Feb events

Hmm... been over a month eh. Been busy with other stuff and also somewhat lazy to update here.

Last weekend, I treated my family to a game of indoor minigolf @Lilliputt! I thought it was quite expensive considering the size of the place. :S $18/adult and $12/child. Good thing is you get 10% discount for using Amex and 20% discount for the baby-of-the-month (Feb babies). Totals out to $90 for 5 adults and 1 2yr+ child. (Yes, 2yr is charged the same rate as a 12yr.) There used to be an outdoor minigolf place in Sentosa, Sijori Wondergolf. Cheap, only $10/adults and $7/child! But sadly, it's under construction work now. :( So Lilliputt was our only choice left.

It's located in East Coast Parkway at the Big Splash. In fact, it's right next to the Road Safety Community Park. That was my favorite when I was young. I wonder if they let adults participate as well? Would look so stupid eh.

If you don't know what I'm talking about, the Road Safety Park is like a treasure hunt game about road safety. It's designed with roads, traffic lights, and various designated checkpoints. The idea is to teach school children the correct road safety rules, as either pedestrians or cyclists, while traveling to all the checkpoints and collecting validation stamps on the route card. I went there twice when in pri sch because I did well on the first. ^___^)v

It's Valentine's Day! :D Going off to Sentosa with wx in 6 hours time! ♥!!

Day 1-3: Quick Updates

Day 1: Airport + Cargo Center (Wed, 8/27)
i hurried to the baggage claim area and skimmed through the row of spectators at the viewing glass. i saw my family.. but where's my hunny!? there!! a tall dark dude with a bear-like hairstyle just appeared beside baba. i beamed. :D we spent our next few hours together, settling the paperwork for chibi. my special post-flight snack (durian and mango cheong fan) went stale because of that. :'(

Day 2: Home visits + Comex (Thu, 8/28)
this is the beginning of our dating/family rep farming (actually this began on airport night) fiesta. breakfast with my parents near my house, "short" visit to wx's house, followed by the computer exhibition (comex) and dinner with baba at suntec city. hunny will be advising my new-to-be-custom-built desktop!! :p

Day 3: Science Center + short Bugis trip (Fri, 8/29)
i saw hunny's sister today but was too shy to talk! :x she took us into science center.. (whispers, for free)

*photos soon*

we spent 3.5 hours at the science center!! (whispers, that's basically for kids) tried on several mini games, two of which test your memory. the first one is a typical color memory game: 4 colors (red, blue, green yellow); repeat chain in the same order as instructed, each time the chain increases by 1. one of the ogre dailies in blade's edge mountains is a direct copy of this. the longest chain i can remember is 7. hee hunny is 6. :p the other is a alpha memory game: a long seemingly random string of alphabets GPOSBVCRMTVCSIANASAOBKDBS. how much of this can you remember? there is a good way to remember it (for singaporeans). i'm the leeter one here of course. (whispers, hee hunny is epic fail :p) other games include this quiz testing how unique you are among science center visitors. hunny's uniqueness was higher than mine T_T

then we went to bugis and stopped by sim lim square's food court to eat 牛肉饭+小笼汤包! hunny says it's lvl 2.5-3 food. i think not bad!

Rating: ★★
*photos.. wait wait*

speaking of food, i am already hungry!! D: nasi lemak for tomorrow's breakfast, but hunny cannot come with me. sad :(

P.S: 2 more books sold on amazon! whee! and new socks to go with my new shoes :D

Zoo Atlanta journal

Just back from the zoo!

Zoos are pretty much the same everywhere: animals staged typically includes, lions, tigers, leopards, giraffes, zebras, monkeys, rhinoceros.. add in some pretty birds and rarer animals like pandas, red pandas, or komodo dragons.. what else? Otters, penguins, crocodiles, snakes, how about some farm animals? Pigs, lambs, goats..

I think what makes a zoo fun is no longer just about the type of animals exhibited, the number and rarity, but the type of activities it encompasses, the themes, the organization, and the circulatory system. Think of how to get the people involved..

