saw these thoughts on facebook...

Saw these on facebook and thought they were quite nice and interesting:

1～如果很喜欢很喜欢一个人，那么，保持一个朋友的距离就够了，这样可以一辈子。千万不要奢望靠近，人一旦有了贪欲，就注定要失去。 (to dedicate to Bin too. You know what I mean...)

2～在无数个睡不着的晚上，我相信会有很多人，习惯性的开始闭上眼睛，安静的想念一个人，想念一张脸。而在他们心里，能够有这样一个人可以想念，或许就够了。

3～如果喜欢一个人就能和他在一起，那么这个世界就不会有悲剧存在。

(OK... the above 3 are dedicated to Bin...)

6～很多事情不能自己掌控，即使再孤单再寂寞，仍要继续走下去。不许停也不能回头。

7～太过美好的东西从来都不适合经历，因为一旦经历便无法遗忘。

9～有些人，等之不来，便只能离开；有些东西，要之不得，便只能放弃；有些过去，关于幸福或伤痛，只能埋于心底；有些冀望，关于现在或将来，只能选择遗忘。

10～生活以成败论英雄，所以必须做强者。要想成大器，就容不得胆小怕事。
路再远，再荆棘满途，只要去走，勇敢的披荆斩棘，就一定能走到目的地。

11～虽然‘永远’只有简短的两个字，却无人能用文字说得完全，‘永远’到底有多远、它不会随着生命的终结而消散，真正的永远是藏在心里。尽管天会变，人会老，但那颗心不变。

(For 11, I don't honestly think it is true though. I don't trust forever. As time passes, things are being forgotten 渐渐的被遗忘。。。）

Who really cares?

I got 3 missed calls at 5:05pm, 5:13pm and 5:17pm (Eastern Std Time) from Unknown. 99% is from Mama from Singapore (that 1% could be some random wrong number calls). Calling me early in the morning (Singapore time, 12 hours ahead), either something not too good or the usual $$ topics. Strange. Haven't got calls at such hours for a while.

Got home, cooked Salted Mustard Green + some diced pork rib + firm tofu = Giam Cai Teng! Chinese is call 咸菜汤. Hahaha! So for those who don't know what is Salted Mustard Green, it's really just our "Giam Cai". And for those who don't know what "Giam Cai" is called in English? It's just Mustard Green - salted.

Less than 10 mins, dinner settled for the night!

Then I remembered I need to return the call. Called home # no one answered at first. Then I realized Mama is most likely at work in school, in any case, I just let it rang. Papa picked up! Oops, must have woke him up. He told me Mama is in school and did attempt to call me earlier on, I asked how is he, he said ok... That's it. =)

Called Mama. Asked her what happened. She said "Happy Birthday". Now I remember. She reminded me and she is the first person to call me to say that. So amazing.

All these while, I kept thinking who really cares? Can't really find an answer. Sometimes someone did something nice and you think, oh, this person cares about me.

But truthfully, who is that someone who really cares enough to remember to wish you Happy Birthday first thing in the morning when they woke up? To do that, you at least have to be thinking about it the night before and at least remind yourself about this person enough to make sure when you wake up, this person is on your mind and you have to say Happy birthday to her.

Have been really down recently. I do appreciate that. I will remember the answer to my question.

Second person who called? My uncle (and aunt). Really these (mama and gugu) 2 people are mainly the answers to my questions. Even if the whole world turn against you, you can be 90% sure that these are the 2 people who will still care (the 10%? If I really did something awfully horrible I guess, something inhumane? Don't know...)

Then comes all my friends' wishes, Siying (this friend is like super friend too lor, super early, but dont know what's wrong with facebook I didnt see it until later, lol, thanks man!!!!) Gui Chun, Huiling, MeiFang etc on Facebook.

In any case, to those who have showed that at least they remember, thanks alot. I needed that and I truly appreciate.

Birthday ends at 12 noon tomorrow. Because it goes according to "the time" from where I came from! =D

Sora Hike #1 - Wissahickon Valley Park in Philadelphia

Finally did my first hike in the United States. It's really an easy hike, but for someone who hasn't done that for a while, the feeling is sooo good.

