2008-05-07 - 9:47 p.m.
New skin! Hehe. Sort of bored with the previous already.
Anyway, WARNING: VERY long entry ahead.
These few days, I've been hooked on this album by 小宇. Actually I've been wanting to get his album since pretty long ago, after I heard him sing '江南' on baifenbai and more so after I heard his song on MTV channel. But, somehow amidst the exams and projects, it slipped my mind.
So, I finally got it (via...u know......lol.) and I never regretted it! =)
The song I heard on MTV was 终于说出口. I have listened to it a million times already and I'm still far from getting sick of it. Especially the freaking 高潮 that never fails to bring goose bumps! Lovely. Words don’t work as well so go ahead and listen to it for yourself. If you don’t hate R&B, I don’t see why you won’t like it. Haha.
Another song that brought me goose bumps: 捨不得. 唱功一流！
I particularly liked the way I can visualize the scenes and see the story flow through the lyrics, even though he didn’t write them. Liked the way verses 1 and 2 can come from two different parties’ points of view or two different emotions for 终于说出口,没那么难, 我在角落观察ABC.
Songs that were particularly different from the 主流 type but really worth listening to: 痴妹与王俩，没有很会唱，偶霉敢结 (Guess what this means!haha) They all gave me surprises in the middle of the song!
Ultimately swwweeet songs: 唯一的唯一, 就是說不出口, 还简单的多
So you see, I really love his entire album. Love his voice, his songs, his talent! =)
Thanks to yx’s recommendation, I was exposed to another singer, Marié Digby. Apparently, she became famous for her version of Umbrella (which I swear is MUCH MUCH better than the original HAHA those who know me probably know how much I don’t like the song?). Her ‘Umbrella’ was originally posted on Youtube and attracted a lot of attention so boo! Out comes another star! Check out the video here if you’re interested. Anyway, I particularly liked this song called ‘Miss Invisible’, her own composition.
Lyrics :
Theres a girl
Who sits under the bleachers
Just another day eating alone
And though she smiles
There is something she's hiding
And she cant find a way to relate
She just goes unnoticed
As the crowd passes by
And she'll pretend to be busy
When inside she just wants to cry
She'll say...
Chorus
Take a little look at the life of Miss Always Invisible
Look a little closer, I really really want you to put yourself in her shoes
Take another look at the face of Miss Always Invisible
Look a little harder and maybe then you will see why she waits for the day
When you'll ask her her name
In the beginning, in the first weeks of class
She did everything to try and fit in
But the others they couldnt seem to get past all the things that mismatched on the surface
And she would close her eyes when they laughed and she fell down the stairs
And the more that they joked
And the more that they screamed
She retreated to where she is now
And she'll sing...
Chorus
Take a little look at the life of Miss Always Invisible
Look a little harder I really really want you to put yourself in her shoes
Take a little look at the face of Miss Always Invisible
Look a little closer and maybe then you will see why she waits for the day that you will ask her...her name
And one day just the same as the last
Just the days spent in counting the time
Came a boy who sat under the bleachers just a little bit further behind...
Anyway, enough about the music I’ve been listening to, time to update about myself. Hehe. Went to Tea Chapter with Shan and Ek last Sunday. It was supposed to be a gathering but haiz, since almost everyone else was overseas or still having exams or not feeling well, it was left with the three of us. Nevertheless, we had loads of fun! Hehe.
We were on our way to the teahouse when we passed by the Buddha Tooth Relic Temple. Hehe, I’ve never gone in before so I dragged both of them in with me. But of course after asking Ek if she was willing since she’s a Catholic. Turned out she didn’t mind at all so we went in!
The temple was decorated really nicely, a nice combination of red and gold everywhere. Which probably hence resulted in the constant inflow of curious ang mohs. And ar, first time I go into a temple must wrap myself in a sarong one lehz after a request by a Caucasian lady (I’m still wondering what she has to do with the temple actually but never mind). Apparently my dress was deemed a little too short and hence disrespectful. Even Shan had to wear a scarf over her sleeveless top as well. Quite erm interesting, but I kinda got a shock since I never met with this after going to temples all my life.
