrying to see the snow, and also the unexpected coldness that attacked me.

It was so cold that I only showered once in london. On the 2nd day, it was too cold to shower at night, and in the next morning as well. I had to check out and then explore London in unclean clothings... and then took the TUBE to the airport... and a 12hr flight home. It was basically a straight 3 days of no showering! I found myself with really stinky clothings when i finally shower. And no prizes for guessing that i spent a fair time in the bathroom bathing that evening. hehe..

me and my bunk mates having a beer session

the original Madame

All in all, it was a great trip, though I did not feel really fantastic like a holiday trip. Guess i am still too pampered to stay in bunkers... haiz..

Europa Adventura 4

I've finally arrived at one of the greatest civilisation of the world: England. Due to tight budget constraints (only had GBP 200 to spare), I found myself in a rather unenviable position to save wherever I go. First up, the famous Tube.... or should I call it the infamous Tube. The first person I talked to upon stepping outta Heathrow was the ticket seller, who happened to be supremely rude. Apparently, many of my friends who went there told me the same thing as well. Seems Singapore's so called lousy service still can manage to win London's crappy attitude hands-down anythime.

Well, day 1 was not too bad as I occupied myself with 2 back to back musicals. First up, The Lion King. The much anticipated musical has a few added scenes, and it's really amazing how you actually can related to each character even when they are supposed to be animals. With just a short break of less than 2 hrs, I had myself a 1-pounder burger for dinner before I head for another musical. The Lord of the Rings Musical cost me GBP20, a great discount since I was given the 1st row seats. A supposedly great show with great displays of special effects.. but at front row, I can't see the stage floor to fully appreciate the true beauty. Well, can't complain with that price I'm paying.

A cold, drizzling night greeted me as I made my way to the red light distric of SOHO for a short walk. The place was crowded with so many people you could almost feel the heat of the beat.. literally.. Well, didnt have budget to go into any one of those shops, so headed back to my humble hostel for a quick shower and then to bed.

Europa Adventura 3

5 days of conference from Monday to Friday saw me meeting my global colleagues for the very 1st time: 1 from Beijing, 2 from USA, and 1 from Finland.  Very friendly people with lotsa experience for me to absorb and learn from.

Experiencing my 1st business trip since my days with Stamford Tyres required some adjustments.  For one, I have to adjust to the fact that I can eat whatever I want for all the meals.. haha.  Well, that's really not too difficult to adjust to.  Since lunches were settled mostly at Nokia's premises, dinners were the events that I look forward to daily.

1st dinner on Sunday was a hotel restaurant affair, followed by Italian the next day.  3rd night was Thai, as requested by my American colleague.  It was surprisingly nice considering it was in Helsinki.  4th night was the star as I sampled Finnish cruisine.  I had reindeer meat, which is really popular in Finland.  It tasted like beef marinated in butter, and it almost melted in my mouth.  My reindeer 3 course meal cost me around EUR 50.  It sure does sounds alot in SGD terms (SGD110).  Thursday was free and easy with Italian dinner.

The 5th night saw me consuming the costliest dinner I've had so far in SGD terms.  We went to a Michellin star restaurant and I had EUR69 dinner set accompanied by champage.  My total bill came to SGD170!!

During the 1 week meeting, I've also visited this quint little town of Salo and Nokia's phone factory.  Didn't buy any mobile phones, but I got a huge bag of chocolates costing me a fortune.

From a luggage of 18kg, I've increased to 22kg for my flight to London in the early morning of Saturday.  It was a great week in Helsinki with lotsa great food and snow scape.

Europa Adventura 2

Day 2 of my stay at Helsinki saw me sailing out of the city centre. Yes, I set sail for the Suomenlinna, a Finnish isle fort. It was so damn freezing cold there, with very visible snowscape and chilly winds. So chilly the skin on my fingers began to peel... and it was not funny at all. But the place was beautiful with great architectures and solid fort structures.

Lunch was on the isle, with a chocolate bar and a local beer costing me a total of Euro 2.50. Yes, beer is cheap cheap here! I endured another chilly ferry ride back to the mainland, and began exploring the day time Helsinki again, visitng Uspendski Church as well as Senate Square with all the important buildings.

Checkin into my room at SAS Radisson Hotel at the highest level with nice bed and bathtub was a great change from my backpacker's environment. (then again, i will be staying at backpackers in london.. haiz) Oh, and nursing my sore eye.. haiz... This year has really been a sick year for me.. Been attacked by so many virus.. so sianz...