retail therapying.

ok so the batam trip didn't materialise. which was met with a half-hearted sadness, having spent many many dollars helping the singapore economy grow this weekend. (1 bag, 1 dress, 2 tops, 1 book, 1 magazine, 1 pair of shoes, 4 CDs - david cook, john coltrane, sting, johnny cash, 2 DVD TV boxsets, 2 movie DVDs). in my defense, 90% of my loot is discounted heavily. :)
anyways thanks to J our batam trip has been miraculously transformed to a paintball trip, a BBQ+wii+games+rock band overnighter. yay.

(just realised my 4 new CDs are really a strange mix. eclectic. sounds nicer.)

my service learning project is over! in the midst of the planning frenzy and all the last-minute drama, all my frustrations were replaced with joy and love for the sweet children i met over the course of the 2 days. and i admit i play favourites with children that are lovely and cute and sweet and some who say the darnest things.

(in response to a boy who was throwing tantrums at the reception area) this girl looked up nonchalantly from her drawing and colouring and remarked,
"i feel like throwing naughty children down the rubbish bin... and flush them down the toilet."

someone please slap me if i spend anymore money before my japan trip (with the exception of c&k warehouse sale).

and speaking of trips, berlin photos are here. :)


the brandenberg gate in its sun-shined glory. :)


yummy breakfast at a breakfast joint opposite the train station.


the amazing marble artwork on the pillars of the entrance to the Reichstag. the reichstag first housed the parliament of the german empire, before hitler wrecked havoc, overthrew the government, declared dictatorship and you know the rest. reichstag was burnt down to the ground during the nazi years and they rebuilt it.

the roof of the reichstag.


the inside of the dome. amazing architecture.


the glass roof of the dome on the reichstag building. so beautiful.



this is currywurst, everyone. german sausages with curry powder and tomato sauce. really really good. road-side and delish. :)

the WWII memorial. in the middle of the city.


an old church in the shopping district of berlin. it's partially destroyed by the war, bombed by the allied forces. they left the destroyed bits as they were, perhaps as a reminder of the horrors.


shian, my dear friend on attachment in berlin, showed us around and brought us around for good food and provided free accomm. :) and my banana beer, oh-so-good part 1.


this is oh-so-good part 2. pork knuckle! my travel mates and i were already dreaming of this, german beer and german sausages before we even came to germany. :) :)

the end of madness!

the ground of the WWII memorial
berlin, germany

my semester is over! well short of one final comm skills lesson tmr, and 3 assignments to complete over the holidays, but still! i'm in the midst of the OC season 2 dvd marathon. boy, do i miss it. and i just finished studio 60 on the sunset strip on dvds. and the subtitles help with the rapid-fire dialogue, so i'm quite glad to bask in aaron sorkin's genius writing since the west wing ended.

well this holidays i'm looking forward to the sister being back from all her travels and finnish work and tell me all her stories. plus christmas! i love the songs for this year's concert, as always. and learning choreo for big dance numbers are always tiring but i shall press on and find my youthful energy again! there's also a batam trip, a japan trip, and a pending bangkok and hongkong trip. yay. with trips-planning comes thinking about past trips.

germany photos are akan datang!

history lessons.

i realize that one of my i'm-too-busy-and-stressed coping mechanisms, among many others, is to write about my travels and look at my photos. plus i'm really looking forward to japan in december and wearing winter clothes again. (:

here are my snaps of berlin, germany. to help me cope with the 5-6 deadlines-a-week NIE life.

the very majestic brandenburg gate.
site of many historic moments of germany.
constructed in 1700s, it survived 2 world wars and is still standing tall in relatively good conditions. it was site of the armies allied forces marching to meet the nazis, part of the berlin wall separating east berlin from west berlin.

there's a fascinating story regarding the brandenburg gate, the french embassy in berlin and the french. the square surrounding the gate is called pariser platz, which means paris square.
the statue at the top of the gate is victoria, the goddess of victory, which replaced the goddess of peace after germany defeated france in the prussian war in 1800s. and victoria is fixing her gaze on the building on pariser platz that is the...

