My Post-China Diary in 2007

Originally from Secondary 2 Shanghai Scrapbook. 
(We had to make a scrapbook post trip, and I remember that I totally forgotten about it. So when I was in school I called my mum for help. On the phone, I told her to switch on my (Windows 98) computer and find the folder which already contains the chosen photos, transfer it into a thumbdrive and print the photos for me. I think I printed 100 photos for SGD$40? I selected 100 photos that I wanted to go through again later, but I didn't have time so I had no choice but to ask my mum to print everything.

Page One:
当初我真想去北京，结果投票后上海明显胜出了。我内心感到很失望。但上海出乎我意料之中。那儿又好玩，天气又凉爽。回到新加坡后得知北京的温度竟然高达 35度！天啊！我好幸运啊，我可不想变成 ？呢！(There's a missing word here. 烧猪？)

我们（从新加坡）搭了凌晨1点的飞机。（在飞机上）从窗口往下看，天空实在好看极了！我们在飞机上睡觉，吃早餐。到了上海已差不多是7点钟了。我们收好行李箱，第一次和导游碰面。他姓张，名叫凯凯。

Picture of a blanket of clouds taken from the plane window.


细香葱蛋包以（及）鸡肉香肠，番茄和嫩马铃薯。

Picture of breakfast on the plane.

凯凯带我们到机场的肯德基吃东西。接着，搭了旅游巴士到了上海博物馆。在博物馆看到了各种中国艺术品，精品之类等等。如：中国古代陶，青铜，少数名族工艺等。

Picture of the Shanghai Museum.

到了高桥石化宾馆，我们换成校服，吃过午餐才由巴士带大伙儿到竹园中学交流。我很紧张也很兴奋，不知道和对方能否沟通。
踏进校门口的第一时刻，我们一瞬间感受到竹园中学的热情。认识了最后第二天要在他（她）家住一夜的同学。她的名字叫陈咏纤。我们交换礼物，她给了我自己写的书法，我呢给她一盒巧克力。(I think it was chocolates that were shaped like the merlion)
班里的同学为我鼓掌，我差点儿呆住了幸好及时反应，向老师行礼。

Two blurry pictures of the school taken from the Internet because I didn't print any.

就如在新加坡一样，吃完早餐便到竹园中学上了 5 小时的课。然后我们抵达城隍庙。最令我们整班兴奋不已的是小笼包！我和朋友到了第二楼买小笼包。
你看！16粒＝18人民币！
比在新加坡买到的便宜许多！小笼包以外，我们也叫了一人一碗鸡丝汤。

逛啊逛，看到了许多吸引人的东西。但时间有限，买到的样儿也不多。既然有人买臭豆腐！我还不赶快尝尝。

Picture of 2 baskets of Xiao Long Bao. One basket has 16 pieces.
Picture of the small bowl of soup with shreds of pan-fried egg.

Picture of me wearing a straw hat and eating a piece of smelly toufu on the bus. I remember the picture was taken by Pearlyna. 

晚上，凯凯带领大家来到东方明珠。下车后，天气和下午完全不同。好冷呀！东方明珠外貌壮观，闪闪的灯光带有非常特别的吸引力。在外头拍了几张照片然后就得进去了。东方明珠电视塔有468米那么高。是亚洲第一，世界第三。

Picture of me and Pearlyna with the Shanghai Oriental Pearl Tower in the background.
Picture of me, Pearlyna, Jiaye and Clara with the Shanghai Oriental Pearl Tower in the background.

这就是我在主光层拍下的景色。

Picture of the night view from the Shanghai Oriental Pearl Tower observation deck.

早餐就在上海解决，接着就开时到（开始）苏州的路程。苏州的天气与上海的大有分别。这里就像比较凉爽一点的新加坡。半路，经过了和谐园区。听说他们是代表和谐的铜像。
到了虎丘，我们和新导游碰面。他叫 Jay Chou.

