Exploring fun

Ooooo. Today was so much fun. Haha. Yh and I walked down walnut (from 40th to 10th), shopped along the way, went to chinatown, had good food, and walked back up chestnut, buying even more on the way. Haha. :P Shopping's therapeutic. I was kinda traumatised by incessant lab reports, various hw assignments, and midterms!! :( I've 3 more before spring break.. Ahhhh. I can't wait till we get to new orleans. ;D

Deathnote is nice!! Watched it at midnight yday. Haha. Cuz fridae is a slack slack day.. with one class. ;P okay, there's usually 3, but 1's cancelled and I don't like gg for the other. XP Anyways.. I wanna watch deathnote 2!! It's different from the anime/manga though. It's not the same as the storyline which mar related to me..

I tried pod's for lunch yday! Haha. For the uninitiated, pod is this posh restaurant at the Inn at Penn (ie. the most ex restaurant in university city, imo). =P Having a plum wine flavoured cocktail at lunch is quite shiok. I had sea bass!! It's always great to get fish here- it's so so rare k.

Tml's chu2 xi1!! :D We'd be gg to this hk restaurant for a 10 course seafood dinner with sporeans, hkers and the taiwanese.. Sounds like fun. :) There's even pre-dinner karaoke.. yay!!

Snowboarding

We went snowboarding over the weekend at Blue Mountain and it was really fun, albeit painful. Don't try snowboarding without a butt cushion in place unless you want an extremely sore butt and bruises all over. Haha. It seems as though none of us knew how to stop properly. Our strategy was simply to crash before hitting anyone/anything- an extremely painful strategy indeed. Well, at least now I know I'm not good at snowboarding. :P I shall try skiing next time.


Here's a pic of rachael and yinghui smiling in the snow..

Rachael sliding down the slope using her snowboard as a tobaggon. I consequently joined her, in an attempt to minimise injuries for the day.

Yinghui and I at the bottom of the not-so-steep slope we were boarding on..

A sad yinghui bemoaning her bruises and aches..

White white snow..

I miss home so much!! It's not as though I'm not enjoying myself here.. It's just TOO COLD! I've to bundle up like crazy to go outdoors!! :( I miss sunny Singapore.. and my xiao long baos!! Haha. Can't wait for spring break/summer. Lab reports are a pain in the ass. As though it isn't sufficient that I've to spend 9.5 hrs of class time a wk on one course unit.. I've to spend something like an additional 10 hrs outside class writing the 5-10 pages long report. Ughhhh. They're like freaking research papers. *pouts*

SNOW!

It snowed!!! :D We had proper snow last night, unlike the usual flurries we had gotten earlier.. The nice soft powdery snow under my feet made me stop in my tracks to take numerous photographs. XP The usual 10 minutes trek from the quad to gregory took me more than 20 minutes.There's snow all over the ground!

Even the bare trees are shrouded in snow..

This one too..

And this whole patch of tiny bushes..

On my way to school this morning..

Even Ben Franklin's covered in snow..

School's well into the swing of things. Homework's piling up, midterms are approaching, and its barely the third week of school! In any case, we've been having fun. :D Nadia, yx and I went to Atlantic City over Martin Luther King weekend and enjoyed a day of walking down the boardwalk and shopping.. I've finally got a chance to try salt water taffy, but it definitely does not live up to expectations. It's soooooo sweet it's virtually pure sugar. Pictures will be up soon, when I manage to locate my camera-to-pc cable.. Shopping's good at atlantic city. I somehow managed to buy a fair bit despite my new year resolution (I know yihui, I'm just... trying to be good). :X But in any case, they were good deals. :) The casinos at Atlantic City were kinda open concept. They're right there in the hotel lobby directly upon entering. We went into two of them to look around and no one asked for ID. ;D We didn't attempt to gamble though.One of the numerous casinos at Atlantic City.


Nadia eating this giagantic chocolate dipped strawberry we all shared.

The lovely boardwalk..

Yexiang in his standard pose at the beach..

Nadia scrambling to get away from the incoming tide..

This one looks more artistic.. :D

The shoreline..

