Social Consideration in not suffocating the people around you...

In the past few decades, Singaporeans have been encouraged to be more civilised citizens. We should all exercise consideration in public, such as not dirtying the toilets, not spitting on the floors, not littering, and the list goes on.

But there is one aspect that Singaporeans should take note to be more considerate, especially in this sweltering heat.

CLEAN YOUR ARMPITS AND USE SOME DEODORANT, FOR GOODNESS SAKE.

This is the umpteenth time i noticed, that sweaty people waiting at the bus stops in the heat of the afternoon, climb onto the cool airconditioned(and therefore no air circulation) bus, only to hit me with a waft of strong, pungent, musky, sour odor. Sometimes you see horrrid little wet patches on the shirt where the pits "transpire" and all the more you feel disgusted at being trapped in the Gas Chamber aka BUS.

Every move they made, when lifting their arms, waving it around when chatting animately with their friends, creates movements of air which sends wafts of 'fresh odor' in cycles. The worst ever fate you can get on a crowded bus, is when Mr Pungent Armpit RAISES HIS ARM to grab the handle bars at the top whilst you sat with your face and his armpit at the same level. Oh what obnoxious smells! They are good enough to make as homicide gases!!!

The worst thing about being trapped in a bus during a long ride with Ms or Mr Pungent Armpit Odor: is that you get used to the smell and you unconsciously begin to suck in deeply air that has already been made foul. No matter what, we are all forced to breathe. *Frothes at mouth to show poisoning*

So please people... please, please... If you have skunky odor, buy deodorant.... smelling good is a key attraction factor for the opposite sex. Its no use if you look as good as Utt but are so hard to stay close with... off putting....

AND of course, smelling good is part of social consideration in crowded Singapore, when people can be packed on a bus or mrt so closed that its cheek to cheek, shoulder to shoulder, armpit to face.

Goodness... I had 3 bus rides today and 2 of them were unpleasantly smelly....

Tumor muffins

I baked muffins on Sunday afternoon and I put too much batter into each muffin case... -_-'''

They look like elephant muffins

Amy starts work (officially) at IMH

Yep, I have just been offered this position as a research assistant full-time at IMH yesterday. I will begin my full time on 1 Oct, Children's Day, quite an irony, it reflects the start of not being a child anymore, taking responsibilities, taking care of the family and expenses....

I will be trained to carry out research and do some planning on them, at the same time I will be involved with administrative work in the office.

But I do miss NUS dearly, its so good to see that the soci dudes are bonding at year 4, with lecturers as well as fellow course mates, something that I missed out. But everyone takes on a different path in life, and this is the path that I have chosen to take out of my circumstances. Pros and cons to everything....

Ooh thanks Wanling for lending me Corrine May's new cd, it is really touching and beautiful, her voice and the lyrics of the song... I chanced upon her blog and I found out that, despite her sucess and popularity, Corrine is really such a humble lady at heart. No airs about her, when she comes back to Singapore for visits she doesn't bother to eat at the most expensive places, or dress up as a star. (She goes to food courts to eat) When not on air, she looks just like the most ordinary Singaporean. Also a very family oriented lady. :)

I think I've got to learn this aspect from her, being simple and humble at heart, and not be bothered by my appearance etc...

Okay, we shall see where this IMH job takes me further in the future, I hope I could contribute and make an impact on Singapore's mental healthcare. :)

Pulau Ubin cycling

Haha.. yet another long post in a day. Only free this period to blog hehe....

I went cycling with Ken Jia yesterday, at Pulau Ubin. Eversince I stopped training, and returned the racing bike to Hans, I missed cycling dearly... so I dragged Ms Ong over to Ubin.

Ms Ong initially was so lazy... and she felt like going back home to sleep.. but thankfully weather was good!!! I was roasted!!! Woohoo! We reached Changi Village and packed nasi lemak into my bag(which smelt of fried chicken later on =/... ) and scooted on a ferry to Ubin Dao!!!

Entrance of Ubin

We cycled to Noordin beach, where Ken Jia's nostalgic NPCC HQ is near...

She is opening up the box of cake I made for her, her birthday was the previous day...

Tada! Chocolate cake with gum-paste flowers!!

Eating our nasi at a hut by the beach. Our 2 good bikes behind...

Picnic time!!!

This was the point where Ken Jia's bike chain came off. Seriously, both of us have NEVER fixed a bike chain before.... we were riding on the dirt path to Chek Jawa when her chain came off in the middle of the jungle trail where there was no one in sight.... ahhh!!! And what's worse, given my huge backpack, I FORGOT TO BRING INSECT REPELLENT. We had over 10 to 20 bites on each leg. And the mozzies happily feasted on us while we were struggling to fix the chain.. But volia!!! Girls can do what guys can! We fixed it!!!!! But got our hands black like mud after that. In this picture, we already cleaned off the oil.... but still black...

Chek Jawa is open! And they have this monumental "House no. 1" Its a cosy old colonial cottage. Very sweet...

Very rustic feel to the brick walls... Aiya nice pose but Ken Jia's eyes were half closed...

Nevermind the words on my shirt, Ken Jia gave me that shirt from Aussie. Look instead at the nice frame of the building

Just like a holiday bungalow. Me and Ken Jia have planned to move into make it our country home. Cool eh? By the sea! ~~ Dream on gals..~~

Back view of the cottage. Seriously hard to imagine I can find this in Singapore.. or rather, Ubin...

Ahh... don't I accessorize this picture.. ahahah

This is the start of the Chek Jawa coastal boardwalk. Unfortunately, the tide was high that day, so I saw nothing but sea water, if not usually, the seabed can be seen...