午餐后我们游览寒山寺，它现为佛教活动。
这棵树应该是给（祈求的人，他们先）在红纸上把愿望写下来然后泡（抛）上去希望愿望成真。

Picture of Clara, Jiaye, Pearlyna and me in front of Han Shan Si.

Picture of the tree with multiple red paper stuck on it.

早上的第一个地点是苏州最出名的丝绸厂。因为是早上，所以没几个人影。那天很特别，每个人都只能购买最多三件丝绸。Jay Chou 向我们详细讲解蚕成长的过程。我们到处参观，看看丝绸是如何制作和形成的。

Pictures of multiple processing of silk at the factory. E.g. silk balls boiling in water.
(Thinking back, I'm still quite surprised that they allowed us to walk around ourselves, it really was like a factory and the equipment were all in use.)

这是蚕宝宝所吃的叶子。

Picture of leaves.

午餐吃得饱饱地，游览乌镇后继续到杭州的旅程。在上海和苏州之间，杭州的天气是最热的。离开了我们，又有一位新的导游。名叫？？
明清河坊街好多东西可以买呀。眼前的事物简直琳琅满目。听别人说，来杭州不买天堂伞等于没来过杭州。所以我也买了一把。杭州的羊肉是出了名的，我和朋友各买一串试一试。果然好吃！ (The mutton skewers were bought from the street vendor along the street and it was REALLY good. It was juicy and marinated and sprinkled with herbs like cumin.)

惨了！巴士抛锚了，结果大家得下车一起推。(I think this was quite ridiculous hahaha the bus really broke down, and we all got off the bus to push from behind while the bus driver started the car. Obviously a bunch of kids are not gonna be able to push the entire bus forward... We just got clouded in thick black smoke that emitted from the exhaust, that's all. In the end we had to walk to our destination which was just a couple hundred metres away?)

西湖之夜果然值得一看！表演者非常认真，杂技表演实在太精彩了！如果有机会的话，我一定会在观看一次！

Picture of the acrobat performance.

第五天了，早餐后游西湖，游船。下一个地点是龙井问茶。村长的女儿向我们讲解茶叶的材质，另外还能试喝。泡出来的茶很爽口，在舌头上留下干干的味道。(I think I meant 甘甜。)
龙井茶还有降低血压高的作用。

过后，前往上海。

Picture of Huang Pu Jiang. And a giant teapot in the river, pouring water out from its spout.

第六天！又要会（回）学校上课。上完课得游外滩，黄埔公园。然后游黄浦江。

放学了，书城游（有）七层楼高！逛了两个小时接着到南京路的步行街。我买了三片光碟加上一本英文书当时觉得很满意。但现在觉得那时候应该买多些。步行街什么也没有，只是吃了三块猪肉白菜饺子，味道和小笼包有点儿类似。一级棒！


已经是最后第二天了也是 xiè chéng (Nicholas) 的生日。凯凯买了一个很的（大？小？）的蛋糕庆祝。除此之外，这一天跟其他天大有不同。放学之后便要和你的拍档回家去。我和咏纤搭了德士，我发现德士司机的周围有一片塑胶盖子。原来这是以免打劫。到了她家，感觉真的很奇怪。因为她的妈妈还在烧饭所以我便跟她到楼下的公园散步。途中见识到抓鱼的技巧。那些鱼儿跳啊跳，好像充满了活力似的。他的父母亲不断的叫我多吃，其实我已经很饱了！离开之前，咏纤给我一个妈妈自己亲手串的（礼物。把）珠子串成一个盒子，可以装卫生纸。

我一夜没睡好。因为担心自己起不来，所以不敢入睡。早餐好丰富啊！有鸡蛋，蛋糕，点心，热牛奶，饺子等等。吃的我肚子都肿（？！）了起来。咏纤，她的爸爸还有我一起搭德士到学校去。下车后就告别了对方。=(

Picture of the entire class in front of the Han Shan Si wall. I'm seated on the floor in the middle with my legs sprawled out in front and I remember my mum chided me for doing that because it makes my legs look shorter.

Gastric Flu/Viral Gastroenteritis...