This past weekend, 10 of us rented a car and drove to Lancaster county to visit the Amish farms. FYI the amish are ppl of Dutch descent who abhor the use of technology at home. The Farmer's Market was lovely. There were all sorts of jams on sale, ranging from jalepeno to pepper (I bought the more conventional pineapple one), as well as a huge variety of pretzels (including my favourite dark chocolate coated ones!). :D We went on to this small little town of shops where there's this divine quilt museum with gorgeous quilts on display. Words do not do the quilts justice. They have to be seen for themselves.The brilliant blue sky..

Nadia with the GO AWAY sign yaoxiang eventually bought..

Nadia and Gina in front of a bare tree..

Nadia posing in the middle of a tunnel..

A random picture taken in Lancaster County.


A picture of my favourite quilt of all. XD

The day ended with a visit to cold stone creamery.. one of my favourite ice cream parlours here. :D I had a berry trinity smoothie instead of my ususal dark chocolate mint with almonds as they didn't have it.. For the uninitiated, cold stone is special cuz it allows the choice of mix-ins.. such as roasted almonds, candy bars, brownies etc, which they mix into the ice cream before serving it up. Yummy.

Upon return, we started planning nadia's surprise as it was her birthday the next day. Yx and I went to get an ice cream cake from ben & jerry before gg to gina's to store the cake and plan our operation. Yx and yw were to "kidnap" nadia after the performance she was watching, but they kinda botched it up as they were spotted by her cuz of yx's bright yellow jacket. To top it off, the restaurants we wanted to go to were full, and we had to wait an hour for a table. Yx n yw valiantly took a blindfolded nadia on a walk along pine near mixto (the restaurant), entertaining her by making her feel objects so as to guess what they are. We ultimately decided to wait in a pizzaria opposite mixto so as to get out of the cold, and played for time by making nadia guess who each one of us is. The wait for well worth it's while.. the sangria was excellent, and the plaintain chips were great. We adjorned to gina's to cut the cake and bumped into some of the rest who joined us in the cake cutting but disappeared shortly after to their poker game. All in all, I hope nadia has enjoyed herself. :P

In any case, I've found an apt for next semester! It's absolutely perfect. :D I'd be rooming with nadia and yh in this cosy 3 bedroom at hamilton court.. We've signed the lease and pretty much everything's confirmed. I can't wait till I get my hands on the kitchen!! :D

Los angeles

Ahhhhhh. I can't believe I have less than 2 days left in LA!! :( Time passes so so quickly when it's the hols. *pouts* In any case, I guess it's a good thing I'm going back soon, or I'd go broke with all the stuff to buy here.. Hehe.

The Christmas lights at Fashion Island in Orange County..



Mar and Renita at the beach in OC..

The sunset as viewed from the car when driving to Fashion Island..

Another picture of the lovely sunset..


More random pictures of Fashion Island..

3rd Street at Santa Monica Boulevard. One of the best shopping places I've been to in the States..
A random shot of UCLA. It truly huge.

The beach at OC.. Guess what the temperature was? Looks can be deceiving.. It looks like 25 degrees Celcius but was more like 10..

In any case, here are my New Year resolutions. I know I'm slow, but better late than never eh? :P

Concentrate on studying
Stop online shopping
Stop shopping- period
STOP thinking abt irrelevant stuff
Be serious- no more fooling around
Get my driving license before gg back to Singapore

Gee. One more sem of hard work before I go back to singapore.. :( Ahwells. Shall use the hk trip with shan in May as motivation. :D

Semester in recap

YAY!! My blog's up and running again!! I didn't know it's so easy to fix the html.. XP Hehehe. Mar's probably laughing at me. :X

Anyways.. I can't believe that a whole semester has passed!! Only approximately four more months till I go back to sunny Singapore. :D This semester has been great fun, with all the nice, wonderful people I've befriended (none of whom are reading this, I hope). We've done pretty crazy things tog, and I've stayed up late waaay more than I did back home, but it was all eye opening and interesting.

Highlights of the semester:
Karaokeing at this place called yang2 guang1 where we shrieked with abandon
Chips, salsa and guacamole at this lovely mexican place whose name I can never remember (it's at 13th and sansom, tt's all I know)
Walking all the way down to Penn's Landing (it's 40 streets away) and back
New York Trip!!
Halloween party! - the first time I got -almost- drunk
Ice cream party at ws's!
Russ's homemade green bean soup and barley
Our loooong study sessions that extend late into the night
Discovering Hillel (the jewish dining hall)
Downing 3 venti starbucks in a day
Cuban food!!
South street shopping late at night
Chatting with Thomas/Yuki/Hugo in the hallway (I'd miss Thomas and Hugo!! They're lovely exchange students from Belgium, Japan and Australia)
Thanksgiving cookout
Vietnam Palace!!