Anyway, the inside was interesting. There was this museum, which told of Buddha’s story and how he became Buddha from a prince. I was so excited about it I came back and told my brother about the story, only to invite a ‘Duh’ expression from him. Haha, because apparently he’s read a comic book all about Buddha when he was young. So in the end, he told me more stories about Buddha instead. HAHA.
There were also different relics of Buddha on display. I really wonder how they managed to obtain these relics and identify them as the different body parts of Buddha. Guess there’s something in between that I don’t know of that’s why. Anyway, they were all of different colors and sizes, looking a little like…sago seeds?
The Buddha tooth relic was apparently on the fourth floor but it’s not on display until Vesak’s Day. I thought of bringing my family there then, but after imagining the crowd, I dismissed the idea entirely. HAHA. Think going to my usual temple is enough ba. Anyway wah, the Buddha statue on the fourth floor was really magnificent. Even the floor tiles are made of gold.
Only thing I kinda regretted was that I didn’t shang xiang. Hmm, thought we’ll only be in for a while, but turned out we walked through 3 levels of the temple in the end. HAHA.
Anyway, after the temple, we headed to the teahouse. CHA YE DAN! was all I was thinking. LOL.
It’s a teahouse that I went to before when I was in CLDDS in IJ last time. Wah, memories. I went in and immediately recognized the little window, which we used to sit against last time with the CL seniors.
After a demonstration, we learnt how to make our own tea! Was kind of a trouble, having to warm the cups and teapot, rid the tea leaves of oil with the first brew, transferring the tea from one cup to the other every other time. But like Shan says, it’s part of tea appreciation! Haha, I quite enjoy the idea of transferring the tea though, since the scent of the tea in the first teacup (which is also called the fragrance cup) was quite significantly different before and after the tea was poured out.
Step 1: Preparing the 必备 for tea appreciation! 
The kettle, which Ek mistook for the teapot. LOL! No lar, we were making fun of her because she was wondering where the teapot was when the staff hasn’t brought it to us.
There you go! The fragrance cup I was talking about is on the left and the drinking cup is on the right!
Step 2: Getting the tea leaves out!
Step 3: Pouring water into the teapot filled with tea leaves! Wait for 30s for first brew! 
Step 4: Pouring the tea out of the teapot into the 公道壶. Haha, apparently if you pour the tea from the teapot directly into the tea cups, the last person will get the tea with the most 味道 because it’s towards the bottom of the teapot and nearest to the tea leaves. So, in order to be 公道, we pour the tea into the公道壶 first then pour into the tea cups so everyone gets the same tea with the same味道! Keke. 
Step 5: You may think next step is to pour into the tea cups already BUT, Haha, first brew is not drinkable! Because apparently the tea leaves have oil on it so the first brew helps to bring out the oil, so unless you want to drink oil… =S Haha, so you pour the first brew away. You can pour it over the teapot: apparently the oil sort of makes the clay teapot look glossier and hence nicer. 
Step 6: Repeat step 3 and 4 then pour the tea from the公道壶 into the fragrance cups. 
Step 7: Enjoy the scent of the tea from the fragrance cup! The scent is called 热香.
Step 8: Pour the tea from the fragrance cup (right) into the drinking cup (left) and you can start drinking the tea! 
Step 9: Roll the fragrance cup in your hands and smell the empty cup! It’s a different scent from the previous one! This is called 温香.
Step 10: Apparently, you leave the fragrance cup to cool for a while then you smell it again and it’ll be a different scent again. This is called 冷香. But, honestly, I don’t find a difference between温香 and冷香. Haha, maybe my nose got problem?
Step 11: (From here onwards, the steps all come from Eileen Style of Tea Appreciation. LOL) Enjoy the deeeeeliiiicciiiiiiooooouuuuuuuuusssssssss CHA YE DAN! 
Step 12: Enjoy the equally tasty rice dumpling! Okay, erm, it doesn’t look so….and what’s this you may ask? HAHA. I admit we kind of destroyed its visual appeal by poking it with toothpicks (Shan’s idea!) but it’s really a very nice rice dumpling with sesame fillings and peanut coating!
Step 13: Make the next brew! 
Step 14: Start cam whoring!!! Keke. 
Step 15: Get so hungry that we attempt to eat our friend! Hiak hiak! 