french embassy.
plus a similar statue rests on an arc in paris,
just a stone's throw away from the louvre.
the arc du tromphe du carroussel.

i love the greek columns.

a silky terrier (?) on our walking tour.
this little guy sits down and rests when our tour guide, rachel was telling us stories and historical facts. he got a little tired after awhile.

usually i forget why i take a photograph if it was something ordinary. but i never forgot this, 'cos it was where Hitler's bunker used to be. the very same bunker where he and his wife committed suicide by ingesting cynanide the day allied forces bombed berlin.

now, there are no remaining monuments or historical artifacts that are related to hitler existing. the bunker was destroyed along with everything he owned. to prevent neo-nazis from building a shrine or place of "worship". what was scary was that on his death anniversary last year, somebody threw rose petals all over this sidewalk.

peeking into the former air force headquarters of the nazi forces.
now the building is a government office, i think the ministry of tax.

standing in the former death strip,
a strip of land between the 2 walls of the berlin wall.
snipers and soldiers guard this strip 24/7 and shot anybody who tries to cross it.
of course, there were a few success escapes.
the stories we heard from our walking tour guide immensely interesting.
i really couldn't type them all out here.
i remember one involving a guy who traded a west berlin girl (he picked up and romanced) to free his girlfriend trapped in east berlin, only to be thrown into jail (both of them) 'cos the traded girl was the daughter of a high-ranking government official.
another involved driving a very short convertible under the barrier gates of checkpoint charlie (photo below).

of course, the events that led to the fall of the berlin wall were also SO fascinating, even though XH fell asleep. (: one guy's PR mistake led to the reunification of germany - is a story that should be made known to everyone.

checkpoint charlie.
a border crossing used by americans, allied forces and foreigners.
and no charlie is not the name of the guy that founded the checkpoint.
it's just the military alphabet thingy.
alpha, beta, charlie, delta.
this is the 3rd of 8 border crossings.

a monument for the mothers of soldiers who perished in the world wars.
with an open roof, the mother looks as if she's crying when it rains.

the berlin cathedral,
located on an island within berlin,
called museum island.
it's greenish tinge exterior reminds me of the statue of liberty.
well it was bombed by the allied forces during WWII, but is now restored.

the traffic light man!
a national campaign to get their children to observe traffic light rules,
they redesigned their traffic light man to this cute guy.
and then very smartly, launched all kinds of memorbilia and an official store.

the tv-tower of berlin.
my travel mates strike a pose.
don't know what the C sisters are doing. (:

this is AK, chilling out on a chair on the sidewalk,
while the girls check out a vintage store.
but it seems that they are leaving without us. hmmm.

gloomy and quirky.

the next city to host the olympics. today's ST has an opinion written by neil humphreys which was hilarious. i love his writings. he takes a dig at the 8-min strange "quirky" presentation team GB did at the closing ceremony, david beckham (moving to LA, still promoting britain, and kicking the soccer ball really lamely into the field of volunteers), the dismal city infrastructure and congestion and human-traffic. oh well, china pulled it off against all odds and criticism. so i'm sure they can pull it off.

and meanwhile, in the midst of the 10000 deadlines i have in school, 10000 readings and assignments and having to travel to siberia everyday in the week, i dream about travelling again. (:

along river thames, on london bridge. (:

taking a break.
guess what we used to play indian poker - train tickets.
you gotta applaud our improvisation.

now that's NOT london bridge.
london bridge looks really ordinary (like our esplanade bridge).
this nice-looking one is tower bridge.

at big ben, and you see our conquests from absolute vintage.

from the fences of the parliament house. we stayed around to hear the big ben chime 7 times. (:

westminster abbey. we didn't go in though, a service was going on.

buckingham palace on a really gloomy wet day.
and they cancelled the changing of the guard ceremony. :(

so to entertain ourselves, we tried 1000 to fit all of us, a camera under an umbrella.
this was one of the only successful attempts. (:

postcards from london.