Hmms. That's about it. I'd update when I can think of more.

Here's some random photos taken over the semester since I can finally upload!! =D

At Changi airport's Coffee Bean with my sis and debs. :)

Rittenhouse Square park in it's green glory..

Grand Central Terminal from the outside..

Nadia and Lionel in the bright lights near Times Square..


New York's chinatown.. It's huge in comparison to philly's..

Dalglish and Lionel on the ferry to visit the Statue of Liberty..


Gina and I in front of the Statue of Liberty.. :) We waited SO long to get onto to the ferry, but it was worth it cuz the island is really pretty. ;D



Anyways.. I'm in LA now with Marissa!! :D The past week has been lovely. Lazing around, sleeping, watching tv, eating, shopping, and most importantly, catching up with Mar. ;)

LA's nice. Tis sunny (sunnier than philly, at the very least), pretty, and has great shopping. I've bought sooo much. XP It's lovely here.

Lack of ,,,,,

Haha. Opps. I seem to be posting like.. once a month. :X Anyways.. 'tis really quite scary. Less than 2 weeks to the start of finals!! Omg. I can't believe my first sem at penn is ending so soon.. I'm looking forward to next sem though. No calculus!! :D I LOATHE calculus. Okok, I should be trying to like it if I wanna do better in it, but... argh.. I simply have no affinity for it. Probability and linear algebra sounds a lot better. :) And physical chemistry lab!! Haha. Sounds interesting, doesn't it? :P Too bad it's so time consuming though. 9.5 hrs per week for one credit is kinda too much, but I think I'd enjoy it. :)

Anyways.. I really SHOULD be mugging. What happened to the mugging mode which I used to be able to switch to?? I'm addicted to online shopping... :( 'tis a great time waster, but I looove receiving packages! Hehe.

Dead tagboard

My tagboard is dead!! :( Any kind soul wants to help me fix it? *beseeching look*

Anyways.. Life has been busy; ie. a mad rush from one midterm to another. But still, I've visited nyc twice, and met up with frannie and hermawan, so I can't say that I'm too caught up with work.

Blogger doesn't want to cooperate, so.. I can't upload photos for the time being..

Halloween's fun! =) I went for my first halloween party last saturday and.. well, let's just say that it's the best party I've been to so far. :) Parties in philly are more enjoyable for me cuz there's a ban on smoking indoors. ;D

We went to woodbury commons (for the uninitiated, it's 226 outlet stores 1 hr north of nyc) twice in two weeks, but I've spent just a reasonable amount.. I want to go hk!!! Haha.. I realise how much I miss mango.. and a well stocked zara. The selection at the zara here is indeed quite pitiful. Yay.. There's a shopping trip to central philly planned for this weekend! :) I need new coats. It's brrrrrrrr.. freezing here. Some days the temperature fall to 5 degree celcius.. and somehow I just manage to be wearing a skirt and a light jacket when that happens..

I NEED to focus on studying........... my grades are appalling. HELP!!

I'm swamped!! :( Ahhs. Did badly for my first calc midterm but well for my organic chem one.. I wonder why.. Right now I'm pretty darn stressed abt my physical chem final tt's tml. Sighs. I need a break. A real break. Having 1/2/3 midterm every week is not good for the soul, even IF we did come from the highly regimented Singapore education system. This is waaay worse. Trust me on this. The idea of the cycle perpetuating for four whole years is not the least bit encouraging. AHHHH. I need to cut myself some slack.

Sighs. I wonder who told me that college life in the us is easy. That's so not true. I've mugged harder than I ever did in NJ, and it's only the first week of school!! Argh. Problem sets come almost every day and are due virtually the next day. :( I've dropped my writing seminar. It's too tough taking a writing sem with 4 tough courses. So.. right now I'm taking 5 tough courses. Haha. Organic chem, physical chem, calculus 3, intro to micro econs and intro to biotech. Hopefully I'm making the right choice. I'd soon be unable to add writing seminars and language courses.

Nights are spent doing problem sets while days are spent at lessons or simply hanging out. I miss the days in NJ when I was "free" once lessons are done for the day. Right now, I don't feel free. Not even during weekends when there's a pile of work waiting to be done. I could have taken the easy route and take courses like intro to chem and intro to physics, but I thought it'd make more sense to challenge myself to do well in sophmore classes.... it doesn't seem like such a smart idea right now.

