Wednesday, May 18, 2005

Yay!!! I've passed my driving. Finally. Was so nervous that my left leg went into spasmodic contraction which I had no control of. Almost couldn't do half clutch in the circuit. Fortunately, circuit came and went without any problems. Thought my driving on the road was quite ok except for the last part when I stalled just before turning into the driving centre. Still, I managed to accumulate 14 demerit points. Oh well, a pass is a pass. Shall be able to drive the volkswagen polo til its 10 yr life expires this year. So supper anyone?

Damn irritated my ibook is down. Good thing I firewired my documents to Liana's powerbook before my dad sent it to the service centre. Gave me a shock. Shall have to get an ipod to back up my documents then. Was hoping the battery life would improve or the price would drop before i get it. This scare only means I've to get it soon.

Sick Sick Sick. A bug is flying around! My dad, mum, sis and I are all having the same symptoms of sore inflamed throat and cough. Am trying to fight it with listerine instead of going to see the doc. Must get well before MUNUS!

Saturday, May 14, 2005

Just came back today. Quite lazy last few days at Koh Tao. But still fun. Going for Fay's birthday dinner now. So Thailand details will have to wait.

denise> do i still have to go hk? realised my bank account is running low. n need to save up for europe next year. is gal ok with being the only guy? i'm sure it'll be ok u know....

Monday, May 09, 2005

9 May

Advanced Open Diving Course starts today! We get to choose 3 specialties and have 2 compulsory ones namely, navigation and deep diving. All of us chose peak buoyancy, and night dive as our options. The last one, there were variations. Dick, Greg (from Scotland) and I chose photography, while bang, yauhong, renjun chose naturalis (looking at fish and identifying them, and jasper chose multi level computer(learning how to use diving computer).

Off we went for the first 2 dives today. The water looked calm today so... phew. But i still took 2 seasick pills just in case. Suddenly, the boatman shouted, 'strong wind and wave 30 minute.' There, far in the horizon, we could seen a stretch of dark clouds creeping towards us. OH no... bad weather again. Strong winds, pouring rain. we were all freezing! Fortunately, it passed as quickly as it came. So we had nice clear waters once again.

We learnt how to control buoyancy just by breathing, so we can hover just above the corals or ground without touching them. There was also the upside down hover so that our head was just a few centimetres above the ground. That was quite challenging. Bang had some trouble and he kept banging his head on the sea floor.

Besides learning how to control buoyancy and navigation, Jasper and I also had a great day. We saw parrot fish, grouper, butterfly fish, puffer fish, barracudas, and other commmon small fish. Yoo hoo!!! Best day. THe other day I saw a really small octopus under a rock. I still hope to see a trigger fish and the one every divers yearns to see- the gigantic whale shark. THere have been many sightings, but we haven't seen them yet. Hope we can see them on our final few dives tommorow.

3 dives tmr- deep dive where we go to 30m, photography dive where I learn to take the best shots and the night dive. I'm beginning to love Koh Tao. I feel so at home here. We know all the shops, we recognise everybody, we love planet scuba and the people there, we love yang's kitchen where we have cheap and good meals, and best of all we get to see beautiful people, fish and scenery. Man... can I not leave this place, cos it'll only mean i've to get back to studying...

well... i'll just enjoy my final 3 dives and shopping.

Nitrox Addict
8 May
Whoa finally got my open water diving certification. So I'm a qualified diver now! But it was not easy getting it. For our final 2 dives, we went out to the southwest pinnacle. The waters were quite choppy, but I've never been seasick even when I was on Uncle Gerard's boat, so I refused the seasick pills. Shit man... when we were a bout to go in, I felt totally terrible. Deep under at 18m, I had a little difficulty breathing, so I was concentrating more on breathing than looking at the beautiful surroundings. Not surprising, I used up my air relatively quickly.

After surfacing and putting down the gear on the boat, I felt so sick that I threw up my morning's breakfast of chilli burger and milk and the 1 seasick pill. My chest felt much better and I took another 2 more yellow pills. So the all energetic team singapore was totally down yesterday. Renjun, Dick and I were all just lying on the sundeck. All pale and green.

