goodbye city of jacaranda

madagascar travelogue : final part

after days of wild life, nature and village life, we dedicated the last day to explore the city side of madagascar.

well there's no better place for that than the capital antananarivo.

to tell the truth, i didn't expect the city to be so dense, crowded and at some part, modern. i guess my conception of africa was based on the movie 'god must be crazy'.

to add to the difference, instead of vast plane land, antananarivo sits on high plate (average 1425m above see levels) so the landscape was rather uneven with high grounds here and there which made the city unique.

photo on the left was taken from the queen's palace which was mostly burnt down in the last decade. i glimpsed at that like 2 seconds before shifting my view downwards where i could see the entire city center of antananarivo, which should be more interesting than some damaged building. the center lake surrounded by purple jacaranda trees was such a pleasant sight from up here.

photo on the right was from ambohimanga, translated as blue hill where the old kingdom palace situated. this place was near the suburb, so the view from here was mostly vast land with scattered houses, not as dense as the city center. there i'm covering half of the photo, i just couldn't help it hehe...



on the left is a close up view of the dense housing area. out of those, there were no two houses that were of the same shape. i like this photo, everytime i stare at it, i'd find another detail.

my another 'national geographic moment' photo in the center, centered by a local girl who was doing another girl's hair. maybe they were sisters, or friends. whatever it is, they were so engrossed to notice my camera.

on the right, a mother was carrying her children on the back towards a buzzling riverside crowd in the middle of the day's business. caught this from inside our vehicle.



i was fortunate to get the hotel room on the highest floor with a city view. above is night shot from my hotel window.



in between old fashioned buildings, we could spot some modern attractive one like in the photo on the right. we could actually see the clouds reflection from the glass panels. simple yet elegant and yes, this is in madagascar.



what are cities without its hardworking citizens.

time goes by and before we knew it, it was time to return to reality. we took the air madagascar flight from antananarivo to bangkok before heading back to singapore.

but not before we were given the final taste of local culture.

after i passed through the passport control booth at ivato airport, i was asked by this security officer to a curtained small chamber, kind of like a fitting room, where he body-checked me briefly, then asked for money.

he asked for money!

in between heavy heartbeats, i insisted that i have none so he asked me to show him my wallet. thank god all my leftover ariaries were all in my jacket's pocket. after seeing only singapore notes inside my wallet, he let me go.

well that experience completed all the things i've seen and went through in madagascar, didn't it? now this trip feels like a good movie but with a bad ending.

but to be fair, this was nowhere near my worst experience being interrogated at portland airport. at least this incident in ivato lasted less than 5 minutes and i'd never felt like i was in real trouble.

after one last look at blooming jacarandas in the airport compound, we bid madagascar farewell.

...ed

under the african spell

madagascar travelogue : part 2

when we got the recommendation to go to Ampefy, we were not sure about it. mainly because i couldn't find this place among the must-visit places, or in fact, in any of the madagascar related websites.

i was glad we agreed.

the drive to ampefy took about 4 hours towards the west of antananarivo. it was a clear sunny day compared to a gloomy and cloudy day yesterday. the roadside view was simply breathtaking.

i've been to a vast land before in western USA but never have i been to one with so many activities by the roadside.


madagascar ppl use zebu (a cow spesies but with lump on its back) a lot to assist them in the fields. in between fields, ppl travel by feet to get to their destination, lots of times bare-footed.

that was me with our 4x4. there were few vehicles on the road, we met like 3 cars in 100km.

that lady in bottom right pictures were carrying a pail of water on her head. a pail of water! now if that's not some kind of a superwoman, i don't know what is.


other locals caught in their everyday lives
we visited one of the local village on our way to chute de lilie, a famous local waterfalls. frankly, i was not too excited about the falls because hey, we have lots of them back home (in malaysia) but seeing the locals run their everyday live was simply not to be missed.

local houses were made from bricks and clay. just a simple rectangularish build with a door and few holes made as windows. the floors were the ground itself. we had to keep our eyes on the ground too to avoid zebu dungs. one of the local kids stepped on one, so i guess as much as we were amused by the local sights, they were amused by us tourists even more....

i managed to take this photo of a mother cutting her son's hair in front of their house. i'm proud of this photo, i called it 'a national geographic moments'.

on the left were local kids photo taken from inside our 4-wheel drive just before we left. i was not sure what they were waiting for, did they expect us to give them something? i wished i had some sweets or something to offer them.

chute de lilie or lilia falls at the heart of the village. the locals used the water force to generate electricity for the village.

in a whole, what a memorable day. plus, had i mentioned about our lunch? we had it at a restaurant by the lake. no other tourists around so we had the place all to ourselves. we dug in while enjoying the view and lullabied by sound of nature.

especially at this time, working life at home seemed like land far far away.