In any case, I'm loving penn. 'tis great here, other than the freeze my butt off cold weather and strange sounding english and bad food.. Haha. A sentence of negatives doesn't reflect the fun I've had here. The socials were great, but orientation's over. It's now time to buckle down and get to work. Till winter break at least. :) Wish me luck!!

I've spent 3 days at penn, and it was all pretty good. :) The orientation activities are packed from morning to night, but *coughs* I do not attend every single one of course. :P

The flight was pretty good; I think I'd be taking the same one everytime I fly between philly and singapore.. ;) The guy who picked us up, Alf, was nice and friendly and brought us to this cute trucker diner on the way to penn for dinner.. Surprisingly, both of us were full and didn't eat much..

There's a fresh grocer near my residence which I'm really thankful for. It has pretty much everything! :D Fruits, dairy products, cereals, detergents, water, in short- everything. The prices are pretty reasonable too.. It's a good place to go when I can't sleep at night cuz it's opened 24 hrs..

I think penn is really pretty, even though my room isn't- yet. It'd soon be though. Just give me some time to do it up. :)

Oh no.. My house dean actually told me I talk like I do online.. :( Is that good or bad?? Seems more bad to me..

My roomies have all moved in yesterday, so I'm no longer alone in the apartment. They're all nice and friendly. ;)

I don't wanna take the chem placement test todae. *sulks*

It's 26 more hours till I go.. and I'm really apprehensive. I've met up with almost all the friends I wanna see one last time before gg, and I'd miss everyone like mad! :( Boohoohoo..

Anyways, everything's packed and ready other than my feelings I guess. I've had so much xiao long baos in the past few days that I'm kinda sick of them, but then again, I guess I'd soon crave for them.. AHHH. Sighs. I'm don't feel very coherent. I've had only like what.. 4 hours of sleep last night? I think I'm experiencing college sleeping hours already. :'( How am I gonna survive like this for 4 years? :(((((((

K lah, I'm actually really excited too. ;) I mean, I'd finally get to meet all the interesting ppl I've been talking to on facebook! Haha..

Thanks, my dearies, for the messages, mementos and memories. I love you all. *muacks*

Opps. So this is it: I'm a sporadic blogger. Ahwells. :P Life is good after work has stopped last friday. Lounging around at home is a luxury which I'd miss in the months to come. I've received my allocated time table after advance registration and it's realllllly lousy, but it's alright, after a few persistent visits to penn-in-touch, I am now pretty much enrolled in the courses of my choice sans one, but it'd be rectified soon, once I get permission to register for the sophmore chemistry class.

Hmms. Somehow I feel kinda sad. Perhaps it's cuz I'd be leaving singapore in 5 weeks (and also cuz I'm kinda broke).. There's so many ppl I'd miss! I mean, there's already a number of friends who've drifted away from me since school, and I'm still here!! Wouldn't everything be worse once I'm 10 000 miles away? Sighs. This is depressing. I wish I don't mind endings and new beginnings as much as I do.

Heyos.. Haven't updated in a while cuz I wasn't in the mood. Work is as usual, mundane, and will end in 4 weeks!! I can't wait, although my boss's really nice. Shubs has joined me and all, so.. work's slightly more interesting..

The weekend's been fun; yday was jam packed with activities. I woke up early in the morning to go ecp to cycle with debs, peach and nic. Deb's neighbour wanted to join us and gave debs and me a lift down.. She jogged and was faster than us initially!! We seemed to have had more fun chatting rather than exercising. Hehe. Perhaps we should do sth more strenuous in future.. Went off to parkway for lunch at mos followed by a really looong visit to mango. I tried on a gazillion items but decided not to buy any (which was a good choice).

Deb's neighbour gave me a lift home and i left shortly after taking a bath.. =) Went down to orchard to meet mar and jo and shopped ard mango and zara. The mango at wisma has nicer stuff!! Couldn't resist getting a dark blue thick knit turtle neck and a long sleeve grey tee.. They'd come in handy at penn! While crossing the road to liat towers, we bumped into meera and shubs.. ;) They joined us at zara after gg wheelock place, and peach came soon after. I decided not to get anything cuz of the 2 tops I bought at mango. :( There's lovely shoes!! But they're still not affordable except as a splurge, and I'm saving mine for a lap top bag (mum gave the green light!).