The second dive was at white rock, another location where it was shallower and less choppy. Managed to enjoy the aquatic flora and fauna better. If fact, we had quite a bit of fun by posing in front of the video cam with sunglasses on. So we had a funny video clip of our final 2 dives. Shall post a short clip online if I can.

We celebrated on our becoming qualified divers by doing what we haven't done in a long long time. Arubang! and it was caught on video! Wonderful, Bang enjoyed it so much... hahaha

Saturday, May 07, 2005

Hello from Koh Tao Island Thailand!
Went for my first confined dive underwater today. It was really fun learning all the skills underwater. Water's really clear like the blue swimming pool, only that this pool has lotsa fish swimming around. Had a little panic in the begin when i wasn't used to breathing air from my regulator. Felt like I was having asthma and so wanted to give up and go to the surface. Fortunately I didn't give up. Super super fun! Can't wait for the ACTUAL DIVES 1 and 2 tomorrow. Heard that they saw stingrays yesterday and there have been whale sharks sightings everyday. Really hope we can see them! Well... off to study for my final dive exam now. Phew... the heat's killing me. I've been sweating all day. Even after a nice cold shower.

Monday, May 02, 2005

Thailand. Ko Tao. Bangkok. Thailand. Ko Tao. Bangkok. Thailand. Ko Tao. Bangkok.
Eat. Shop. Dive. Relax. Can't wait!
Now that it's over. I wanna say thanks to all my friends and my family! I think this birthday has been crazy!!!! Lots of eating. Hanging out. And.... I've never received so many pressies in my life! Not even at Christmas when i was young did i receive so many... Thanks for muthu's curry. Thnx for tiramisu cake. Thanks for Island creamery choc ice cream cake. Thanks for the thailand trip dad! Thanks for seafood at JB! Thanks for gay purple shirt. Thanks dee for sesame street minis with one and only 1 bert. Thanks for the monkey shirt dick. thanks for incy wincy spider tarantula dong n zj. n thanks for whatever u have for me kerl. hmmm... did i miss anything else? guess not... yay! now it's a happy birthday!

Sunday, May 01, 2005

Wheee!!!!
Heavy load off my chest. Whirlpool out of my system. One bug swatted. One more to kill. Not before I run away first. To Thailand! Can't wait. Then I come back. With renewed strength. To give the last bug one forceful whack!
Bugsome
Ever thought why things BUG you? Why is it BUG? Do they irritate you, scare you, pester you, freak you, disturb you, simply piss you off like BUGS do? Does it help when you have more than one BUG? grrrrr.... if only things were as easy as taking the rolled newspaper and smacking them so that they become flattened and squished and stop BUGGING you. BUG off!

Thursday, April 28, 2005

Thanks everyone for the birthday celebration in JB. Really appreciate it. Thanks for the treat, the delicious food, the gifts, the party sprays, the cake and most importantly the company. Never felt so loved since.... last week. hahaha. Amazing to have met such great friends. Thanks jianhong, ET, cow, sel, jasper, jianbang, yijun, renjun, hb, toh han, diya, victor, daniel, wenxian and huang yi. Love you guys!

Monday, April 25, 2005

23rd Avril
These 2 days I've been moody and cranky. Not sure why, lack of sleep? Birthday Blues?
I dunno. Woke up really late on 23rd, as usual turned on com and wasted time. After much procrastination, thought out what I wanted to do for the day and set out. 1st, swimming. 30 laps of slow swimming. So slow everyone just swims past you. No goggles, so eyes smarted. Dry and irritated. Yes irritated for unknown reasons like I am. Was cranky towards mum, wanted to go town and drink latte(my new fav drink, love the froth). Planned got screwed up when mum wanted me to go home to cut cake. ok... gave in. wanted to go subway and have a healthy salad. Mum 'da baoed' rice from me at ngee ann poly. grrrrr!!!!

Came home, dad tapped me on the head. I dunno if it was meant to be affectionate or what. but i became pissed off. so i just threw everything i was carrying onto the ground and kicked it. din really throw a tantrum. at least it wasn't too obvious. dad gave me my birthday present and mum brought out my cake. got the biggest birthday gift ever!!!! he's sponsoring my thailand diving trip.... woooooo! and ate the choc ice cream cake from serene centre. and it was mood lifting and sweet! felt much better after. Was so full at 3pm, how were we to eat buffet at 6? so told mum to change it to 7.