Step 16: Remember to leave WITH a trace! LOL. Ek’s artistic talent displayed here in an impromptu comic drawing! Nice right! 
So you see, we left the teahouse feeling contented, happy, satisfied…..whatever positive words you can think of. But what happened next nearly spoilt our night!!!
We wanted to have dinner at Chinatown Food Street so we found a table and me and Ek went ahead to order food. On our way back to our table, horrors of horrors, we saw one whole ARMY of FREAKINGLY DISGUSTING COCKROACHES CHARGING towards us! According to Shan, they came from this drain near our table. THEY CAN FLY OK!!! Trust me, I was this close to screaming for my life. Haha, for those who don’t know, I will jump even when I see ONE cockroach, let alone one army. So I started grabbing Ek, shouting ‘eileen! eileen!’ and ran. This girl who was near us was also running with us. By the time we ran close to the bbq stall we had ordered from, we felt much safer. And Shan told us there was this table behind our original table who was laughing at our terrified reactions! Haha, okay, it was kind of humiliating but honestly, I didn’t care lar. I didn’t want to risk standing there and have cockroaches crawling over me or flying over me. EEEEEEKKKKKS! I will never understand why the ang mohs sitting at the Food Street can be so calm after seeing one army of cockroaches. And oh yeah, I was so busy running I didn’t find out what happened to that girl who ran with us. HAHA. I wonder if she went back to her friends to eat.
Anyway, after that ‘exciting’ cockroach adventure, we just wanted to leave so we got a refund from the bbq uncle. Walaos, he still say ‘aiyah there got cockroach here don’t have, don’t worry, sit here!’ Luckily we never believe him ar! The roaches were coming his direction can! Haha. So we left and had dinner at Maxwell Food Centre instead. So much cleaner and peaceful there. And I had my favorite porridge there. And deeeliiicious hao jian also!! So you see, wasn’t there a stark contrast? =S
I don’t know what happened to Food Street lar. I’ve been there before but other than some of the prices of the food there, it’s never been so terrifying. But the bbq uncle seems so used to it. I wonder if it’s the timing we went there. EEYYEEER.
Wah, I’ve never sat in front of the computer and blogged for so long before. Anyway, I’m not done. LOL.
Yesterday, I went on a farm trip with Shan! HAHA. It was really fun!!! I came back with bags of organic vegetables and mushrooms and wheat grass stuff! Rather auntie-ish looking but ahh, heck lar!
Me and Shan on the shuttle bus to the farms in Lim Chu Kang. It’s quite worth it, $1 (student price) for a round trip around all the farms in Lim Chu Kang. Haha, don’t we look like excited primary school girls on their way to an excursion? LOL.
We first went to the goats farm, Hay Dairies. The goats were really cute! Some of them were hungry, some were curious, some were hysterical, some were arrogant, some were indifferent, some were really cam whores! Haha
Hungry goat 
Curious mini goats
Hysterical goats 
Arrogant goat 
Indifferent goats 
Cam whore goat (she kept moving towards Shan and her camera and made the nicest pose ever! Lol.) 
Seriously, different breeds have different characteristics. Okay, whatever I’ve described them was purely my own opinion. But, Haha, there are some breeds which are calmer by nature, and others which are more high strung by nature. And, you wanna know from whom you can get goat’s milk from? Those who are dehorned are the females! The people in the farm dehorn them so that they won’t hurt themselves, especially when they are pregnant. They give birth to twins, which can come up to 10kg!!
One of the goats getting a bath. Apparently he didn’t really like it since he kept running about! Haha, the poor guy in green. But we came to a conclusion that all the goats in the farm don’t like the guy in green. Haha, because every time he came close, the goats will run to the other end of their barn!
Me tricking this goat to look at the camera. Haha, pretending to feed them always works!
Shan! Attempting to trick them too, I think!
After the goat farm, we went to the nearby Spring Orchard. Saw dragonfruit, grapevine and passionfruit then had to run for the bus. Haha.
Dragonfruit! 
Grapevine! 
Passionfruit! 
Next, we went to the Fireflies Health Farm. 
The name can trick people one lehz, at least it tricked me. Haha, anyway, it’s an organic vegetable farm. It’s really HUGE, the farm seems endless. And we couldn’t recognize the vegetables (time to go market shopping with mummy!) but we took pictures of them anyhow. Were thinking of showing mummy then ask her what this vege is and what that vege is. Haha.