I left them soon after to go to loof for the sporeans at penn gathering. The night was very informative! I bombarded various rising sophmores/juniors with tons of questions.. Hee. They're pretty patient though. I feel relieved after meeting some of the other freshmen. :) It's nice to be able to put faces to the ppl I've been chatting with online..

I made a trip to ecp again today morning, this time for roller blading and breakfast at coffee bean.. ;) Went grocery shopping at parkway with mum aft tt before gg for driving. I can do a 3 point turn now!! Haha. Parking's gonna be next week.. I can't wait.

Does him being able to recognise my number mean anything at all? The feelings I used to have for him bubbled out. Perhaps this isn't a good thing.

I'm pretty stressed at work; too many things to remember, too little time. My shi fu's leaving tml.. So I'd be our boss's full-fledged PA on mon.. Seems worrying, doesn't it? Although responsibility is good, it brings with it stress and worries.

My driving lesson has been postponed to sun; my instructor doesn't think it's a good idea to have my first lesson during peak hours..

Sighs. As you can see, my thoughts are disjointed now. And I know the reason why. :(

Hmms. 1 week of work has flew past and it's now monday again.. I would say that I'm learning quite a fair bit, and have been enjoying my work.. But this definitely isn't my calling. Now, it seems as though everything I've tried isn't my thing. Then what is? I'm kinda worried. What if one day I decide I don't like i banking after interning at one of the i banks? *groans* I worry myself at times..

The past week has really been interesting, adapting to a new work environment, colleagues and all.. I'd say that the interns and my younger colleagues are pretty affable, but with regards to the rest.. well, let's just say they aren't exactly welcoming. My boss's pretty intense; he's serious about his work. I guess he isn't the easiest person to work for, with his exacting standards, but 'tis alright, I'd probabaly live. I tend to be sloppy at times, so I gotta keep myself in check or risk getting a dressing down.

My weekend was a harried rush, with sat being spent shopping around the suntec area with hx, dinner with the family at jln kayu, and sun in a even bigger whirl of activity. Tuition was first, followed by lunch and shopping with shan at orchard, tuition again, then dinner and drinks with sc n mar at serangoon gardens. :) I'm a happy gal though. All set for a week of work. Not so sure if I'm keen on every one of the remaining 8 weeks though.

Oh. I've passed my basic theory!! Haha. Spent less than 15mins doing the test and rushed out to apply for my pdl before going down to work.. yay! I'm starting lessons this wed; hope I won't run into any trouble.. *crosses fingers*

Another piece of good news: I've been accepted to the modern languages programme at penn! ;D I'd be living in german house, this whole floor of german speaking students.. hopefully my german won't deteriorate then..

Work

The last week of R&R before starting work was wonderful.. Met up with jiali and yanglin at holland v for lunch on wed. Yanglin kindly treated us to crys jade la mian xiao long bao. :D We had a nice chat during lunch. Kinda miss our ICES days.. too bad alex wasn't around. ;P Went on to tampines after lunch to get my white belt and key pouch from espirit as it was the last day I could use my 30% discount voucher. I wanted to get lime juice, and was worried that it wouldn't be sour enough. A nice boy behind the counter offered to squeeze an additional 10 limes into my juice.. hee. It was totally sour and yummy!

Went down to the american embassy on thurs to apply for my visa. To my relief, the interview was not the least bit scary. It seemed more like a conversation than anything. :) I was told to collect my visa the coming mon and got it without a hitch. ;) Met mum and sis for lunch at crys jade ginseng (korean) before going down to marina square for some shopping. Strangely, I felt really tired throughout the day. Perhaps it's the stress of applying for my visa.. Got a starbucks frappucino with coffee jelly to perk me up for tutoring later on...