..ed

to the land of indri-indri

madagascar travelogue : part 1

ok i made it safely back from my trip. obviously.

it's a relief really. for a start, our carry-on luggage did make it through the check-ins. air asia didn't even measure it! so much for me trying hard to keep the 7kg limit. what a wasted effort.

then, when the bangkok-antananarivo air madagascar stewardess tried to close the cabin luggage flipper before take-off, the small plastic cover fell off.

it fell off!!

and nearly hit me too. can you believe that? apparently that piece of plastic interior was sticked to the plane luggage compartment body with only cellophane tapes. now see that and try to comment on the airplane safety.

well as i was very well bucked up waiting for take-off, there was nothing i could do, could i? whether it was a miracle, or those in charge of interior weren't the one managing the wings or engines (which i'm so grateful for), we managed to arrive antananarivo safely anyway.

there was i in a land where nobody knows about. nobody i know anyway. madagascar (or at least antananarivo) is everything but hot, sunny and full of safaris with running zebras and lions.

frankly, i didn't expect the city to be so pleasant as if i just touched down in zurich. weather wise i mean. the wind was a bit chilling and i knew right away my sunblock was just a waste of luggage space. what a nice spring morning.

there were still lots of poor ppl all over the city but where hadn't? almost the entire city were in some way or another, involved in sale and trading business.


scene like this was no stranger along the narrow city roads, although we never had a chance to actually stop and well, shop around. to tell the truth, i was more comfortable being inside the car then being outside alone, stared by all those locals. plus, i didn't think we'd managed to communicate anyway.

even on the road, was buzzling with activities. do this in singapore and you'd be run over.


we took a trip to andasibe with our 4-wheel drive, which is 140km away on the east. our target? to see indri-indri.

indri-indri is the largest spesies of lemur, and yes, i'm still speaking 100% english. i too didn't even know this animal exists prior to checking all madagascar facts before this trip. all i know, that it's a must-see.

i don't even know how to describe it properly, koala is the closest animal i can think of to relate, but with long legs and black/white colours, and a whole lot more active, and loud too.



mind you we had to bare leeches inside our shoes and pants just to have above sight.

this was not the only one. there were lots of different lemurs around too. the rest, were smaller, tamer and most importantly, easier to spot without the need to wade through the rain forest. thank god.

my favourite is the left one. it has a fluffy clean black and white fur, long tail and a face like a wolf. it climbed the handrail all the way purposely to get near us. very cute i almost wanted to smuggle one back as pet. the middle one, called the sifaka was colder and distant in contrast. plus, it has this old look on it. we had to take a brief sampan ride to get to the ring-tailed lemur on far right. they came towards us and played around nearby our sampan. what a good bunch of performers.

other animals were less overwhelming. only scary.

we made a trip to see rare chameleons in mandrake on the way to andasibe. you see, i hate lizards. apparently madagascar got like billions of them and they were all enourmous. the guide made a stunt by putting one of the chameleon on my back while i was busy taking photos and despite what others said, i DID NOT scream.



at night, we trailed the dark road path with torchlights to spot nocturnal animals, lead by the guides of course. at this time, we were already tired from venturing the whole day since we got down the plane. we couldn't see anything so i just wished we could just give up. it started to rain when we finally reached our vehicle. interesting experience nevertheless.

day 2 in next post!


...ed

i dream of tana

it's ironic when something you've been waiting for finally comes, you wish that it have not.

i've been counting down for this madagascar trip. but since last friday, time seems to speed up and before i knew it, the flight will finally be tomorrow.

unlike previous trips, this trip is pretty challenging.

first, we'll have only about 3 hours after arriving bangkok for the next flight to antananarivo takes off. that is, without any delay of course.

which means we better not have check-in luggage. which also means, we have to pack less than 7 kilos. 7 kilos for a week! it gets tricky to fit in the luggage bangkok party clothes among those meant for jungle trekking in africa. you know i cannot swap them with each other.

then, all this uncertainty in the foreign land there but i'll worry about that once we arrive. i just have to crack my brain now to make sure i don't miss any important things to bring.

sun block. check. diarrhea pills. check. US dollar. not check. i have to change some at the airport tomorrow. should be a 5 minutes event. no worry. ok my powershot G7. check. battery charger. shit, i should have bought that plug adaptor at challenger yesterday. oh well, guess i can stop by on my way home tomorrow.

i'll be on half day work tomorrow so that i'll have enough time to get to changi by 6pm. i'd take a whole day off if not because my boss showed such a shocked and unbelievable face when i mentioned i want to take days off, you know, on top of a week long festive breaks i took two weeks ago.

i don't know what the fuss is all about. not that apple will miss shipments of flash memories for their ipods if i take another week off. i believe i got all things already covered. plus, what's the purpose of this engineer assistant whom they put reporting to me? exactly.

anyway it's good too that i'm still going to work tomorrow morning. i could print at work all those online travel tips and read it on the plane. they have whole bunch of infos at virtualtourist.com, which i'm all grateful for, considering borders singapore doesn't even carry any madagascar travel books.

now that i think about it, i'm getting a bit excited. i'll be in another continent in 48 hrs time! tuesday to friday is to venture madagascar wild life as well as the capital antananarivo city. then, a flight back to bangkok and enjoy the city life there till sunday before coming back to singapore.

and that, right now, is something that i'm definitely not looking forward to.