WARNING: This post contains a lot of words like nauseous, vomit, and diarrhea.


What is gastric flu?
The viruses that cause gastroenteritis are spread in several ways, including:

1) eating food or drinking liquids that are contaminated.

2) Touching surfaces or objects that are contaminated and then placing their hand in their mouth.

3) Having direct contact with another person who is infected and showing symptoms (e.g. when caring for someone with illness, or sharing foods or eating utensils with someone who is ill).
---


Never did I expect that it would be gastric flu, in my mind I only suspected indigestion and food poisoning.

Tuesday Night/Midnight

The first symptoms began on the night of 28th February (Tuesday). I had had dinner with my sister at a cafe near City Hall mrt and we returned home after. However I didn't wash up and rest immediately upon reaching home. I used the computer till late (about 2am?) before going to shower and prepare for bed. But that was when I felt the symptoms coming. Before, I was so engrossed in watching 2 Days 1 Night that I didn't notice any other discomfort in my body besides feeling rather thirsty. It was only when I decided that it was terribly late and I needed to shower when I realised that my stomach was super bloated and I was terribly thirsty and when I stood up I immediately felt giddy and slightly nauseous.

Thinking it was indigestion, I got my things and headed to the bathroom. Took a shit (a normal one) and I hoped that all the discomfort would go away soon since I unloaded myself. But nahhh it just got worse!

I hoped that it was indigestion so I drank some water, popped a probiotic and tried to get some rest.

I did not get a good night's rest.


Wednesday

I was slipping in and out of sleep most of the time and whenever I was conscious I could feel the pain creeping into my stomach and I just wanted to escape the pain so I kept sleeping until I couldn't sleep anymore and woke up at around 1pm.

I felt terrible but I knew I couldn't sleep any longer. My mouth was dry, the same symptoms I had the night before had worsened and I knew I had to get it out of my system. So I went to the nearest bathroom and had diarrhea.

Then I went over to the other bathroom to wash up and when I was cleaning my tongue, I had that gag reflex and I knew it was coming, I held it back just enough to rinse the toothpaste out of my mouth and wash my toothbrush before letting it all out over the toilet bowl.

It was disgusting. It's more disgusting when you haven't puked in a long time and you have forgotten how it feels like. It's even more disgusting when you smell your own puke and you feel like puking even more.

Smells like food from last night...

Immediately, like legit immediately after puking, my stomach eased up and my nausea lightened. I thought I was going to be all right from then on but apparently not.

From past experiences, usually if it's food poisoning, the main symptoms would have gone away once you have pooped and vomited the bad stuff out but this time round I remain status quo.

I was dizzy and nauseous and couldn't stand straight because the moment I stood straight, I felt like I was going to puke. Of course, I had no appetite as well. So I forced myself to drink some water and laid on my bed.

Feeling nauseous is the worst feeling ever because you can't stand up, you can't walk around and you can't lie flat down as well. I had to lie in a 30 degree position and my mind still continued to swirl.

Still suspecting that it was indigestion I told my mum about it and she gave me an indigestion pill. But it didn't work.

Despite being dizzy, nauseous and in pain, I even did some leg lifts and squats naively thinking that it would allow me to pass out the toxins in my body.

Every time I drank water, minutes later I had to poop but it was always a lot of gas and liquid.
So I felt like maybe I had to eat to be able to form solids and get things out of my system. I didn't know what to eat, nothing at home seemed easy to digest but I know I shouldn't ingest dairy so I settled on a small apple.

I can't remember the sequences of the day clearly anymore but my mum gave me another pill and I remember eating a banana for dinner.

But I was tired of the repeated diarrhea and nauseating feeling. I could feel like there was something existing in the middle of my chest and my stomach... So I purged and gave myself another round of puking session.


Thursday

I know my mum kept checking in on me. Somehow I wasn't really resting. Every time there was movement in my room like her coming in to touch my face or to open my windows or to ask my questions I would open my eyes. When I finally did wake up and my entire torso was in pain. I think that was the scariest part because I've experienced nauseousness before but not such pain in my torso.