The next day, mar, peach and I went cycling at ecp early in the morn. We spent 2 hrs jetting around, mostly chatting, before taking the bus down to orchard. At my insistence, we lunched at zingdo where I had my beef bi bim bap (again). Hee. I'm definitely a creature of habit. We shopped around, and I bought a lovely denim skirt from mambo.. There was this sale at isetan orchard and the skirt was really worth it. :D shh. don't let my mum know though. She was alr hopping mad about the 2 denim skirts I bought in hk.. Mummy can't tell them apart though. :X

Sat was peach's birthday!! Haha. I met shan at singpost for breakfast at coffee bean.. and went to the cll with her before meeting peach and meera at raffles city for lunch at aiwo.. It was totally delish; I stuffed myself silly. Peach had no idea though, what laid in wait for her.. ;) *sneaky grin* We took the train with meera to orchard (she had to go to work at borders) and went shopping. I bought a pair of beige-coloured 3 inch stillettos to wear to work (but have yet to wear it).. and Peach got her black bolero which caught her eye the day before.. :) The 2 of us had lots of fun wandering ard.. And then came the time to take the train back. I told peach that I'd be gg to my grandma's house (which is v near pj's house) for dinner.. On the train, I asked if I could go with her to her place first at my grandma was at her friend's house and forgot about the time.. *chuckles* To pj's surprise, mar, huiming, jo and tim were inside her house!! Haha. Apparently pj was suspicious as she knew I called her mum, but didn't guess we were throwing her a surprise bbq party! Hee. Sharm, pradeep and li hang turned up after that and we had a really fun bbq+chat even though the fire took ages to strengthen.

Hmm. Somehow what I did on sun eludes me.. I'd presume I spent the day lazing ard at home then. Hehe. Ahhh. And gave tuition in the aft. :)

Mon was my first day at work! I was pretty apprehensive going into a totally new environment and all, but my worries were unfounded. There's many nice friendly interns in my dept! :) Esp allan who's my predecessor teaching me the ropes. I'm really glad for him since it'd be way more difficult being taught by my busy boss.

HK

Heyo.. We're finally back in sg. ;D Our trip was a fruitful one, as evident by the bulging bags we brought back. Hehe. The bellhop as the hotel, as well as the taxi driver who brought us to the airport, thought us pretty hilarious to be travelling alone, and with such huge bags. I overheard them talking to each other in cantonese. Despite not understanding the words they used, I could tell from their way of speech that they were laughing at us.. Ahwell.

The plane ride was pretty uneventful, but we were raring to go, and therefore the 3hr40min ride felt like a really looong time... Upon reaching macau int airport, we hurriedly boarded a cab, and asked the driver to take us to the ferry terminal. Luckily, the driver clarified with us which ferry terminal it was we wanted to go to. If not...... we might have wasted time being sent somewhere else.

Here's a pic of the ferry we took from macau to hk. It was so spacious that I could stuff my huge bag in the leg room and still had lots of space for my legs. :D The one we made our return journey on was bad though. Squeezy and noisy, like a market early in the morning.

Our first stop upon reaching tsim tsa tsui was a pit stop at tang2 chao3 (sweets dynasty) to refuel. Last I was there, they had really delicious double boiled egg white with milk.. Unfortunately though, it was taken off the menu.. Here's a pic of tang2 chao2.. There's loads of ppl enjoying their desserts.. I like the atmosphere there, even though the standard of the desserts has dropped. It bustles with activity, at all times of the day. Despite the name, tang2 chao2 doesn't only serve desserts. They do pretty good meals too.And this is my mango dessert.. It has sago in mango juices, with mango chunks and pomelo as toppings.. ;)

This is mar's mango pudding in a lovely heart shape. We almost forgot to take photographs as the food looked so inviting.

After that, we made our way to ramada hotel on foot, with the help of our trusty map kindly supplied by mar's uncle.. :) Our room's nice. It's on the 18th floor, and comes with a view, albeit one of hk's not-too-pretty skyline. I still wonder why they were so nice to give us a room on the highest floor. The only drawback is that the lifts end on the 17th floor, and we had to climb up a flight of stairs to get to our room, but in any case, how could a lil bit of exercise be bad for us? ;) After doing a lil bit of unpacking, we went meandering down granville road (the road next to our hotel) and found lots of lovely clothes, shoes n bags shops. It's like a road full of shops like those n far east plaza, but mostly at approx half the price and with uncommon apparel.. =) sounds good, doesn't it? We were on a roll peering in all(almost) the shops, exclaming over delightful items.. As we proceeded down nathan road, our stomachs started to rumble.. We started keeping an eye out for a small cosy restaurant with good food and reasonable prices, and found one in the str next to temple str. The food was good and abundant, for a mere S$8 each. :) We ate our fill and proceeded to check out the deals at temple str night market. We found pretty good gifts, as well as a few bags for ourselves.. ;D They're totally unique. I love 'em. We decided to not be lazy and take the mtr.. To reward ourselves for our diligence, we went to xu liu shan for mango dessert before trudging back to the hotel.. I ate sth that's almost identical to what I had at tang2 chao2, other than an additional scope of home-made mango ice cream. :) Mar had sth similar, but with tiny dumplings too.. We walked back, tired but happy..