...ed

saturday night heartfever

another wedding.

i swear one of these days ppl wld have to celebrate my happiness too. it's only fair. i'm almost done cheering for others.

i hate that tingle in my heart everytime seeing that 'our story' montage on screen. enough that i have to bare with all the bragging about their oh-so-perfect love, i have to pay 80 dollars for it?

but again, since when life is fair?

i'm not against wedding dinner you know. the whole occasion could be quite fun if you minus off the wedding stuff. you get to dress up, wear your best clothes and table hopping for the rest of the evening.

kinda like attending the grammy. grammy that you'll never win and zero chance to get on stage that is.

it's just that it's a pity we have to have a reason to have that.

like a wedding.

urghh... am i actually jealous??





anyway, after that heart torture (to be fair, i felt the torture like 2 minutes but actually kinda enjoyed the rest of the night) i felt like i owe myself a treat.

so today on sunday morning i accepted a friend's invitation for a free yoga session in bugis village, you know, to relax my soul.

and hopefully to rid of any evil in my heart too. if possible.

i've never met anyone who's so enthusiastic over yoga before. apparently this friend started doing yoga a year ago, and then started teaching few months back. the important thing is, he did seem nice.

i did enjoy the class. at least it made me want to start doing yoga again. i must find that yoga mat i bought last time. i forgot how relaxing yoga is to the mind.

only that my body is a little sore. unlike last night at wedding dinner when my body got all pampered with all the food but my heart ached.

life is indeed fair after all.



...ed

ring the alarm

i woke up early this morning to attend the weekly 7am phone conference with US site. it was a normal crisp thursday morning.

only to find an empty meeting room. apparently due to daylight saving in US, the meeting time has shifted to 8am here in s'pore. urghh!

my precious morning sleeptime affectively went down the drain for nothing. wait, i couldn't even claim the taxi fare i took to work. oh man...

confirmed. i'm such a total blur.

well served me right. off all the US vs iran, mahathir's spat with abdullah, madonna vs malawi human right groups confrontations i read, i never came across this. this is one news they should print on frontpage in large block letters, right? i mean, who'd care about that syrian plot to topple lebanon's government in singapore's everyday life exactly?

after work we had the final round of badminton match. we lost 1-3. i heard 2 of our opponent's team members were from malaysian state players. duh.. what could we do then?

our big boss played the double that snatched the only point. you'd think the big boss as someone out-of-office good-for-nothing but no, he's the top bowling player in our department, and one of the best badminton player too.

some ppl just seem to have everything, don't they? life is so unfair.

i've still not signed up for the basic theory test yet. i need to take this test to start application converting my malaysian driving licence to singapore licence, but as much as i'm eager to buy a car, i'm a bit thrown off by the fact that i have to sit for a test.

so instead, i found myself installing subaru imprezza sceen saver on my office pc, hehe...



on my way back from work yesterday, i saw 2 taxis collided at the cross junction near kallang mrt station. the impact wasn't that strong but the cars were dented like crazy. nobody was hurt but man, i wouldn't want to be one of those guys. imagine your dream car damaged in a blink on an eye. i must be extra careful on the road.

but now, i just need to be careful of the world time...



...ed

back in business

i'm home.

i'd thought the one week break would be a tad too long but man, that feels pretty ok. in fact, i had almost wished i have one more day to spare.

it was a usual, annual festive event. or so i thought. only that this time we had a new family member. my brother just got his first son few months back, and boy, what a presense of a baby made to the whole house.

instead of staring at tv screen lazying around wondering what to do, we stared at the baby. awake or asleep.

instead of going out to town wishing to find anything cheap or just buy something not-cheap to just make the trip worth it, we stared at the baby. awake or asleep.

heck i almost feel like i want one. seriously.

except some things are just not within our control. things will be a lot easier if we were a one cell organism that splits to reproduce. whenever we feel like it.

but in real life, they say it always takes two to tango. but what happen when the other one doesn't like dancing? or doesn't even turn up for the session?

that's why the first thing i did when i arrived home from kl, i started surveying what kind of car i would buy. my brother has bought this new naza citra to accomodate his expanding family, and seeing that shiny big blue thing at the porch made me feel like i want one myself too.

because this should be much easier than, you know, getting my own baby. a lot easier.

plus, it felt so uncool going back to my grandpa's house tagging in my parent's car. like i'm such an uncomplished person or sth.

my friend said that i must stop wanting what other ppl have. i don't think i'm that bad actually. i mean, it's normal to want a baby at this age, right? and a car too. what, i'm supposed to commute all my life?

and it's really not my fault that i saw my colleague using his super big and pro digital camera snapping photos during my other colleague's wedding few weeks back, saw the superb photos, then almost automatically felt that i could give my own crappy camera to my sister and buy a new, good one for myself.

so forgive me when i bought a canon powershot G7 for myself today. it's a good buy really. the mscolour lady in ang mo kio gave me e-quote price of $822, and that camera is like on top of few rankings in the internet.

plus, it's still so much easier then, again, getting a baby.



