Adulthood has arrived...

3rd of March, 2007...My big day has arrived and my embarrassing status of being teenager or adult from 18 to 21 years old was solved. The feeling wasn't that good, everything from now on need to be more responsible...Time is unstoppable , anyhow I need to grow up and live it on to the fullest. Happy Birthday Yik Ming...

With my secondary school friends at Souled Out CafeBirthday Party at home, thanks mum for her effort...

p/s: Thanks yenson, ying xin and jong sheng for their presents, appreciate very much and hope friendship forever...

Transit at Dubai

After coming back 3 months from there, today I just have time to blog this place where I transited from there to London. But I wasn't there for a long time, just my plane touched down at around 5am and need to depart again at 2pm. So in this 8 hours time, I went to the Dubai city to see and experience a bit of the culture there. After some 8 hours flight from KLIA, I finally arrived at Dubai...Basically, Dubai is divided into 2 area. One is Deira where the airport is located and another one is Al Ghubaiba where the hub of the city is there. The picture above was standing at Deira looking at Al Ghubaiba. To cross this river(which I also don't know what name the river is), usually tourists will take a kind of water taxi called Abra which costs only 50 Dirham!!so cheap!!! (1 Dirham ~ 1 Ringgit).

Abra

Given such a short time, I only had time to see the most famous creature of Dubai- which is this->

Night View

I bet all of you should know what building is this...this building was aired throught TV programme quite frequently 3-4 years back when it was just opened. It is called Burj al-Arab - the first seven-star hotel in the world...Unfortunately, the entrance fee to go inside is very expensive, that's why I didn't go inside to have a look. But according to the sources, the cheapest rate to stay one night here cost you about USD 1000 per night, and the highest rate is for the Royal Suite which is USD 28000 per night!!! (p/s: with this money, I can already buy an apartment in Selangor area) But for the rich people, this money is just nothing...

I was there...

Jumeirah Beach

After visiting Burj al-Arab, I took bus back to the Dubai city. What even more interesting I found out is that I hardly could see any local women in this city...oh ya, this is a typical scene in any other Arab countries. In Arabian mindset, women should sit at home and take care of baby. And don't you even know that when women walk on the street also need to cover all their body part?I guess you guys have seen it even in Malaysia...This is so conservative!!!Maybe it's their culture, I have no comments at all...I just wonder how can I survive in this city!!haha...I am not that desperate la...One good thing I can see from this culture is that the men are very gentlemen, they will let everything to be lady first...e.g. while all the men need to queue to get on the bus, the women just can cut queue and board the bus first...there's even some buses especially for women only...no guys allowed ~_~

My reflection

Next stop - Gold SouqSouk is Arabic word means a place where any kind of goods can be sold or exchanged. This place is just like Petaling Street in KL, the difference is that here sell gold more than any other stuffs, it is the largest gold market in UAE. Since I am not a gold lover, I just took a stroll and bought a Dubai T-shirt...I headed to airport to catch my flight to London after that. That's an end to my Dubai trip. Short but memorable...Bye bye Dubai, if I have chance I would come again and stay longer. On the way to London, I saw this...wow... really a breathtaking scene, isn't it?

My First Time

If you are interested to know when is my first time, I will tell you if you keep on reading it...But if you want to know "that kind of first time"... seriously, I still don't have experience yet ;) My first time here is to wrap flowers by myself!! The first time I was asked to wrap flowers I was thinking like why so sissy geh, ask me to wrap flowers?!! I buy flower ts for girls one only woh...But it wasn't bad after all, and I felt I did something proud of myself...I would think that if I were to do this for my lover that even made me feel prouder...hehe. Ok, let's start...
These were the flowers that came in a bulk, let me do something about it...

First step: Wrap flowers with lace Second step: Bunch all the flowers together(Erm...actually this was the wrong method, you need to bunch the flowers one by one and at the same time adding some other flowers beside it, my first time mah...haha)

Ah...This was the correct step.Third Step: Use some wet cottons to wrap branch of the roses.Done!!! I have skipped some steps because I didn't shoot it down especially the wrapper that part. If you are really interested to learn, then I still can teach you, but need to pay tuition fee ;)Because of LOVE, these men sacrificed their time, money and image just to move you...don't you feel moved also?Haha...Happy Belated Valentine Day to all!!!