The next morning, I woke up at 3.30am cuz it was FREEZING. brr. And I thought it's summer. Adjusted the temperature to the hottest, thereby changing the air-con to a heater. Heh. Got up again at 7 though, and couldn't fall asleep again. Mar and I changed and went to scout out the church her uncle wants her to go to.. We didn't see any opened restuarants on the way there and had to wander ard all the way to a short str off haiphong rd. There we found a macau cafe which has been opened since 6.30am.

Here's a hungry me eating my pork chop bun with scrambled eggs. It's not a bad deal. Approx S$4 for a meal with a drink.. I got the yuan1 yang1 every single time. =) It's like milk tea with coffee, and taste really good. I love the pretty tin cups they come in (pictures later).

We went on to wander around harbour city and china ferry terminal as it wasn't time for service yet.. Harbour city is this really posh shopping centre with all the luxury brands.. Walking around there before the shops are opened was pretty fun as we could point and scrutinise the bags/shoes/clothes in the display for as long as we wanted to. :) We proceeded on to china ferry terminal as mar was keen on xu liu shan. Alas, it was not opened yet. We chanced upon this tiny shop selling genuine leather bags on 70% discount!! Mar and I bought a nice bag each. Mine's a dark blue hobo while mar's a mustard yellow in a shape I don't really know how to describe.. We bargained down the price further, and got a really good price for the bags imo. The bag's now in my mum's possession. :)

We then hurried down to st paul's church, which was bursting at the seams. There weren't enough seats for all those attending, and we had to stand in front of the pews for the one hr service.. I'd say that a catholic service is rather different from a christian (or rather a methodist one). It was a pretty interesting experience; the reader was really cute in a father christmas kinda way. ;) As we were leaving the church, it started to pour, but we didn't wanna change our original plan of walking through ladies street before heading to jade market. And that was what we did. Only catch was that the stalls at ladies street weren't fully opened, either cuz it was too early, it was pouring, or a combination of the two. In any case, we were pretty disappointed with ladies street, but decided to walk down to jade market anyway.. On the way, we saw a place selling double boiled egg white with milk!! I was so happy and dragged mar in for a brief respite from the rain.. I found their version delicious, but a lil bit too sweet; mar didn't really like it.. After that, we proceeded down to jade market where we bought a few pretty trinkets. Nothing of much value though, I think, as I was too lazy to bargain down the extremely high prices quoted by the sellers. It's sorta my fault though, I didn't really believe that the items were real and therefore wasn't ready to pay handsomely for the pretty pieces.. Ahwell. When I know my stones better, I'd buy more. :) We proceeded to trek down to harbour city to check out the shops we found interesting earlier on, and trust me, it's a trek, not a short walk. With my birks and mar's crocs sloshing in the rain, we trudged to harbour city.. We meadered through underpasses when available, ran through traffic lights, and finally reached our destination safe, albeit not dry. The trek was good exercise though. We felt hungry and grabbed some jap mochi for lunch. They're the really authentic tasting kind which has to be kept refrigerated, and has an icy smooth texture which I love. How I wish we could bring some home... We didn't spend a long time at harbour city as we were tired after our trek.. Thus, we made a trip back to our hotel to relieve our shoulders of our purchases and rest for a while. However, we were waylaid by the shops along granville road where mar made her purchases of 2 skirts and 2 tops.. :) We went back to try on our purchases and modelled for each other..

We went out again after that to shop around and get dinner. I found mar's skirt so pretty that I bought one too, in a different denim wash.. Mar found a nice rip curl tee/sweater at the same shop. 'twas quite funny that mar described the sales boys at the shop as chickens as they shouted to passerbys to lure them in to the shop.. We wandered ard the area somemore and found a nice noodle restuarant tucked away in a corner. Mar had dumplings with noodles while I had dumplings alone.. :) Their dumplings were pretty darn delicious. :D We proceeded to find the shop where I saw pretty scarves the other day, but weren't successful.. After a while, we decided to get dessert at xu liu shan so as to take a break from our hunt. After a nice long break, during which mar had her usual while I got the harsmar double boiled egg white with milk, we went on another round and discovered that the particular shop was closed for the day. Ahwell. 'twas no wonder we couldn't spot a shop selling scarves..