london didn't live up to my lofty expectations. but thinking back, i think it was still quite enjoyable, save for the rain that fell lightly and continuously for 2 whole days. i'll always remember london for its vintage finds, prince william, the british accent, way too expensive tube tickets, musicals at west end and jamie bamber. (:

early morning rush hour at a king's cross platform.

blue skies and white fluffy clouds.

the grand and old atrium of the museum of natural history.

a cool afternoon for a stroll at hyde park/kensington gardens.

beach chairs dotting the greenery around the lake.

swans-a-gather at hyde park.

smile for Piccadilly circus! those yellow lots on the monopoly board.

somewhere around leicester square. home of west end.

saturday morning at portobello market. my kind of saturday. (:

home-made quiche, anyone?

tulips, my favorite flower. other than daisies.

the colors of portobello.

am currently in the middle of a battlestar galactica marathon. another smart and witty series, because i'm a geek, this is sci-fi and i love it. the show reached cult status, much like star trek (which i cannot appreciate) and lost (which i find so intriguing). within 2 weeks, i'm at the home stretch of its 4th and final season, with the 2nd half of the season airing next year. there's much to think about the issues raised by the show - politics, war, existentialism, religion, race, genocide, sexuality, violence and morality.

scotland's highlands.

edinburgh, with snaps of the scottish highlands.

on calton hill. a lonely tree stands.
calton hill was a great place for my melancholy shots.

here, nelson's monument again.

and the national monument.

everyone, meet hamish, the highland cattle.
actually, hamish is a generic scottish name.
much like tom, dick, and harry for americans.

hamish here is absolutely hilarious and adorable. (:
and highland cattle are native to the scottish highlands.

a hybrid tulip growing in a farm where hamish lives, near perth.

for the entire day's drive, this is what we see.
just mountains, green pastures, rivers, lakes and the occasional castle.

as much as i wanted to, i can't remember the names of these places.
they offer sweeping views of valleys and mountains.
and the vastness of it all just reminds me of the vastness of God's love.

"For I am so persuaded that neither death nor life,
nor angels nor principalities nor powers,
nor things present nor things to come,
nor height nor depth,
nor any other created thing,
shall be able to separate us from the love of God
which is in Christ Jesus our Lord."
- Romans 8:38-39

anyway, i can tell you that we headed north out of edinburgh,
to Dunkeld, a small town in a region called perth.
passing by the Forth Bridge, filming locations of the famous BBC tv drama,
"monarch of the glen".
we passed many lochs (say laww-kks with your throat),
including loch laggan.
lochs are lakes, in gaelic,
the ancient language of scotland and ireland.
we also passed fort augustus, a small town by a huge loch.
very charming and pretty and quiet.

love the nature. (:

the commando monument.
built to remember the soldiers of the elite force
who trained in this part of the highlands during the 2nd world war.
they were established by sir winston churchill
when britain was at the losing end of the war.

the mysterious and famous loch ness.
on board our cruise was sonar and don't-know-what-other-fancy-gadgets
to try and scan the depths of the lake for the mysterious monster.
i really don't know where to stand.
to believe or not to believe.
much like bigfoot in america.

anyway the equipment allowed us to see the depths of the lake,
was pretty cool to see that the lake plunges several meters
deeper in the center than its 2 sides.
did i mention i love physical geography? (:

other than the monster, which last reported sighting was a few months ago,
the lake was so beautiful and quiet and vast.
it's unthinkable that a beast would lurk in these waters.

alright, we also went pass fort william, a bigger town, but still very pretty.
and ben navis, the highland's highest mountain.
and glencoe, the town where a huge massacre took place in the 1600s.
which was also a filming hotspot for many movies,
including harry potter and the prisoner of azkaban.

speaking of which, the famous bridge where harry almost fell out of the flying car trying to catch up with the train to hogwarts in harry potter and the chamber of secrets.
the bridge is in the scottish highlands.
but too far away for my tour to go to. :(

alright, we also passed the rob roy country and the stirling castle,
a very important castle of the kings of scotland in the past.

and then we headed back to edinburgh.
tired but a lot smarter on the history of scotland. (:

p.s. i still find the scottish accent hard to understand when they talk really fast.
which happens a lot.