I can be a good son and bf too...

Shopping spree is here again, shopping with mom is a must recently every time I go back to shop CNY stuffs with her. I don't know how guys' feel when accompany a woman goes shopping. I know some men who really don't like that especially when a couple go out to shop and the gal buys a lot or demands this and that. But for my case is to accompany mom to shop, that's different a lot man! I don't need to pay any single cent and yet my mom is paying for my clothes I want to buy...Yeah!!what a caring and nice mom ^_^

This isn't my main argument here, my argument today is how long can you guys accompany a woman to go shopping? 1 hour?2 hours? This is just a small matter, yesterday alone went shopping with mom from 11am to 5pm, 6 hours straight!!!And can you stand on it when woman buys something that really isn't interested you?Ya, that's not problem for me...So what did we shop for yesterday?Mandarin oranges, Thai rice, fizzy drinks, Winnie the Pooh bed-clothes(p/s: I do shop for household items ok, although I don't look like a household guy ;) dad's new shirts and more...I know a lot of men can't do that, and it's kinda strange when we shop in the wet department where I were like the only male in the crowd of aunty who went shopping...Oh ya, Don't you know that whenever at home every morning I sure go pasar pagi with my mom?I think most of you don't know that. I told you already...I am a good son...haha...

Having said so much, are the traits above qualified to be a good boyfriend? Erm, well...depend on girls right, some girls do like shopping, some don't like...I believe most of them still like....Nvm, so any girls out there like to go shopping can always consider me, I can provide the transport too ^_^

Footnote:
pasar pagi - wet market in Malaysia where every morning is crowed by housewives to buy stuffs to cook at night.

Bye Bye holiday

Argh....tomorrow school starts again, my laziness is calling, I don't want to go school!! if you read my previous blog, you should know i have been enjoying so much without noticing my trimester is starting soon...how leh, my last trimester stuffs not even cleared, and my current timetable also not printed out yet and I still wonder what time is my first class tomorrow...won't it be 8am in the morning?!!oh gosh, i need to sleep now, tomorrow will be a busy day...good night and wish me to get a sweet dream that bring me back to holiday again...

3.36 am
yik ming
mmu hostel

Where is Yik Ming during his holidays? (Part 3...last part)

20/1-25/1/2007 Singapore Trip
I have had strong connection with Singapore since I was young because my father had some business networks there and I also have a lot of relatives living at there, now the relation is established further as most of my secondary school friends studying at there and I have a home to settle down there. Don't know since when traveling to Singapore is no longer exciting for me because I have traveled there endless times or maybe I don't treat it as an overseas country anymore...
Now every time I visit there, don't know why a mixture of feelings will float in my mind...emptiness, happiness, sadness...when I looked back what happened here, all the ups and downs, the turning point where I underwent at here...I have no regret at all, everything was over, and tomorrow will always be a better day...life is beautiful...

Anyway, this doesn't deter my holiday mood in SG. This time the journey continued from our trip in Melaka. And because of Chooi Ling(she is back from New Zealand for holidays), I have a chance to rediscover the bustling and vibrancy of this city state.

On the first day, we visited Orchard road, City-link mall, Suntec City, Esplanade, Merlion in front of Fullerton and Lao Pa Sa.Except Orchard road, we visit all other places by walking(thanks to the city-link mall).

ying xin, lay khoon, me, huey yie and chooi ling in front the fountain of Takashimaya
Suntec's Fountain of Wealth, can this fountain make me rich?
Posting in front Merlion

The second day was joined by Jong Sheng, Steven, Chin Wai, Shi Xian and Weng Fong first to ChinaTown(牛车水）had our dinner..the place where JS was seduced by a obasan(aunty)...