The next day (ie. day 3), we went back to the same macau cafe as I was craving for my pork chop bun.. Hehe. Then, we went on to take the mtr to causeway bay where we wandered ard sogo, bought belts at giordano to keep mar's skirt from slipping down.. After a while, we took the mtr again to central where we wandered down li yuen str before reaching the mid levels escalators.. Mar wasn't very keen on going higher up, so we went on to take the mtr to admiralty where we visited the spacious and luxurious pacific place. =) And that's where I came to meet my lovely nike bag. It's a steal, at half the price it would have cost in sg, so I'm pretty darn happy I bought it. Mar got herself a bright yellow nike messenger bag from the same shop which has yet to appear in sg. :) I then tried the xiao long baos at the food court but they weren't very good.. I miss crys jade la mian xiao long bao! We went to great supermarket to get bread for tml's ferry ride.. and check out the interesting goodies. I bought a barrett's jelly babies snack pack! :) They're really delish.. my fav jelly babies. Cold storage stocked them for christmas, but they are not to be found after the festive season.. Ahwell. We did some mall walking while mar ate her bread, and got ourselves some weird looks from the other shoppers. What's wrong with two teenage girls in a luxury shopping mall???? :P

In any case, we were tired, and wanted to go back to our hotel room to pack.. but before that, we went back to get a second identical denim skirt each. Ok, they aren't exactly identical since they're of different washes, but still the same design. :) We then painstakingly stuffed everything (almost) into our bags.. Mar wanted to nap, but I was restless. I convinced mar to go gai gai with me at harbour city as I wanted to get my sesame mochi. ;) After much ado, we chanced upon a nice looking shanghainese noodle restuarant and were tempted by their tea time sets which included a drink. As usual, I had my dumplings with yuan yang and mar had her dumplings with noodles and a almond drink.. With our tummys happily filled, we proceeded to harbour city to shop to our wallet's content. I felt very broke looking at the lovely clothes and bags in the shops.. :( And then I decided to heck it, and charge whatever catches my eye.. :X Almost immediately after that, I saw a cute powder blue nike bag in the shape of a flower basket, and thus bought it. It's a design which the nike shops in sg do not carry! ;) Isn't it sufficiently unique? Mar spent the last of her money on a looooong shrug. 'tis pretty.. Haha. We were pretty reckless that night. We walked back satisfied with having made the most out of our hk trip.. n ended the night with a mango drink from xu liu shan.. ;D

The next morning, we woke up bright and early to cab down to the ferry terminal.. I looked longingly at the bag shop but it wasn't opened yet (it was sth like 8am). :X Haha. I regret not buying more.. ahwell. The ferry ride wasn't exactly the most comfortable I've had. The ferry was packed with so many passengers it felt like a market place early in the morning.. :( Mar and I kept eating our mochi and jelly to distract ourselves from our surroundings. ;) Upon reaching macau, we hailed a cab to senado square with our luggage in tow as there weren't any lockers to be found. For the entire day, we dragged our bags up and down the stairs (the shops in senado sq are mostly 3 storied).. But then, it was a rewarding day as we found too- good- to- be- missed bargains all around. =) We lunched at this lovely chinese restaurant where they actually seated us in an alcove for 8 ppl.. Mar and I had our usual noodles and dumplings with a dish of eggplants in this special hong2 shao1 sauce. It was totally delicious! :D Not bad for a lunch of approx S$10 in a beautifully decorated restaurant. After proceeding with more shopping, we were shagged from hauling our luggage ard and went for a 1.5hr rest stop at starbucks. Their venti is called te1 da4 (extra large), while their grande is called da4 (large). I sillily ordered the large, thinking that it's the venti as in singapore.. Ahwell. Soon after, we went to espirit to take a look before having double boiled egg white with milk.. =) Mar almost killed me for ordering an extra pork chop bun to takeaway for dinner. We were left with 58 patacas for the taxi ride.. :X To our relief, the taxi ride costed sth like 56 patacas.. *phew* We were v worried for some time as there was a jam.. But then, we still got to the airport safely. :D