Happy Ken Jia....

Nice, naturalistic view of the sea behind...

This fruit is what we call the attap chee! The seed I enjoy eating in ice kachang! Attap Chee comes from.... Attap plant! Which means palm tree...

A sealed entrance to the quarry with a loophole. Guess what... We sneaked in the hole...

Nice view of the quarry, but be very, very careful, the place is restricted for a reason. One step off the edge of this cliff and you will fall storeys down into the lake... and it might be fatal. So we were very careful not to step over the rock. We want our lives...

But I must say its a nice view... But we dare not take any step beyond where Ken Jia was... scary

I like this picture =)
We spent a short time in this place, as it was deserted and dangerous. After taking pictures we quickly scooted off...

End of the trip! Tired but mission accomplished! 1) Tan obtained! 2) Cycling all over Ubin done!

Waiting for boat at Jetty!

Hong Kong Trip

I finally had time to put pictures of my Hong Kong trip!!! "Huh Amy you went Hong Kong?" Yea I did!!!" Haha it was a rather last minute arrangement.



Dawn @ changi airport


On the plane: Cathay Airline

HK airport. I'm intrigued by the wavy texture of the ceiling.

Our first meal of the day at HK: The lengendary can-see-the-whole-prawn-wrapped in wanton noodles.



Scouting our way in the MTR

HK's CBD district. Busy street that goes up the slope.

Thought the poster was quite alluring, but I din capture the model well...



Some art exhibition at some high-classed shopping centre. Seriously I dun know the name of the shopping centre, because, er, we were there to find toilet. :P

I like this picture of the man and woman though, and the crescents that are on top of them. Seriously, the portrayal of the moons with the woman reminds me of... um... 月经。

I like the roof and the high structure.


The shiny building caught my eye. I don't really see shiny reflective buildings in Singapore.


Walking up to the tram area, shucks forgot the name. The tram that goes up to the peak. Tourist spot.


Hey! did I tell you Jacky is my friend?


Here comes the super star tram. Why do I call it superstar? Well, when the tram approaches everyone (including me) scrambles for their camera to take a shot of it.


Mommy and me up in the tram.

Up the peak.


Me and the superstar tram. I queued to take a picture with it ok! What a diva tram.


The view on the peak. The lighting was not very good. The weather there is cloudy most of the time.


Hoho.... one middle-aged caucasian man asked me to help him take a picture with this similar backdrop a few mins after I took this. He posed with an asian guy, good friends maybe... After I passed him the camera back, and both of them were looking at their picture with contentment, and the asian guy slapped the caucasian's butt. o_O My eyes nearly popped out.


My dad has a famous fren too...

At some chinese restaurant. I think I have a very bad memory for Cantonese names. I felt like a mute over there, everyone was greeting me in canto and all I could do was to stare blankly and smile....


Roasted duck. Not very nice actually... the meat so tough...


Desert was mango pudding... the legendary one at Shui Liu Shan. REALLY GOOD. Mango pudding, with mango puree sauce, cubed mango flesh AND topped with mango icecream, and some pomelo bits. Mango madnesss.... oh and with coconut sauce too... sluurp


Dim sum breakfast the next day. We were on a one day city tour, which I din enjoy for the large part of it. :/


At some place where it was know to have some good feng shui. Tourist spot. People go there to pray for wealth and fertility, while I mopped around for some good view...


The only nice view I found...

Joining a tour is really sloppy. You get down the bus, walk around a confined place, get up the bus, sleep, reach the lunch destination, eat, get on the bus, fall asleep to the next destination. And look at the real Hong Kong from a window pane. Sloppy.

The only perk of the tour was the trip to Lantau island. Why? Cos we took a public bus that goes up the highlands to this sight-seeing place. And the highlands brought back trekking memories. Its actually a monument of the giant Buddha at the top of the peak. I thought the urn behind me was interesting as it looked ancient, but bahh... self taken portraits are not perfect, couldn't cover the whole thing.

Another attempt to show the mountain behind...

I took this with a self timer.... heheh

What is interesting about this circle on the ground is that it is architecturally built for voice projection. I stood in the middle and stomped my feet, and the echo was amplified a great lot. I guess it should be used for prayers or something in this instance...

Desert again... at Shui Liu Shan. Apart from looking at my folks, the picture captures the menu in too. So many types of deserts... And they offer traditional one too like gui ling gao, below...

My desert: Guiling gao with a modern punch. Like bubble tea style, I slurp the black jelly up mixed in coconut milk, mango ice-cream and mango bits. Reeeeallly yummmy...

The same mango pudding.

Uh... happy dad.


Another thing that struch me in this picture, is the number of signboards sticking out into the middle of the street above the shop houses. I think its a signature of Hong Kong, narrow lanes, with lots of stuff jutting out, drapped in bright neon lighting and huge signages that are in-your-face when you lift up your head. But try not to lift your head. You will get air-con water splatting on your face. I think I even saw one huge, huge poster advertising tuition teachers, posing coolly on the ad. Man, they are placed alongside with models on the other signages.. tutors have it good there.. they become celebrities...

Sumptous breakfast at some tau huay shop. You actually drink the soya milk from a bowl. But when you dip the fat you tiao stick into the milk and eat it, you feel that soy milk and you tiao can bring you world peace....

Their chee chong fun. The thin thin kind. Forgot wad you call it again. See! I'm a kantang!!!! Don't remember all the cheena names!!!

Anyway, I got so bored taking pictures that I didn't take any for the last 2 days after this breakfast. And I certainly didn't take pictures of the things I bought... the memory card of the camera will be overflooded, if you see my point... But it was a good trip all in all!!!