While JS was having his food...
Obasan: Hey xiao di di(little brother), your food seems very nice, where did you buy it?
JS : Oh...at the shop in front there...
Obasan sat down beside JS, talking craps to him......
Suddenly the obasan spotted the dessert that JS placed on the table...
Obsan: Hey, keep your dessert well oh...later jie jie(big sister) steal it to eat oh...
JS : =_=' speechless...
All of us: wanted to laugh, but forced to smile secretly due to the obasan existence....

china town

Next stop is Clarke Quey,it is beside Singapore river, a place to lure tourists with its stylist pub and high end restaurants, quite romantic, a good place for dating....;)

Clarke Quey

After that we were cheated $10 per person to have a river cruise, but after found it quite rewarding to experience the most breathtaking sight of this metropolitan view...posing inside the boat

Ok...all these were the first half of my Singapore trip... I still depend a lot on photos when I blog, don't you know that a picture is worth than thousand words? since somebody still owes me some photos make me can't continue to blog the second half of it...so the person who owe me photos, please faster send to me...

Nanyang Technological University(NTU)

I am a frequent visitor to NTU since I have more than ten friends studying at there. Going to Singapore means visiting to NTU for me after they have gone there to study for more than a year. The scenes below are not strange for me although I have half a year not visit to there. Hall of Residence

Students rushing to class in the morning, there is even traffic jam in the campus!!

Hall of Residence 3, one of the newest and prettiest hall available in NTU...I was staying here...

EEE in NTU
Central Library of NTUInterior of the library, impressed by the abundance of computers inside...School of Art, Design and Media, special architecture...I had "wonderful" time seated on the lawn above the building chatted with friends...

I think I still have more times to visit NTU in coming 2 years, as you can see the picture above, the school is surrounded by a lot of greenery scenes which is good to live and study there. It also opens up the possibilities for me to view the education world in different perspectives other than just limit myself in Malaysia. See you soon next time...

Where is Yik Ming during his holidays? (Part 2)

19/1-20/1/2007 Visit to Melaka
I visited to Melaka again, after some times not back there, this time I am back with Yenson, Chooi Ling, Lay Khoon and Kang Yi to hang around this place where I had lived for 1 year. Every time I visit Melaka sure have some surprises from the latest development there, like this time I saw the bridge in front Tesco and Melaka Sentral has been completed and Pahlawan Mall was finally opened after so many years of construction.

This trip wasn't meant to have complete tour of Melaka because yenson and kang yi just finished their exam and I bet they wanted to relax more, that's why I rented an apartment nearby Klebang beach- Riviera Bay Resort. The resort is awesome and the apartment is huge, 2 rooms apartment with living room and kitchen...and the most important thing is at the seaside...YEAH!!long time didn't go to beach already...

First we went to Melaka famous food - Satay Celup. It is just like Malaysia pasar malam(night market) "luk luk" but the sauce is peanut sauce with some other ingredients.

Kang Yi eating satay celup
yenson and me

After Satay Celup, I brought them to Jonker street. This street only comes alive at night on Friday, Saturday and Sunday. Unlike pasar malam in KL or other places in Malaysia, it doesn't sell pirated CD and DVD. What it sells there only foods which only can be found in melaka, souvenirs, antique and etc... It even has cultural performance from Chinese Associations on the stage near the end of the street.And one unique identity from this street is the live karaoke performance where I can't find elsewhere in other pasar malam...Jonker Walk at night, you can see the building besides the street still full of feeling of nostalgia...

On the way back to resort, we thought of buying some stuffs for tomorrow breakfast. So we headed to Tesco, but looking on my watch it was already 23:55 when we arrived at Tesco and it closed at 24:00, so we had a mission quite impossible, which was to shop only at 5 minutes. Given the 5 minutes time, we really ran around to buy our stuffs....Luckily we still managed to buy our breakfast at the end...

Mission completed...tiredly walking out of Tesco

At midnight, although we were quite tired already, but still couldn't resist the attractiveness of the mahjong which I brought. Surprisingly, all 5 of us know how to play mahjong, so we took turns and played until 5am.....The lesson that I learned from this time mahjong game is that don't underestimate women, they are great mahjong players than men sometimes...haha

Next day in the morning, when we woke up was already 11am, but we still managed to have some rounds of mahjong until 12.30pm...it's time to go, we have a stroll on the beach before heading our next destination...All in all, it was an unforgettable trip. Thanks to yenson, kang yi, lay khoon and chooi ling who filled my memory with another fascinating time...