It didn't feel like a stomach ache, it felt like my intestines were aching too. I was also having a back ache and it also didn't feel like a surface ache, it was a dull pain. I googled and pretty much started scaring myself because the net states it might be virus in my kidneys.

I couldn't lie down, I couldn't sit up, I couldn't stand. No matter what I did, it just hurts so bad. It's like the entire area below my chest has cramped up. Like someone punched me repeatedly and it's all aching and bruised. It has already been going on for 1.5 days so decided I'm going to see the doctor.

I washed up, changed quickly and walked like the Hunchback of Notre Dame to the clinic downstairs, my fists were clenched in my pants' pockets.

"Gastric flu." The doctor said after I told him all my symptoms. He checked my temperature, "And a slight fever, 37.5 degree Celcius." I was a bit doubtful when he diagnosed me so quickly and also dismissed it as indigestion or food poisoning. But he was the doctor I went to since I was a kid, so of course I do believe him.

Famotin (gastric)
Dhamotil (diarrhea)
Dimenate (Vomit/giddiness)
Allumag to chew (stomach acid)
Panamol (fever)

Damage: $40

The first few medicines that I took after getting home was the... famotin, dimenate and allumag... (memory getting blurry).

It didn't kick in immediately of course, so I laid back and waited for the effects to come. But it didn't really give me much comfort. 15 minutes later I took the Panamol and the dhamotil. I think the Panamol worked it's magic? I'm not sure but somehow after waking up again, all my pain was gone. I could finally walk normally.

The doc says I could only eat soft foods so my mum cooked oats for me. And I ate that on my bed before slumping back onto my pillow.

I think my mum came back in after to feed me more medicines because it was a 6 hourly time belt thing but I know I woke up at 7ish for dinner. More oats~

After dinner I just craved for so many savoury and spicy foods. Instead of being burdensome, it was quite a relieve though because the previous day everything I smelt or think about was revolting. I remember sitting in the toilet and the smell of sweet and sour pork wafted into the toilet window and I wanted to puke. It just didn't sit in well with my nauseousness.


Friday

I woke up feeling pretty healthy. Didn't feel any pain at all. It isn't easy to forget the experience I had but it really is so easy to forget how much pain I was in. Being able to get up feeling no pain at all is so normal that I can easily forget how much pain I was in for the past two days.

I had breakfast at 9ish, 10ish in the morning — vegetarian kway chap — I tried to eat little but maybe I still overate because after eating, the giddiness and nausea came back and I immediately regret slurping the last bit of kway.

I took the nausea pill and laid back down to sleep. The whole day consisted of sleeping and waking up and sleeping again with random toilet trips in between.

Mum and dad went grocery shopping nearby and came back home. That was when I woke up again at about 3pm. I felt hungry so I ate two digestive biscuits, breaking them into parts and nibbling on them.

Then I went to use the computer and it was soon dinner time.

At about 5.30pm, I was sitting at the coffee table having chau zhou fish porridge from downstairs. It's real comforting when you're sick. But I think I ate too much again? Either that or it's because I finished eating and I didn't walk around to aid the digestion but sat back in front of my computer because soon after I felt a dull cramp in my stomach again.

Irritated, I popped Famotin and walked around...

I really wish I can be fully well again tomorrow morning. I read online that usually gastric flu lasts about 1 to 2 days in adults. Why am I taking so long? Is it because I didn't see a doctor immediately and somehow the virus created more havoc in my body?

Urgh. I don't know. But. Yeah. #firsts. #pleaseneveragain.

P.S. According to the piece of information about gastric flu that I got off the net, it seems like I must have gotten it from somewhere or my hygiene was bad. To be honest I seriously suspect the cafe that my sister and I went to because that was the last thing that I ate. We had truffle fries, steak, baked cheese. Yeah a lot of food for 2 people, which was why I initially thought that I had indigestion! But I didn't like that place, it didn't feel clean enough. I don't know... trust your instincts?