The park we went to is Wissahickon Valley Park at Valley Green Road in Philadelphia city. I don't know how far we hiked, so I did a google map to try to get an idea of the distance. I think if we had gone the "strolling" route back and forth, the whole hike maybe just 6 miles total. But I think we definitely went a little more than that.

We started at Valley Green Road, at the Valley Green Inn area and hiked leisurely to the intersection of Lincoln Drive and Forbidden Drive. It was strange along the way because we did not see any of the listed "point of interest" such as Devil's pool that we wanted to see, but didn't really bother us since we were talking all the way.

The hike was so leisure that when we reached the intersection and look at the map of the park, we were thinking we could have gone further. Then we started looking for the "landmark" called the "Lover's leap". It is said to be the place where the Indian chief's daughter and her lover had leaped off the cliff.

That was when our hike really begins. We started going deep into the trail (the real trail). Kept walking and wondering where is the place where they leaped. Apparently... we still have no clue till now what we are looking at... There were a couple of places we thought might just be the place. So we have decided to simply assume that one of the sections we went to is the Lover's Leap! =D

The hike back from Lincoln and Forbidden Drive intersection was the true hike. We were walking among trees, on rocks and logs and water and whatever. But we were kinda rushing because it was getting late and we did not know how far of a walk it was to get back to the starting point. But it was only on the way back we saw the various "point of interest"... The Monastery on Kitchen's Lane (believed it is the monastery), Fingerspan and Devil's Pool, crossed a pretty nice covered bridge etc.

Overall, nice hike! I am guessing we hiked at least 7 miles in total (with all the detour we took) and it took us a good 5 hours with some stops in between to snack and take photos.

On the difficulty scale with 10 begin the most difficult, I think this hike is probably a 1-2 kind of thing. Good start I guess... Need to start exploring more!!!

City is covered in snow =]

Today is a cold cold day!

It has been snowing since yesterday evening and I was expecting the snow to stop in the middle of the night. Obviously, its 7am now n it's still snowing quite heavily. Pretty surprised because the city never seems to get alot of snow. On days that my company that area were covered with thick white snow, city is always... The same...

Snow is... Quite pretty... But it's simply too cold (and slippery) for me... I hope for the warmth to return soon...

To dearest BIN TAN island...

Today (hmm, actually turned yesterday, half hour ago), was bad and tiring.

Since the night before, the weekend, been having headaches. Not too sure why, maybe been thinking or worrying too much about all sort of things especially work and what lies ahead.

Morning started off quite badly. Weather was damn cold. 4 degree - when I reached office and checked. Almost freeze me to death. On the way to office, there seems to be this thin layer of white color stuff covering the usually green and dewy grass. I would think is snow.

Used to like winter, all the snow and nice, cool weather that we never get in Singapore. I guess it is nice to experience it like while traveling but I dont think I enjoy winter that much anymore. Too freaking cold and troublesome. The worst part has yet to come. The "electrifying" part. Yeah, the static lah. I have already started to get "shock" a couple of times these 2 days. I really hate it.

Anyway, that was morning. Then from 9am, bosses and colleagues started streaming in and so did the workload. All the way from 9am to 6pm, non stop - invoicing, faxing, billing, scanning, asking, fainting... Didnt even had time for lunch. So my packet lunch became my dinner.

Then, on the way home on the bus, I saw message from my dearest BIN TAN... Already having bad headaches, saw her message, almost died of high blood pressure. She got accepted by freaking NUS engineering course part time degree, yet she come and tell me she doesnt want to take it. Makes my blood boils (still boiling, if not I wont be staying up this late to write here). I feel like holding her and gave a a good hard shake, upside down, inside out.