...ed

jaded

things get a lil' bit crazy a bit at work. i guess it's the pressure of completing things before friday. i'll be taking days off next week, so suddenly i found myself with a dateline. not that my boss or anybody verbally or officially mentioned it, it's just that sometimes you'd prefer to tie loose ends before, you know, moving on...

i'm never good at datelines. i think ppl perform at their best when they are not rushed. i mean, how can you sleep at night, and wake up in the morning looking forward for the day, when you know back there in your mind, that there's even-when-the-world-shatters-to-pieces-need-to-complete assignments? it seriously affects your overall being.

and the haze outside is not helping either. gosh i think the psi index has been over 100 like forever. things got a bit better today, but still.. i long for a clear blue sky and the smell of fresh leaves in the morning. ok not that i can smell that anyway but at least it's always nice to breathe something that doesn't smell like smoke.



other than that, life has been pretty normal. i heard that there's sugeestion to hold our annual department christmas party at a pub this year. a pub! how happening is that? previous 2 years we held it at hotel's grand ballroom. not dinner and dance, but lunch and no-dance. except few that were unlucky enough to be called on stage by the mc to do silly moves. so i guess we'll wait and see this year.

we'll have another round of badminton match later today, and this time i'm not among the players. well, after being flattened 6-21 last week, i'm sure i'm not exactly the darling in the captain's eye now. although for my defense, we'd already clinched victory even before my doubles match, so there wasn't anything to lose anyway. with less motivation, we might as well gave away the match.

now if i could just give away these impending works.


...ed

road to madagascar

since we already decided to travel madagascar next month, it's only wise to start planning. gosh i'm excited. i read this list about '40 life instructions', and one of it states 'go travel to places you've never been before once a year'. i like this list i have it pasted at my work cubicle wall. although the writer of that list better not know that i've made my first trips to LA and Vegas already this year.

frankly, i wasn't even sure where madagascar is. my memory of madagascar (apart from of course, the animation movie), was this piece of madagascar national stamp i had when i was small. it was of a female lion, or was it a panther? well, place of wild animals was the impression i had of this country.

so when my friend mentioned there's ticket promotion, and apparently this is very rare, i got excited. i mean, it's madagascar. in africa. who needs to go korea, or taiwan, or australia, when like 90% of the ppl i know already been there? those are well-known places. hardly surprising, right? i'm sure there are lots of walking dictionaries around when coming to these kind of places.

africa on the other hand, is really foreign. i don't even know what they eat (if they ever eat at all). in what kind of places do they stay? how's their way of life? those sorts of thing could be really enlightening to find out. that's what travelling is supposed to be all about, right?

however, having known little could be a disadvantage. is it safe? (ok this was the first thing i checked. wouldn't want to come in the middle of raging war, would i? ok so the government is apparently stable since 2002 power struggle ended. check!) i figured i should do some poking outs, finding out facts and tips about this far far away land.

i found this introduction from bbc webpage.

"madagascar is the world's fourth biggest island after greenland, new guinea and borneo, lies in the indian ocean off the coast of mozambique. because of its isolation, most of its mammals, half its birds, and most of its plants exist nowhere else on earth"

ok this sounds cool! i know this place is famous for 'lemur', but i have no idea how this lemur even look like. that cat-like creature in the animation? wait, or was that in ice age? i don't know.

i guess i have to see it for myself.


...ed

buffet at the square

i've never noticed novotel hotel before. mainly because it's in clarke quay, which is not exactly my playground. never really get recommended by anyone too. some didn't even know the place. the hotel i mean.

so when i saw this buffet promotion (UOB credit card 25% off), I decided to give it a try. good chance to roam clarke quay later. plus, it has chocolate fountain, which was my friend's requirement in selecting places to go.

they called it 'buffet at the square'. my first impression, small but elegant. i quite like the feel of the environment. woody combined with green interior, lighted up by orange lights. should have requested seats by the window though so we could get city view from 7th floor.

the waiter/waitresses are mostly foreigners. we have a balinese and a malaysian attending our table, and i'm sure the name of the cashier is not local either. good service though, all smiles and very attentive. among the best i must say.

it should be a mainly asian dishes buffet, but obviously there were lack of food choices.

they have small selection of sushi and sashimi (only rolled sushis). nothing great. i rarely complained about sushi, for me the sensation is with the wasabi kick when i eat it. the sashimi was inside a glass box, too lazy to order. no tempura or japanese noodles.

then there were selections of briyani chicken, fish and beef, alhough funny that there were only plain or oriental fried rice to accompany it. the spice fish was quite nice. we snacked a lot of the prawn and belinjo crackers while chatting.

upon request, they'd make dishes on this square transparent stylish small plate. we tried popiah (skin too thick and feels too dry) and kiwi chicken (didn't really taste the kiwi). didn't even try the rojak coz it didn't look too tempting.

the satay was pretty cold and tough, but mostly i found that the peanut sauce was too sour. then they served the satay in one little plate at the counter (about 10 sticks at a time) so you kinda get the feelings to take only few sticks everytime.

my friend said the black pepper pasta was too sweet (sweet??) but they quite liked the laksa. there was peking duck too, but we gave it a miss.

the desert selection was poor too. there wasn't even a normal cheese cake. i tend to judge good deserts by good cheesecake so this deserved a D. the fruit pies was just ok. the chocolate at the chocolate fountains felt too diluted although we did eat that a lot.

in overall, nice environment and friendly service, but the food is nothing to boast about, which makes 38+++ per head seems too expensive and no value for money. holiday inn park view and phoenix hotel are cheaper and much nicer.

nevertheless, it was still a fun outing, and the stroll around clarke quay at night was pleasing. we got to plan for our african trip next month too (madagascar here we come!!), and that would be a lot to write about...