I like to eat this! I don’t know what it’s called, I just call it ‘Purple Cai’! LOL. 
You see, doesn’t it look endless to you? 
Haha, it’s really not smelly lah. But it’s really a HUGE heap. What’s more, it’s not the only heap they have. I learnt later that all these do not contain animal waste at all but made of rock dust, molasses, seaweed etc. No risk of mad cow or bird flu or blah blah! Haha.
Xiao bai cai? Is it? HAHA! 
FINALLY! One I can REALLY recognize! THE LONG BEAN!! Haha. 
Since we couldn’t recognize the vegetables, we decided to cam whore instead. I commented that I feel closer to the sky in that place so Shan attempted to reach it while I attempted to jump to it! LOL.
After the vegetable farm, we went to this fish farm, which was combined with a bonsai garden.
Doesn’t look very edible, does it? HAHA. 
So many bonsais! 
Shan attempting to litter!
Nice, isn't it? =P
Tiny tiny Shan! It’ll be quite enjoyable to retire in that little hut so every morning, you wake up to see wonderful Mother Nature right? =P 
We attempted to walk to the next farm and saw this. Anyone knows what this is? 
Anyway, our attempt to walk failed. Because the next farm never seemed in sight and it got a bit scary, since we were the only ones walking in that place. So we turned back to go back to the fish farm to wait for the bus. We went to Gardenasia next. But it was boring. Nobody was there to entertain us, except two huge dogs whose barks gave me a shock. The place looked comfortable enough for a company retreat but it was a bit too 冷清for my liking. Probably because it was a weekday ba. So we walked to this wheatgrass and mushroom farm. So much more 热闹! A LOT of aunties were there grabbing the stuff like they were free. Haha, rather shameless to say, Shan and I actually joined in the fun. We couldn’t beat them of course, but still went home with mushrooms and wheatgrass juice and noodles!
We got really tired, after all the walking under the hot hot sun. So we took the friendly uncle’s bus back! Friendly uncle told us a lot about old Kranji and which areas were reclaimed! Even told us about the old Kranji camp, which was so haunted, it moved to another site in the end! He picked up a fruit halfway through and gave it to us. It’s called the Butterfruit. It smells funny but he said it's like that, and when you eat the flesh, it’s really sweet. Haha, knowing how my mum will never be adventurous enough to eat it, I gave it to Shan instead. Wonder if she ate it in the end? Anyway, friendly uncle also showed us other fruit trees, like the luku langsat and egg fruit! There’s such a thing called an egg fruit leh! I never even hear before!
So we got back to Kranji MRT in friendly uncle’s bus and back we are in the city. Haha, nice retreat to the countryside!! If you’re interested (and have read thus far, I salute u! Lol.), do visit the farms there! =)
Anyway, I sorted out some pretty pretty photos into a folder. Think I may send them for printing someday. Kind of miss the feeling of flipping through a photo album. =)
I finished the jodi picoult book, Salem Falls, I mentioned in the last entry a while back. It was yet another fantastic read! It was about this guy who used to teach at a girls' school but got charged for rape of one of the students and girls in his soccer team. He really was innocent but still went ahead with a plea bargain after getting persuaded by his lawyer. Apparently his lawyer made it quite an attractive choice, since it was after all merely a 8-month jail sentence. Just as long as he pleaded guilty. And he did! So after his 8 months, he left for another town, Salem Falls, hoping to lead a new life. But no, this group of girls, who were involved in witchery, caused him to be charged a similar crime. Too easy/coincidental to be realistic? Not really, seeing how it is almost human nature to think an ex-convict is capable of the same crime for a second time. So you see, it's another book with court trial scenes!! Think I mentioned I loved court trial scenes before? The defense was trying so hard I teared and the verdict came up rather shocking. The guy was acquitted. Not that I thought he was guilty, but I thought it wouldn't have been realistic. Yet, the twist at the end tells me that hey, I really should have expected the verdict. The female protagonist also provided a shocking twist at the end. I really really love twists! Haha.
So, you know, nowadays, I really zoom to the 'P' section to look for her books at the library. Can't help it! Haha.