I really hope she understands that it is a pretty good opportunity for her. Honestly, it is not easy getting into a Uni especially since her major is not that common. If she is in the business line, of course it doesnt matter if she doesnt want to study now, cos business schools are kinda like everywhere. But talk about engineering, good ones and recognized ones at least, not alot. I would only really think there are NTU and NUS and probably some courses offered by some big companies and organizations. And she went through all the trouble of going for the courses, just to come and say she doesnt want to attend the course... Seriously, "tao ka pai" ah... (hokkien saying literally means "skull spoil" / "brain spoil")

Dearest ah BIN, you saw my smses to you. Please go through them carefully and think about it. It is really a vicious cycle. You dont do it now, you will just be going round and round and you will never do it anymore.

You might think I will never understand how your BB feels or how you feel. You are right, I dont understand and I dont want to understand for the time being. Because... You also dont understand how I (and everyone else who cares) feel about you not wanting to attend the course. You freaking got the chance and opportunity to study now, you should just do it. You do it now, you might have to live a more... "frugal" life for a while, but it is for the better of your future. Yeah, you dont want to add burden to his family cos they have paid alot. But you think about it, at this level now, do you think you can repay them back anytime soon? 2, 3 years time? Standard of living keeps going up. Everyone has to keep up with the pace. We cant just stay at where we are thinking that things will get better and wait till things get better then we come and do something about it. Cos by not doing anything and remaining status quo, things wont get better, you will just keep lagging... Pfft...

Please, think about it for yourself and for him and his family. I hope you be a bit more rational about this whole thing...

*Note: Serious ah, not threatening you, you dont study right, I think I probably wont go back for CNY le... =)

Suicidal stunts...

Be glad that you are reading this post now because it means that my suicidal stunts today weren't successful!

Today I prepared 2 packages that need to be shipped but cos we dont have much receiving this week so UPS people did not stop by. SO, the clever me wanted to try driving here. The UPS store is very near to the office about half a mile away but cos its all highway type of roads, so walking there might not be an efficient way. So the boss asked if I want to drive there considering that it is so near and direct. I told her if she feels comfortable with the idea of me driving then I dont mind...

Pfft...

Suicidal Stunt # 1: I drove onto the 1 way road in the opposite direct. I dont know what was I thinking about. The road beside the office is 1 way and it is the road that I always take to go home but yet I just don't understand why did I ever made that left turn out to the road! Then I just keep going up to the cross road junction STILL without realizing that I am on a 1 way road in the wrong direction!!!

Suicidal Stunt # 2: Then at the junction, I know I need to go right to get to destination, so I need to make a RIGHT turn. Singapore, right turn is always the outer lane yeah, but here, right turn is always the inner lane! So... I turn onto the OUTER lane... Then I only managed to realized I turn into the wrong lane! So what I did was, I saw this "small road" after the turn and there weren't cars coming out from there. So I thought I could do a 3 point turn to get back onto the correct direction.

Suicidal Stunt # 3: My plan could have worked but I got so nervous that while doing the turn and reversing, I step too hard on the accelerator and reverse too much and fast back that the car went onto the side and got stuck there. STUCK. The car couldn't get out of that place.

HAIZ... So I quickly called my boss to tell here I was in some sort of trouble and she get another colleague to come and help me out. While I was waiting, some guy coming down from that "small road" saw my pathetic situation and stopped to try and help.

He first advised me to full turn right and accelerate hard. Didnt work.
Then he went behind the car and tried to push it up onto the road. Didnt work too. Then my boss and colleague came. She tried to loosen the soil up around the tire hoping that might help. Then I told her to drive and I will do the pushing from behind, cos I can see that I didnt go too far down, should be pushable. Initially, I just pushed. Wont work. Then I tried to lift and... IT WORKED!!! Luckily, I am not the weak type, thanks to all the basketball trainings, exercises and working here that build up my muscles... haha! =p

Oh, then I have to explain what I said "small road" with the inverted commas... Because, it is not any small road... The road is actually linked to the expressway, which means, cars coming down from that road, will be coming at pretty high speed and not visible from afar... meaning you prob wont know when a car will be coming until it is like right in front of you that kinda idea... =.="

Nice right? Can you imagine in all the 3 stunts I performed, all could have gotten me into some very serious accident... Esp. for stunt #2 and 3...