...ed

Calm before the Storm

gosh, my stomach feels weird this morning. it's almost as if north korea just blasted their nuclear test warhead inside. is it something i ate? don't think so. i only had bread and eggs with a cup of milo this morning, nothing extreme. although i did use olive oil that was left overnight, but olive oil should promotes health, right? not affecting it...

and i'm feeling sleepy too. i did not sleep well last night. woke up occasionaly to continue burning wedding videos i took last weekend. the bride is flying over to her hometown in brunei tomorrow, so i'm gonna have to pass her the raw videos for her relatives before then. although to the expense of my usual creative standard.

i truly enjoy video editing. now that i already started doing weddings (ok just one wedding), maybe i can make a big leap to movies in the future. for my 2nd career or something. although sending an almost raw videos due to time constraint, and succumbed to my cubicle mate's pressure not to release (embarrassing) clips with her inside to public, are kind of a backstep towards that goal.

then i had to leave bed early to arrive office before 7am to this attend conference call with US HQ. normally i'll target to arrive before 9. so i found myself with nothing to do after the meeting.

ok, no important or urgent things to do. and the time is just passed 8. and i already finished reading the world news in straight times (wow, another plane-hit-building in nyc!!)

not that my job is in jeopardy or anything, but i just settled this high-profile big issue and the ball is already in other department's court. so my job right now is to bug the department guy once in awhile asking for result.

kind of like a loan-shark, but instead of money, i pester for information. well in that case, maybe like a guantanamo guard prison but of course, minus the tortures and humiliations.

anyway, so i'll just go with the flow today. after all, we have inter-departmental badminton competition after work, and i'll be one of the doubles player. so i prefer not to wear-out myself, physically or mentally.

ok got to go. fire drill in 5 minutes time. most of us already standby with shoe covers in our hands, so that we don't have to queue for the shoe cleaner when we enter the plant after the drill later. typical singaporean mind-set huh...

although in real life situation, if north korea does fire nuclear bombs in potential war, which the effect could extend all the way to here, i'm sure none of us have time to even think of any shoe covers...

or an upset stomach for that matter.


...ed

beautiful life

late morning wake-up for me today. i think i truly deserve it this time, considering a tiring day yesterday. i woke up at 6 am yesterday, so that's like a whole 3 hrs that i have to compensate this sunday morning.

i had been requested to be a videographer for my friend cum colleage's chinese wedding customary yesterday. bunch of my other close friends were the coordinator, sisters, photographers etc, so it was like office work team altogether, minus the work stuff...

i got to see how usually-nice ppl flashed their 'dark side' once they were given the privilege to bully others. it was scary. but in a way, it was good too, because unless the groom truly loves his bride, he couldn't have gone through all that humiliations inflicted by the sisters to let him deserve the chance to pass through the gate and meet the bride.

as for me, i was just glad i was not in the groom's shoes. or his brothers. and not anytime soon too.

the wedding dinner then was at marina mandarin hotel. the thing of being an engineer, and working in an engineering environment, is that you only get to see the worst physical side of ppl. i mean, ppl wear jeans and t-shirt at work, and zero make-up for the girls. and even if they does wear decently, they always cover it with office jacket anyway, which is pointless if you asked me. not exactly an eye candy.

so only at wedding dinners we get to see how beautiful some ppl are. it was like a bunch of cinderellas going to the ball. all glitteringly elegant. we were like, oh you should wear like this to work you know, but all of us know monday will come and ppl will get ugly again.

the truth is, the actual life is always ugly. like how we always see on tv or tourist oriented posters that ppl are considerate and stuff like that, but the fact is, i could see pregnant ladies standing inside crowded trains every week. all nearby sitting passengers were either suddenly asleep, or couldn't tell a pregnant lady from a really fat ones.

but then, on one occasion, i saw this girl actually surrendered her seat to this pregnant lady. she was all nice and smiling. the least that pregnant lady could do was to smile back and say thanks, but no.. she just sat as if it is her right to sit there. she didn't even look at the girl's face.

the fact is, we live in an ugly society. full stop. and that makes us appreciate a beauty even more when it makes a rare appearance once in awhile. physical or inside. that's why when we do get a chance to preserve some of that beauty, it's almost foolish not to say yes.

i have them in my videocam.



...ed

i'm not dead

i went all the way to orchard borders during lunch time today. tried to get hold of this particular book, 'hegemony or survival' by noam chomsky.

for those who followed the UN meeting in new york recently, or at least those who read world news and know what's happening outside their houses, would know that the venezuelan president hugo chavez hold this book while condemning george w bush in his main speech.

the book was sold out.

ok to be honest, it was a bit unexpected. i always thought s'poreans are too involved in their everyday lives to even care. i mean, my colleagues didn't even know there was such a meeting going on. i expect, had i probed further i could find ppl who doesn't even know what 'venezuela' is.

anyway, guess i just have to check back in few weeks time. what i could do to remind me then is just to write it down my calender in my new hp ipaq 6828.

pda phone is soo useful. not that my previous samsung E720 didn't have this function, but let's face it it's so much easier to enter appointments this time round using the pda's window interface.

it's a bit more expensive than i normally spend on a handphone, but to my defence, this is like buying a handphone and a pda together. 2 in 1. plus, my fellow colleague who joined in about the same time as me was using it already. and he got promoted to principle. he must have been doing sth right, right?

not that i'm dead keen to follow current trends. i still believe i have my own principles. my own likes and dislikes. i mean, heard of snow petrol? they might be famous and hip nowadays but i don't even like them.

talk about following the flow...

i still prefer what ppl would call 'lame' artists like (urghh) mariah carey. let's face it her latest album rocks. i like pink's i'm not dead album too. and that teddy geiger's debut. after all, it's the music that matters, whether it can catch my attention or not.

and in case of this 'hegemony' book, it was being recommended by someone who called the american president 'the devil' in the middle of world stage, watched by millions.

he must be someone who really know his stuff.