My First Trip To China At 14 Years Old

2007 年上海／苏州／杭州文化浸濡团

SHANGHAI/SUZHOU/HANGZHOU CULTURAL IMMERSION TOUR

23-05-2007 TO 31-05-2007

Departure Flight from Singapore to Shanghai: SQ816 (0115 / 0635 hrs)

Arrival Flight from Shanghai to Singapore: SQ805 (1635 / 2150 hrs)

PLEASE ASSEMBLE IN CHANGI AIRPORT TERMINAL 2, ROW 10 6 ON 22/05/2007 (TUE) AT 11PM.

INFORMATION ABOUT TRAVELLING IN CHINA

TIME DIFFERENCE: No time difference between Singapore and China

WEATHER: 19 degree Celcius – 28 degree Celcius

WATER: Tap water is not safe for drinking. Boiled water is provided in  hotel rooms.

ELECTRICITY: The electric current in China is 220 volts. Adaptor will be needed.

CURRENCY: Renminbi (人民币). You are strongly advised to change it in Singapore. 

Currency exchange rate: S$1.00 = 5.00RMB approximately. 

ITINERARY

First day, 23/05, Wednesday

Morning

早餐后游览上海博物馆

Afternoon

午餐 （酒店用）后去竹园中学交流，上课。

Evening

晚餐结束后回酒店休息。

Notes

高桥石化宾馆。早、午、晚餐。

Second day, 24/05, Thursday

Morning

竹园中学课程

Afternoon

竹园中学课程。城隍庙（不吃晚餐，给学生餐费吃小吃）

Evening

东方明珠

Notes

东方明珠。早、午、晚餐。午餐学校用。

Third day, 25/05, Friday
Morning
早餐后，去苏州游览苏州工业园，虎丘。

Afternoon
午餐后，游览寒山寺， 狮子林，七里山塘街。

Evening
晚餐后，逛观前街。

Notes

环龙商务酒店。早、午、晚餐。

Fourth day, 26/05, Saturday

Morning

早餐后丝绸厂，过后前往杭州。

Afternoon
途中游览乌镇，（午餐乌镇用），抵达杭州后，游明清河坊街。

Evening
晚餐后观看西湖之夜。

Notes

百瑞四季酒店。早、午、晚餐。

Fifth day, 27/05, Sunday

Morning
早餐后游西湖（游船）游岳王庙，花港观鱼，曲院风荷。

Afternoon
午餐后参观灵隐寺，龙井问茶，过后前往上海。

Evening
晚餐（酒店用）后回酒店休息。

Notes

高桥石化宾馆。早、午、晚餐。

Sixth day, 28/05, Monday

Morning

竹园中学课程。

Afternoon
竹园中学课程。游外滩，黄埔公园（拍照）

Evening
晚餐后船游黄浦江。

Notes

高桥石化宾馆。早、午、晚餐。午餐学校用。

Seventh day, 29/05, Tuesday

Morning
竹园中学课程。

Afternoon
竹园中学课程。逛上海书城（2小时）。

Evening
晚餐后，南京路步行街。

Notes

高桥石化宾馆。早、午、晚餐。

Eighth day, 30/05, Wednesday

Morning

竹园中学课程。

Afternoon
竹园中学课程。

Evening
学生往宿竹园中学学生家。老师／1家长和女儿住酒店。

Notes

高桥石化宾馆。早、午、晚餐。午餐学校用。

Ninth day, 31/05, Thursday

Morning

鲁迅纪念馆多伦多文化节。

Afternoon
午餐后乘坐上海磁悬浮列车到机场，乘飞机回返新加坡。

Evening
NIL

Notes

早、午餐。（同学在学生家用早餐）。

Memorabilia Collector or Hogger?

So... The time has come for me to split rooms with my sister. It has been something that she wanted since young. I remember that she wanted to do so when she was in secondary school. I'm all good with it of course, it's time to have some personal space before we respectively get hooked up and married off hahaha.