Oh and... I still havent realised the mistake of the 1 way thing when performing stunt 3. I only found out when I called my boss to tell her I was in trouble... She was surprised I didnt know that road is 1 way... =(

NICE NICE NICE! Haiz... but I am in quite a bit of a trauma I think whenever I thought about the junction... all the cars from the other 3 sides I think were very very shocked... Sorry about that!!!

I think I seriously need to re-take my driving test here.

Jam... lifeless...

Yesterday morning was ridiculous... Pissed me off... Everyday, I take the exact same bus at 6.45am and usually I will reach office at 8am. That morning same bus but I reached office at 9.03am and I had to half RUN there... The jam started at 7.10am or so and lasted all the way till almost 8.20am and I just reached Wissahickon Transfer Center, which is like not even exactly halfway to work. From there it will take a good half an hour to 40 mins to reach office...

So angry. The whole purpose of taking the earlier bus is so that I wont be caught in the jam and can be on time or early!

Haiz, things still not looking too good here. My daily is like: I leave for work before day break and get home after night fall... What kinda of life is that man... 1 day spent 3 hours on travelling, is such a waste of time.

At least even if I work later at sunny sun, I still get to go for my lindy class at 8pm, the most by taking a cab. Here you wanna take a cab also difficult. Cabs are mostly seen in center city, suburbs... if you see one you probably can take down the plate number (if any) and go buy 4D or toto lah... That was why the first day I got lost on the way to work, knowing that I had past the stop, I did not just alight, cos I know this is not SG, not like you can get a cab easily...

I think I will grow fat, fatter and FAT!!! Cos everyday is eat, work, eat, eat, computer, sleep... well fed... I want to go swimming... haha, firstly weather here is like damn chill lah, if they have any outdoor swimming pools around, I think I can just jump in and freeze myself into ice cube. Secondly... are there even swimming pools here?!?! Then I wanna play basketball... Where are the courts?!?!?! Back home, so many choices: Cheng San, KBCC, NP, prob NUS too... Freakin accessible lah... here... ~!@#$%^&

Help... I just received an sms from a NUS friend asking if I wanna go catch a movie next week... haha! I wish man... =) I will reply her tomorrow, asking her to buy an air ticket here and watch movie together...

Life in United States... (bad)

Today is the 7th day in Philly. If I can start blogging it goes to show how ULTRA bored I am. I simply have nothing much to look forward to. I really really really miss all my good old friends. All the sessions (poker! taxes "hold'em"! wahaha!), basketball games, mahjong, dinners... Talking about dinners... I think I have already eaten at least 3 out of 7 days of instant noodles (mee pok from Singapore). Oh man, I really really miss the food back home... My "ba cho mee"... =(

Life here...:

1) Traveling / Transport - Oh man, sucks. My workplace is like a freaking 1hour 15mins of bus ride. Not that it matters alot lah, but hor, back home when I travel from home to NUS, it also takes about 45mins to 1 hour, but then, it just didnt feel thattt longggg. Maybe cos' of TV mobile (though most of the time I am asleep) and the seats are also actually much more comfortable than those of SEPTA's.
*SEPTA = SBS Transit in Singapore, the operator of all the buses here.

And public transport here is also pretty expensive. They have "tokens" here which is supposed to be cheaper as compared to using cash alone. One token is USD$1.45. There are different zones and will cost different lah. But minimum one trip using cash is $2 or a token. For me, my workplace is in Zone 4, so I need to use 1 token + $1.50 = $2.95 per trip. 1 day will cost me $6. 1 month = USD$120.

Haiz, so people, please dont complain that Singapore bus fare is expensive (haha! Actually I always complain one!) Compare the quality of the buses, the service and the frequency of buses, the fare in Singapore is really reasonable to a certain extent.

I have thought of investing some money in a second hand car, but I think, not now ba, I still dont know how much am I being paid for the job monthly... *dumb*


2) My job - I will have to be a general worker / receptionist for like a month! Receiving items from UPS, DHL, Fedex, USPS, answering phone call by saying

"Good Morning/Noon! You have reached XXX. I am SORA. How can I assist you?"