...ed

a public affair

life goes on as usual since i came back from idaho.

work has been busy. not that we were rushed or anything, it's just that after those trainings we got in the states, we were just eager to prove ourselves, i guess.

the good thing is, i received a pretty handsome increment after the performance review. well, not good enough to be promoted to principle as this cubicle-mate of mine (he's my batch), but at least it was a double digit.

anyway, who cares about promotion? i just enjoy the fact that i can go back in time whenever i want and don't have to return on weekends.

which could mean slower productivity and a bit more stressful during updates, (and sometimes a lot of fibbings too) but it's not like the company profit will be affected or anything. i'm just like a small fish in a big ocean.

after work just now i came back and went for a swim at my place. it was so peaceful swimming late in the night. none of those irritating children around or bunch of elders sitting by the pool watching me grasping for air everytime.

the truth is i suck at swimming. i don't understand how ppl can swim leasurely from end to end as if they can fall asleep while doing it. i swear their insides must be filled with air bubbles or sth..

as for me, the gravity seems to work harder everytime i'm in the water. i struggle to stay near the surface, so by the time i reach at the end of the lap i'll be breathing like a fish out of water.

the only difference is that, unlike the fish i'm relieved to be out.

i'll be going back to kl this weekend. not exactly looking forward to it as i hate travelling. i bought the ticket for hari raya holiday too while i was at the ticket booth just now, but on the way back i realized i have purchased the wrong date.

damn.

i don't know why but i'm just very blur sometimes. today during lunch, i was already few minutes into my meal when my friend alerted me that i held the fork upside down.

fork upside down! can you believe that? i don't even know how i managed to complete a few mouthful with that.

i am such a durr-brain.



...ed

walking on broken glass

sunday morning. damn i was gonna oversleep a bit but was woken up by stomach pain, must be the effect from this tea i drank last night. urghhh.. if you must know that i'm not exactly a daily toilet person, so once in awhile i just need ermmm...help.

my hands are still sore from the beach volleyball game yesterday. i don't understand how ppl can survive a volleyball match with the ball that hard. if i had kept on playing i imagined my thumb wld have been dislocated beyond my wrist. it was a torture.

it was good fun though. i mean who wld have imagined there's a beach volleyball court just behind our office building in the company compound, with the sea is like 200 miles away?

tomorrow is a working day again. a normal working day. we talked about work last friday during our usual long tea break chat. we bitched about how we hate our jobs and agreed we made a wrong choice of going into engineering. we even thought about going for higher education and snatched jobs from other lines.

but that's as far as it goes. tea break over, we returned to our desk, to our real life and everything goes on as it is. the truth is, we are too afraid and too insecure to make big moves in our life. weekend comes, then monday and we'll bitch about it again the next time we chat.

as for me, i'm just looking forward to returning to s'pore. i expect being away for a moment will make me feel fresh again at work, so i won't be flipping those recruitment section in the newspaper anytime soon. plus, my mortgage loan interest is going rise this year so i'm not exactly in a position to make risky changes.

i'm starting to have all these dreams about home. last night i dreamed about my fish. bunch of them died, and the one surviving was so ugly i couldn't even remember i had them.

urghhh....


...ed

the final countdown

i had 2 farewell eat-outs today, so now i felt a bit bloated. this is seriously not good for my body. but what's worse is that we were saying goodbye to my office cubicle-mate who'll return to s'pore tomorrow.

it's kinda depressing thinking about going to work tomorrow to an empty cubicle. it makes me want to go back home too, but it's still about 3 weeks before my return.

3 weeks is quite a long time now when i think about it, but not too long to message this old friend in tokyo warning him of my arrival because i plan to stop over in japan when i transit there. apparently the flights are tight so i cannot alter my schedule. mind you i've already got a horrible flight timings. arriving portland and have less than an hour for an international connecting flight? what's up with summer in the states?

anyway, i still can't wait. it's not like being here in the states is a bad thing. i mean, i enjoyed it at first, having went to all those gorges, parks, lakes, not to mention las vegas few weeks ago.. but after all of that, i still long for home. i mean, ppl always say it's always greener on the other side of the fence, so comparing with the desert here in boise, s'pore does look more tempting...

ok now i'm gonna start crossing dates on my calender...