Anyway, splitting rooms mean a lot of packing. It's almost like moving houses and I have to go through loads and loads of JUNK or should I say MEMORABILIA... Basically everything that from notes to to textbooks to albums to files. My gosh. I'm starting to think I'm a hogger. I wonder if hoggers have good memories or bad memories. Is it because hoggers have bad memories so we tend to keep a lot of things to remind ourselves of what happened in the past? Or do hoggers have good memories so we can remember the past by keeping a piece of memorabilia?

I think I just want to share things with people. Whenever I dig out something from my stash I feel like sharing it with people who are relevant to this particular memory of my life.

I can't believe it's so hard to throw things away, there were even several times when I already threw it into the bag but picked it out again and set it aside. But later decided to throw it away again.

I think I will be updating quite a bit because I'm gonna post photos or write down some of this memorabilia worth taking note of and then throw the physical copy away.

If blogger ever shuts down... ... ... please don't.

A Nightmare — Haunted temple

Yesterday night, my mum showed me this video of a man who can communicate with spirits. At one look at this person, or simply given brief information about a person, he can tell many things like what illness he/she has, how many bank accounts, what kind of behaviour they have at home, how does your house look like, etc...

I had a nightmare during the night. (Oh, nightmare and night...)

I am someone who has a lot of dreams, but I'm not the kind who will be disturbed by my many dreams throughout the night. Maybe about 60% of my time I will remember my dreams when i wake up.

I always find it quite odd and cool that my dreams sometimes have continuity.

It can be a whole episodic continuity where I refresh a dream and it starts exactly the same way but ends differently.

Or it can be an environmental continuity where its the same premises but it feels like another day or another

Or it can be a scene continuity where I just begin from exactly where I left off.

Amazing right?


So my nightmare was about a haunted temple. This dream was a environmental continuity. But I remember, as I was dreaming, I've had this dream before, and it was also a scary one.

Imagine a multi-level open spaced car park. And imagine yourself standing at the second-last level.

(Apparently I put this off several months and I can now no longer remember my dream clearly. dammit.)

I Shook Jung Eunji's Hand. Oh god.

On the 2 April, 2016, I went to Apink's Pink Memory Day concert at Big Box. And it was the best day everrrr (so far) since 2016 started. I can't imagine what would have happened if I didn't go for the Apink concert. Well, I did contemplate indecisively about it because it was in the midst of crazy project submissions but I'm so so so glad that I went for it after all.

Cat 1, A2 seat 11. Not the best seat, but a pretty good seat with a good view and I'm glad that the Apink members took the time to come to our side of the stage.

Although it was a mini concert, but they sang 10 seconds + 1 encore song. I did kinda expect 10 songs but my friend told me they could be singing less than that because it's just a mini concert plus they have games and interview sessions, so I didn't hold my hopes up high. But what a nice surprise nonetheless to get a total of 11 songs :)

Eunji was great on stage, her voice was overwhelmingly good and the performance by Apink in general was just dynamic and interactive. They looked like they were having fun on stage and that's really the essence of going to a concert. You don't wanna be going to one where the artistes just look like they are there for the sake of being so right?

Namjoo have a cervical disc injury so she had to wear a neck brace and sit by the right side of the stage to sing while the rest danced. But it was hilarious and heartwarming to see how each and every member danced around her and stood beside her while singing; trying to include her into their core performance and not isolating her. 

The fan events using the fansigns prepared by Apink International Fanclub, ApinkTown, went really well as well. Kudos to them for forking out the time to do so! I only got the news of Namjoo not being able to dance as per normal yesterday but they already printed out #Get Well Namjoo for the entire concert audience (They could have gotten information prior to mainstream media, but still, good work!). 

And of course, the highlight of the event is definitely the perks of buying Cateogry 1 tickets. I heard they cancelled the event during Apink's full concert a year ago because they ran out of time, but oh boy, thank goodness for the opportunity this time round.