Got a ride from mum to orchard. Saw fiona xie!!!! She and chew chor meng were taking a break from shooting a variety show i think. Having ice cream bread. Fiona's really pretty and this time she put less make up so not too hideous. I just stood and stared at her and she caught me staring. Shit... Wandered round looking for a place to sit down, have my latte and do some MUNUS work on my laptop. but everywhere was so crowded!

Grrrr.... hate this post. It's gonna become like a timetable for the day. Shall just summarise everything.
Found a seat at Starbucks Paragon. Saw Dennis Yee and Chengxun. Went to have thai buffet with family at Safra Club. Was greeted by a woman with a man's voice. Whoa... really authentic thai place. Haha.. There was not one but a few transie waitresses. Food was bad! Knowing me... I'm always ok with food. As long as it's edible. But the food was no way good! The only decent one was Paad Thai. The fried tung hoon, reminded me of the one i fried in cambodia. Spicy, black and crappy. Even i think I fried a little better that. Basil restaurant at Safra Club... definitely a place never to go!

Met up with Dong and Zhi-jun. Slacked around at Clarke Quay and Boat Quay. Love the relaxing ambience at TCC. Bean bags, sitting on the floor, paintings on the walls, arty fashion magazines for reading pleasure. Fabulous!

day after
really bad. slept like really late, near 5? so couldn't wake up in time for church. had to rush. went to church and was so sleepy, i kept nodding off. argh.... so guilty. next week, i'm going early and listen attentively!!!

cow's parents were so happy to see me. the half son is finally back! yea... so i just chatted for a while, kept awake by the black coffee. the next moment, i'm home and conked out on my parents bed. supposed to go rj and meet the guys for a game of touch. ended up waking up late and cranky once again.

my mum had bought tickets for a void deck party w/o informing us. only told us last min. grrrr... so i went downstairs... totally stone and unresponsive. refused to get food myself. mum got some popiah for me and it was horrible! the skin was so dry.... after eating nice good popiah skin bought from popiah skin stalls i refuse to accept any other. the disappointing popiah and salad made me so pissed, i decided to go back up. packed my bag for touch and ultimate frisbee.

the guys left rj by the time i got there. so met jianhong and bridgette for ultimate frisbee at bishan park. chanced upon kaiyi and my bmt platoon mate at the clinic as well. what a surprise! so we flicked our wrist, learnt the techniques of shooting the flying disc, the rules of game and tactics. Think it was the most fun I've had in 2 days! Adrenaline rush! Learnt how to throw a frisbee before and was in foxtrot wing frisbee team for ocs carnival before i disrupted. so i had no problem integrating into the game fast. The players are so good! really envious. they're asking all of us to sign up for a league and join the ultimate frisbee community. i dun mind... but i'll have to see. need to spare time to study for supp too. yep anyway... hope tmr will be a good day!

Friday, April 22, 2005

muthu food


muthu food
Originally uploaded by dehanh.
yummy muthu's curry!

@ isaac's


@ isaac's
Originally uploaded by dehanh.
sticky and me!

april babies


april babies
Originally uploaded by dehanh.
happy birthday!

indian trio


indian trio
Originally uploaded by dehanh.
i love this curtain!!!

mayahee mayahoo


mayahee mayahoo
Originally uploaded by dehanh.
crazy people doing the fat man dance!

guess who?


guess who?
Originally uploaded by dehanh.
guess who is in this photo!!!!
good ole sec 1 days.
April babies
Happy belated birthday isaac! happy birthday liana!