...ed

honey, i'm home

sometimes when i reached home after a long day, i'd open my house door and said,' honey, i'm home...'

then.., 'oh i forgot i'm not married.'

yeah that's michael pfeiffer's lines in batman returns, you know, the catwoman.

i like that scenes. only that now i cannot say it loud enough till my neighbours next door cum my colleague and his wife heard it and think i'm such a lunatic.

or worse, a loser.

we had fun yesterday, driving along the western heritage historic byway not far from boise, idaho with 2 other friends. this was the 2nd time for us, having gone all the way to shoshone and sun valley last sunday.

it's like we've bonded and became some sort of travel mates or sth. we're adventourous and organized but flexible ppl, and most importantly look good inside photos.

ok who am i kidding? i look horrible inside photos. especially now that my cheeks ballooned up that i filled up half the photos with my big face.

it's frustrating. i can do sit-ups for my abs but what should i do with my face? chew chewing gums? or just chew my tongue?

anyway, i've started jogging every week. last week i jogged all the way to this boise river and found out they have this nature conservation area there with walk trails. the water was flowing fast because of the wet season, and it was refreshingly cold. i could hear wild birds somewhere in between those trees.

to my suprise, there were ppl canouing at the river too, those small and short ones that could only fit one person. they greeted me when they saw me.this is precisely why i like this land and its ppl. if it was in asian countries, those ppl wld just row even faster seeing someone alone in a bush trail.

i was so engrossed to this environment that i didn't realize the sky suddenly turned black. i completely forgot that the storm was due that evening. so i quickly jogged back, but the rain started falling halfway. the strong wind made it even harder to run. there were thunders sounding like they were coming nearer and nearer.

so there was i trapped in the open space. it was scary. i was almost tempted to hitchhike back but i figured with my wet clothes, might not be a good idea. plus i just didn't have the guts. so i ran as quickly as i could till by the time i arrived at the supermarket nearby my place, i was almost knocked out.

whoever said that jogging is good for health? i sincerely beg to differ.

the shoshone falls was breathtaking. it was obviously nicknamed 'the niagara falls of the west' for a reason. due to the wet winter, the falls was having its highest waterlevel in years, so the water fell with even more overwhelming impact, filling the air with water droplets. the sun was such at a perfect angle that we could see a very clear rainbow at where the water falls. it was such a beautiful sight.

only that the water droplets drenched us in no time, making us all wet and cold. even our camera lenses was wet.so as much as i enjoyed the scenery, i couldn't wait to get out of there and be someplace dry and warmer.

the condition was so much better yesterday when we visited the snake river bird of prey national conservation area, which is the main attraction along the western heritage historic byway. this snake river, no doubt getting its name from its shape, flows in between high canyons where the raptor birds make the steep stony canyon edges their nests.

i wouldn't say that was the best canyon view i've ever seen because the colours were a bit dull. the river was kinda greyish, while the canyons all brownish. flaming gorge in utah looked much better with blue river and flaming red stones canyons. but still, the height and the mere size of it were enough to make me go ga-ga. i mean, let's face it, it's not like i could see this in s'pore.

few weeks of nature, i almost feel that i've had enough of it. good that next week, it'll be a whole new thing for me. i won't reveal much now except that it's sth to do with local traditional culture, and ermm...smokey mountain pearl, hehehe...

other than that, i'm looking forward to the next episode of charmed too. damn, would the charmed sisters quickly battle off with the ultimate powers? it's getting on my nerves. well at least, nobody dies yet, unlike the latest episode of Lost. they killed off my favourite ana lucia! can you believe that? stupid michael. ..and i thought nothing could go worse after the american idol booted out pariss bennett last tuesday.

sheeeshh!!!

definitely not sth that i'd prefer going home to...



...ed

cranky old b*tch

it's already almost 10 saturday morning, and i'm getting desperate to find sth ermm.. productive to do today.

it looks like a lovely weather outside... which is not a suprise. being a total weather bitch as it is, of course the weather's good when we don't plan anything. we actually planned to visit this shoshone falls, 3 hrs drive away today but found out it'll be thunderstorm shower at that place.

the ironic thing is, the rain will stop and be all sunny and beautiful on monday.

typical.

i mean who needs the sun when you're surrounded by those lab walls in the office? it could very well be a tornado outside and i'd still be probing wafers.

ok this might not be entirely true, but hey, as if the tornadoes will actually reach this northwest land...

3 weeks and counting. life here has been pretty good except the fact that these locals here like to speak with closed mouth. seriously! they open their mouth like 50% smaller of normal ppl when they speak, you know, like those cowboys always do. you'd think they had gold in their mouth they're afraid to spill out.

it's such pain in the ear for me so i have to ask them to echo everytime they mumbled sth. they must think i'm such a short deaf asian or sth by now...

well, i'm a foreigner so what do i know? at least i speak english, unlike those ppl that sang star spangled banner in spanish that caused uproar recently in the states.

i don't know what some ppl are thinking. as mush as i despise bush, as least he speaks some sense criticising this. i mean, national anthem sung in another language? isn't that insulting? what's after this? change the flag colour to red and yellow with a bull in the middle?

but i'm not gonna fret about that as much. i have a city to explore. few days ago i purposely overshot my apartment after work, thought of trying new roads to see where they led. then suddenly this road i was on became a long stretch of one way street and i panicked.

it's hard enough to keep other cars at distance, then i have to remember my barings? i'm never good at this. so i'm thinking of giving it another try venturing today. the aim? wal-mart which is 11 miles away.

after all, what can be a better time venturing when your petrol is being paid for? i didn't even pay attention to those oil price hike or energy saving crap they kept on discussing nowadays on national tv. for me, it's like in awhole another world.

oh, the live score featuring all spanish nadal vs almagro in open seat godo tennis semifinal that i kept open on my pc has just ended. nadal won his 46th consecutive games on clay, which kinda made my day! not that i'll receive anything out of this other than, well, happiness when your favourite wins, but still.... i'm happy!

perhaps, this could be that productive thing that i wanted to do today!