It was a dream come true, 

I hi-fived all six of Apink members;

Took a group photo with Apink with 13 other fans

AND Shook Eunji's handdddd ♥♥♥
It was warm and surprisingly soft and delicate despite her gym workouts and boxing regime.
It wasn't a standard handshake though, it was a 'finger vice' kinda handshake where we held fingers instead of clasping the entire hand. But it's okay, they weren't allowed to have such interactions for the photo op in the first place. So I'll just be glad with what I got. 고마워요!

Eunji was so kind to have accepted my request. During the group photo, Apink was seated on chairs and there was one row of fans behind them and another row squatting in front of them.

I was standing at the back and didn't managed to say hi to Eunji when we took our positions even though she said hi to the three people in front of me. I was slightly disappointed because I thought I lost my chance to interact with her. 

But after the photo, she turned back to say bye! She was really beaming away (like the happy virus she is) and I asked her, "Can I shake your hand?" and extended my hand politely. I wanted to speak in Korean but I was so nervous, I couldn't remember what's "shake hand" in Korean (악수하다). Even after she took my hand and shook it, I could have easily said my thanks in Korean but I said "Thank you". Eunji said, "Thank you" as well. (I guess, when you are nervous you just tend to go back to your comfort zone.)

I think their English proficiency really improved a lot, probably because of the preparations they had gone through before they had gone for the USA tour prior to this Singapore concert. That was what also made up a very interactive show because Eunji and the rest had prepared some English speeches and also yelled out some English phrases to keep the crowd roaring.

The concert started at about 8.30pm and ended at 11.30pm.

What can I say... I really enjoyed it. I'll make sure I get my Korean perfected so that I can use it anytime I want to no matter how nervous I am.

정말 즐거운 시간이 되었어. 다음에 언제 볼수 있을까?

영원히사랑해 영원히함께해 영원히에이핑크!

♥ Charmaine

Mems with no recollection

I kinda went through some of my blog posts and while it brought back some memories, I also realised that there are many other archives that I no longer remember.

Most of the links to other blogs under DRIFTERS are also broken. I am rather surprised to find out about those that are still alive.

I once told a somebody (genuinely forgotten who it was), that it would be cool to simply continue recording events in this online diary. When we are in our 60's or 80's; when we become tech-savvy grannies; when we have nothing better to do; we will be seated in front of the computer, dressed in sheer tops and denim shorts, having a good laugh at all that we've done in the past half-century.

Well, better practise what I preach.

Today, my house got delivered a new armchair. My parents secretly bought it from IKEA on Sunday.
Sneaky.

It's cool, we never had an armchair in the house before. It has always been sofas. It was a refreshing addition, but somehow, it doesn't really look like it fit into the house decor.

Maybe it just needs some time to make friends with the rest of the furniture. Just don't let me catch them with a morning wood. whut?!

I'm old enough to make jokes like that. If you didn't understand that, you are not old enough, which means I don't know you, so shoo.

I'm watching you, Claire. 

We flew to China to look for Soo

It has been exactly a week after flying back from Shanghai and I'm still feeling post-withdrawal symptoms.

I'm kind, not weak

It's a serious misconception that kindness is something that people will and CAN take advantage of.
I don't think that's ethical. You don't go up to someone and get them to do work for you because they are kind and you know they will help you for sure. But being "too kind" is what I always hear.

"You're too kind, people will step all over you."
"You're too kind, you will lose out."
"You're too kind, people will take advantage of you."
"You're too kind, you will end up doing more work."

"Learn to reject."

The fact is, there are some truth in the above quotes but I feel that it's not something to overreact about because I do know when I should be rejecting.

My mum always thinks that I get the shorter end of the stick because I'm "too kind". Yes, that's true sometimes; but I like being kind, and helping people. The feeling afterwards is satisfying; It enriches my soul. I believe in humanity and somewhat, karma. But I don't do kind things because I hope something good in particular will happen to me, but I do hope that by living a good life, my life will be great.


Wish Of The Day: I wish people can see my that my kindness is not a weakness. And being helpful is not my Achille's heel.