~!@#$%! I think that takes about 20 secs to complete...


3) House (e place you call home...) - Haiz, the place I am living in is like an apt type. Dont imagine those nice scenes of those american houses you see on TV. It's on the 3rd floor, basically there are 2 rooms, a so-called living room, a bathroom and a half kitchen. Why I call it half kitchen is cos, its a small area, a bar like type of place. So compared to proper kitchen, its more like a bar. Oh and there is NO windows in the living room, only 1 in one of the room and 2 in the other room. What does this means? Insufficient lighting!!! And another problem is that there is no place for this thing call washing machine and dryer. So laundry how?

Option 1: Carry all your dirty linens for the week or 2 weeks or 1 month, go like 2 streets away to the laundry shop and use the washing machines there to wash your clothes. Its coin-operated type. I think 1 wash is about $2 or so? If you choose SUPER wash (dont know what's the freakin diff), then more ex. Also, here people use dryer to dry instead of hanging out the clothes to dry. So then you have to pay for the dryer too, er, I think is a quarter will dry for 7 mins. Usually you need at least half an hour of drying, depending on your load too. I think if you split the load might be cheaper and faster.

Option 2: Bring out all pails, scrubs etc, go into the bath tub and manually wash it yourself!

Haiz... Last time when I was here, I used to go for Option 1. This time, I decided it cost too much and too troublesome to walk here and there, so I went for Option 2 today. Pfft... so bad, if I do it at home at least there is a proper bath room with enough space for 2 to 3 pails to do the washing. Here, the pathetic little bathroom has everything, a bathtub, a toilet bowl, a wash basin. All in one, imagine how small it is and you can probably only do the washing by squatting in the tiny bathtub. The comes the drying. Normal clothes I am ok lah, but today I washed a freaking thick towel lah. My arms can still feel the twisting... I think I will develop alot of arm muscle when I go back...


4) Food - Singapore is better, so much better... Talking about food, from next week on I have to bring my own lunch box to work because the office is located along those highways and there is no way I can get over to the other side of the highway by walking, eat and get back to office in time. Even if I drive, I feel its too troublesome too. Haiz... back in SUN, there were so many choices... Chinatown, Clarke Quay, Hong Lim, the fish dumpling... *****


5) Language - Before coming over, I told my friends that I am worried that I might not be able to communicate with people here. To a certain extent I think it is quite true. I think because I dont speak with that kinda accent, the pronunciation, tone and everything might sound a bit different to them. At work, luckily quite a number of them are chinese, so we speak chinese sometimes.


Pfft... The first 4 days here were still pretty nice because the guy renting this house was still around and I at least have someone to talk and joke with. But he moved out 2 days ago. Sigh... Lonely... Tomorrow wont be alone anymore cos roommate coming back, but well actually... haiz... dont say le...

1050pm... Think I going to bed... SEE!!?? ME going to bed at 11PM!!! I never do that in Singapore. Most of the time I am only home probably at night or I will be busy watching all the great TV programs at this golden hour... Oh ya, I only have a CRT TV here and no reception, cant watch a shit... Can do something about it, by applying for cable tv or whatever, but, haiz... this stupid old house, dont even know if it will work well...

OFF TO BED... (10.55pm)

Something wrong..

There is something seriously wrong. Been reflecting and thinking, really need to do something to change. Past 2.5 years in school makes me feel quite demoralised, thought that I can stop feeling that way (or feel less of it..) after coming to the 社会大学. Ha... worse... Feel totally... helpless, useless... 真是无奈...

I know there is alot of things that I should have done and reacted to them in a certain manner, but then, dont know leh, dont know why I do it in another way instead. But I think I am learning. If there is nothing very technical for me to bring home from this job, there is definitely alot of soft skills I seen and know that I should pick up. In any case, haiz, since I wont be here for long, forget it... get it over and done with and I hope I will (be able to remember and) apply those soft skills I seen here to the new environment that I am moving to soon... =( but I got a not so good feeling that I will fall into the same situation again... haiz...