Zoo Atlanta, as well as the one in Pittsburgh, features a petting zoo area for kids. What's so exciting about viewing animals from a few hundred feet behind the fence?? Even for the most common types of animal, goats and pigs, it can become an interesting experience for people from the city. In the Pittsburgh Zoo, there are young kangaroos to pat, and an area where people could interact with deers freely.

Soooo, took some photos and few videos. Put them together in an online scrapbook! Enjoy!

P.S. No photos from Pittsburgh Zoo :( sobs.

不想长大。

Came back from Orlando last night after a 5-day road-trip-holiday in Disney World!! This is my second time there since the Christmas of 2005 (with mr. goh and 2 of his friends..visited 2/4 Disney theme parks - Magic Kingdom, Epcot - and Universal Studio). This time is obviously different in many ways:

1) I went with my sisters, brother-in-law, xiao guo and the most adorable QIQI!
2) No more couple/lovey-dovey talks/acts. I was the "odd one out" there (theoretically, besides qiqi).
3) Did not visit Universal Studio..
4) But went to ALL 4 theme parks ^^
5) Took more and more rides..
6) and more and more photos (of qiqi, close to 500!!)
7) We have a big car. Meaning access to more food options and finally...factory outlet shopping *wink*

Anyways, very happy to be back there again...it's like I'm back to being a kid!

Going to Chicago...

update:
You may think that I am stupid. But I really just stayed in my hotel on Thurs night. Skipped dinner because I didn't dare to explore the city. >__<, Bleh. Anyways, I am glad the interview is over. I wasn't really nervous. And I did my best..in terms of relaxing and making a conversation. In terms of answering qns...not so well. It's certain that this is the closest I can get to getting the dream job. But I will still hope for the best. Sigh.
* * *

..today. alone.

scary. :'(

my good-bye trip: Phipps & Schenley

Friday, June 22
Phew. I woke up late today and barely made it for a 1-hour tour at Phipps Conservatory. The last time I visited was couple years back. At that time parts of the Conservatory were still under renovation. Now they're all done and I even found some very interesting additions to the flowers and trees. Some examples are:


It's the "Pittsburgh Celebrates Glass! 2007" series of events and exhibitions! Pretty? Many of these actually reminded me of some stuff in WoW. :) The Thailand tropical forest setting in Phipps was new too. Unfortunately, time was running out so I didn't get a chance to see the rejuvenated Japanese Garden.

The gnome-like me:


You can laugh all you want...but that is NOT my real height!!


The Phipps Conservatory tour ended in a rush. Took a break and decided to go to the lake in Schenley Park for pictures.

The lake is still as dirty as ever. There were junk including tires, in the lake. And I felt sad when I saw the little duckies preying on *stuff* in the mud. :'( They should really try to conserve this area if they want to put duckies here. How can they survive on dirt!?


But seeing this family of duckies, something else came to our minds:

嘎嘎~ 嘎嘎~ 嘎-嘎-嘎
嘎嘎~ 嘎嘎~ 嘎-嘎-嘎
游來游去真快樂
就是母鴨帶小鴨~~

Heh the 母鴨帶小鴨 song that QiQi listens to.

Lastly, here's me saying goodbye to y'all from "my good-bye trip: Phipps & Schenley".

Chibi's Road Trip

Beginning Friday afternoon, my sister, tim and I took Chibi out on a long journey to Pittsburgh. It was Chibi's first road trip! Whenever she was forced out of the house (like to the vet) she would cry very loudly. That day was no exception.

We got her a disposable litter tray and couple of canned food (she loves those with gravy) but she just wouldn't eat or use the tray! She was so stressed up that she kept shedding. :( Poor Chibi...you could tell that she was really scared, she didn't dared to come out of her crate.


Then, she got slightly better and was able to sleep on the couch instead. But the timid baby was so shy that she quickly hid under the seat and buried her head like an ostrich, when she saw the person serving us at the drive-thru. Such a kawaii little baby~~ <3

Finally, after near 15 hours of driving, we arrived in Pittsburgh and here is Chibi's and my new home!