...ed

an affair to remember. or not...

i'm not in a good mood.

i just called D just now and i got wrong number, even though i know it was D who answered. it was pretty obvious i don't know who was this person kidding.

that just confirmed my suspicion when my few recent attempts for communication failed. unanswered mails are still ok but when sms goes unreplied, you kinda get the hitch sth's gone wrong.

what is it with distance? the moment 2 ppl be apart, whatever that is holding between them cracks, and go into the drain. like it never happened at all. and this is not the first time. last time i got sms saying 'i'm already attached don't bother me' sms after being away for 3 months.

this just proved that certain relationships are just based on physical encounters. as simple as that. i mean, that is only the difference, right? ppl can still get emotional intercourse while being 8000 km apart.

the thing is, some ppl do manage to hide this fact brilliantly. they can be super nice and caring to you face to face, body to body, giving you false hope that everything's heaven but the fact is they have selective memory the moment they realized you won't be nearby to fulfill their certain needs.

well, not that it really matters to me. after all, this was just an affair.

an affair!

affairs are not meant to be long lasting. in fact, it's better that it's short-lived so that it won't disrupt real relationships. after all, affairs are the hottest for the first few times and get colder as time goes on. with D, it was just a hang-out, or rather hang-outs.

i'm not gonna be disappointed at all because of this. in fact, it was stupid just to let this affects my mood. i mean, is it worth it? yeah, D was there when i was alone and needed company before, and yeah D kinda changed my perception of star wars and watching it from the sofa won't be the same thing again, but those were it. full stop.

but still, having sth is always better than not having anything. this must be the lesson i got from all these years living in s'pore. greedy and never satisfied.

which is why in some way i'm grateful for this temporary work attachment in the states, where i can tune back my negative attitudes to being a better human being again. everyone knows those americans are god's greatest creation ever.

i mean, just look at their leader. he can tell there were WMDs in iraq eventhough they could not be seen by naked eyes or satellite. such a superb skill. now when he says iran is building nuclear weapons, iran is building nuclear weapons. in fact, it's a matter of time before he actually realized that ahmadinejad is actually osama with his beards shortened and trimmed.

so i'm sure there's a lot i can pick-up from this great great land. hey, i even managed to pick up driving skills here thanks to the big roads and absence of reckless drivers.

if i'm lucky, i could pick an affair or two here too. who knows???


...ed

salty lake and flaming dam

i watched charmed the other day, and there was this part when paige summoned this 'lady inspriration' to give, well... inspiration to this to-be boyfriend so that he could finish writing some letters of recommendation he was assigned to and went out for a date with her.

right now i swear my 'lady inspiration' must be sleeping from jet lag. i have lots of stuff in my head to write about but they just don't come out smoothly in words. like the words just failed me or sth.

suddenly i found the sofa is very tempting than this dining table where i had my laptop. i like to curl up with my blanket on the sofa with tv remote in my left hand and agatha christie novel on the other. i expect the moment i lay my back on it, i'll forget all the horror i faced while practising driving just now.

this colleague was kind enough to 'put his life in jeopardy' tutoring me how to drive. well, maybe not to that extreme considering i just went round and round at tha apartment car park. but alas, it takes gut with my horrible handling of the steering. it was like 10 years ago when i last driving.

i must say, driving is not really my thing. it's just human nature, we always have sth we just find it hard to get hold to.

just like some ppl are really not into skiing. you can beg them to go but for them it's just a waste of time and probably money too. but when this colleague asked if i wanted to go, i said yes right away. i love skiing.

so we went to this ski resort which is 2.5 hours away from our place in boise, idaho it's called brundage ski resort. i was actually quite suprised the ski place is still open considering now is already mid-april.

turned out not only we had enough snow for skiing, it was snowing like crazy the whole day there. one time i took the ski lift to the mountain top and didn't have the gut to ski down.

before you judge me, think about it rationally. the visibility was bad, and the slope was steep at some places. what if i fall down and knocked unconcious? i expect i'd be covered in snow in less than 10 minutes. it could be life threatening you know.

plus i haven't been able to ski properly because of the big ski board. i felt like i was the bigfoot lost in johore forest.

but on and all, i quite enjoyed the experience. this is a different kind of excitement than salt lake city and flaming gorge in utah trip we went to last weekend. that was filled with breathtaking sceneries, especially the salty lake and the red canyon, which compensated the long car ride we needed to go through to get there. it was 5 hours drive, and that, mind you, was with speeding speed. the feeling of being in a speeding car was in fact, another kind of thrill altogether.

that utah trip and the ski trip in just over a week, i am a bit impressed with myself. of course it'll be good if i progress that much at work too. i must say i am still in the learning curve in office. let's just say, the situation is a bit complicated.

well, i guess i need 'lady inspiration' more than ever in the office instead.



...ed