Was a little apprehensive about going to muthu's curry. Celebrate birthday by eating indian food? Not my idea of a nice meal. Rich, horrible tasting, spicy, weird, yoghurty, curry indian food. eeewww. Still, we went ahead and marched on to muthu's.
A very modern, indian ambience. No weird coconut oil smell or other fragrance. Hmmm... ok so it looks fine. Huge spread of food with a myriad of colours. Red, green, white, yellow, orange, how colourful! So we took a long time choosing our food, confused by the names and colour.
Argh... brain not working already. Stomach filled with gas now. Can't describe properly. So all i shall say is, do not have preconceived biased ideas before experiencing it yourself.
Muthu's Curry Rating: 4 stars!!!
Great tasting indian food. Not too spicy. No weird, uncomfortable taste. Not too rich. Lovely Kashmir Naan. Loved my masala chicken. Even the most unusual dish- cheese cubes with spinach tasted not too bad. quite nice actually. free flow of briyani rice and papadum. Good service. Short of the full marks cos it's not exactly very cheap, most probably due to the place being newly renovated. And.... i'm having lotsa gas and a hot burning ass now! Still.. definitely worth the trouble! :)

Isaac's House
Heard so much about isaac's animal palace. Finally been there! He should hold educational tours for animal enthusiasts and be allowed to keep more than insects. Heard he used to have many other animals including tarantulas and scorpions, but some ass person complained to AVA or something and now they're no more. It's not like he tortures them, he knows all the species names, what they eat, where they're found and how they live. Just animal enthusiasts taking good care of animals. Oh well, i hope he can keep more. So i got my first hand experience with so many species of stick insects, leaf insects and fruit trees. Learnt alot from isaac. The stick insects are so cute!!! They hang and sway from side to side. They may look menacing with such long legs, but they're actually very tame. Such beautiful creatures with the features of their environment for convincing camouflage.

Besides the educational tour, we had birthday tiramisu made by lynn! how sweet of her to make it for us! as with all cakes and birthdays, cake smashing is always involved. target:liana koe smasher:zhongyang cameraman:wayne
hahaha... great video taken. would like to post it up, but it's too large a file. besides the wonderful cake smashing, there was even a cake attack on the cameraman by liana caught live on video. totally like blair witch!!! good thing i managed to escape from the cake smashers by protecting myself with cushions. wonderful birthday session ended by adjourning to lynn's house! On to lynn's....

Lynn's Abode
Beautifully painted room. Pink and Orange. Great combination. Absolutely delightful long study table extending the entire length of the room. I love long huge tables! A pity the table I have at PGP now is like 1/20 of the size. :( So spent the time looking through photos of young lynn and her friends and family. Watched funny videos of us taken at various other occasions too. laughed our asses off. went to daniel's blog to watch the mayahee fat man dance. Oh man, the song is playing in my head! ear worm.... go check it out- Mayahee So we were wondering... people are just damn boh liao taking funny videos of themselves and posting them online. Go look at the number of crap, hilarious videos found at kontraband.com. Crazy people with nothing better to do! Then... just as we about to leave lynn's house, one of us suggested videoing us dance like the fat man. argh... we've become the boh liao ppl. Totally hilarious fat man dance done by all of us in unison! At the end of it we were totally exhausted! It was fun! hahahaha... too bad the video's 30 mb and too large to post online. ok here's a small 9s clip from the video we took... not sure if i've enough bandwidth left for this month...
http://www.angelfire.com/falcon/vida/mayaheefull.mpg

yay! wonder what's in stored for me this sat. quiet time or exciting time? i'll think about it....

thanks isaac, liana, lynn, zhongyang, daniel, caroline, amanda and wayne for the fun filled day!
Photos from today!

Thursday, April 21, 2005

oh man... really exhausted today.
out the entire day. but it was fun!
beach rd. golden mile. coach. kl. bangkok. cheap. tiong bahru. mini cornettos. zhong ji mi ma. little boy. clarke quay. cool. hammock. goflykite.com. photos. singapore film festival. eye opener. sleepy.

too tired to narrate story.

good night.

Wednesday, April 20, 2005

great bbq we had last night at eusoff! one of the most successful ones. good food- nicely marinated unburnt wings, grilled hamburgers and cheese, and juiciest juicy sotong balls.
little left overs. fun people.
yoo hoo!

links to photos on the right. or here.

EXTRA!
advertisement for the juicy jianhong brand sotong balls. YUM. SLURP.
http://www.angelfire.com/falcon/vida/P1030031.MOV
it's 7.8mb so it might take a little long to load.