The room is still in a mess, I haven't unpacked all my boxes. But check out the new pink chair, new red trash can (left pic), and the new shower curtain (right pic) from Ikea! Chibi's litter tray is new too, from Petsmart!


Here's where I placed my bed. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to find the screws I took out from my bed frame, so my fulton is laid on the floor for the time being. Chibi's corner is right beside it, but of course, Chibi roams around and sleeps anywhere (hopefully under my blanket in the winter :P)! Right now, Chibi is sleeping right in front of my keyboard. One word: cute!

Chibi has fully adjusted to the new environment. She is no longer afraid of this new place and furthermore, she's become a sweet sweet baby, constantly asking for pats now! I love how she rubs her face against me. So adorable :D

My 1st steps in Europe - Part I: Vienna/Wien

This summer I was very lucky to be able to go on a trip to Europe (Austria/Germany) with my eldest sister and brother-in-law! Hehe I should really thank Singapore for the dumb policy of not letting me extend my stay there.
So we flew to Vienna the night before Singapore's national day, stayed for 3 days, then flew to Munich for the weekend, and went to Kitzbuhel for the next week, where my sister was in for a Client Leadership Workshop (CLW).

Vienna [8/9-8/11]

The afternoon after arriving in Vienna...

we ate lunch at Leupold (look beside the horse carriages passing by); typical Austrian cuisine: Old Viennese Pot au feu (beef broth with veggies) + Hungarian Goulash (beef stew); that was a LOT of meat :\

checked out the city center

saw statues of REAL people and many more along the street

Dinner at...

a fine Italian restaurant

pizza + pasta with CAMPARI SODA *yucks* VERY bitter, had to drink it with tobasco and lemon on the side XP

The next day...

we came to the ancient palace of Austria

with a huge imperial garden!

and a very grand view atop the hill

also has an imperial zoo and a maze/labyrinth surrounding the garden

with little adventures to play with

e.g. kaleidoscope

e.g. this box thing that allows you to talk to ppl outside

e.g. a playful step that spurts water onto your feet!

e.g. bouncy steps that make you lose balance

e.g. musical steps

e.g. water "rocking-pump"

e.g. a mathematical teaser

e.g. and something to climb on :P

Then we went to Danube River...

for a cruise that was over 2 hours long

because we had to wait for water to fill up to a certain level before we could be released through the dam :(

We...

took the tram

went to the parliament

came to the MOMUK museum @Museumsquatier

they had very interesting seats outside

next is the Albertina museum, celebrating Mozart's 250th birthday this year

went to the Gasometer City to "shop" (there was literally nothing there) but got an architectural treat instead :)

In the night...

I had Tafelspitz (steak that "melts" in your mouth) for dinner with Austrian white wine

then a Mozart orchestra (since it was his 250th bday) to end the night; the musicians even dressed up like in the old days for a bit more Mozart atmosphere

To be continued if I'm not this lazy and if I still remember things hehe.

Jokes of the Day

Wow! It's been a long long time since I blogged. There has been a lot of inertia to do it leh :p

So life in Austria (yes, I'm there now) seems very carefree. Especially in Kitzbuhel, the city where I'm at now coz of my sister's CLW training, there were a lot of people (usually elders) just sitting peacefully in a row of benches along the street. And they seem to sit for a long time! A lot of dogs here on the street too, very doggie friendly place. Even the large ones are allowed into shops (some are very small shops!). Kitzbuhel has very beautiful scenic view. The town is surrounded by green mountains! And....well, I shall stop here. Just wait for the pictures next post. :p

Since this post is titled "Jokes of the Day", there must be jokes to tell! Yes, I've been watching BBC II all morning and there was this programme (call Level Up) where they asked the audience to send in jokes.

The first one:
What do you call a blind dinosaur?

Ans: Dyathinkisaurus.

Next:
What do you give a dog for fever?

Ans: Mustard.

I quite like this one:
What do you call a girl with a frog on her head?

Ans: Lily.

This is my favorite:
Why is Cinderella so bad at football?

Ans: Because her coach is a pumpkin.


Bye for now :)