OH HAIL GLORISM!: December 2008

Wednesday, December 31, 2008

2008 highlights

2008. ivp. SIM touch trainings. parties. rivervalley party house. welkin mansion. ambitions gone wrong. farewells. birdbird escape. jurong birdpark. nicholas cordeiro. pamela wildheart. buggy lessons. bird training. chinese new year. gambling. andrews visit. valentines at penguin expedition. blacks. contact training. farrer park. victoria bitters NRC 7s. Asian Geographic. Chiang Mai. dreadlocks. bangkok. ATV. long neck tribes. rafting. bowen's fullerton. birthdays. pinky the penguin. breakups. makeups. wala. unexpected. earthday. ilulu. RMIT exams. end of school. dinosaur descendants. tioman trip with WRS. chef kelvin and sharp pointer. diventures. double o. leons party. robertson quay hotel. first 'fight' outside a club. st. andrews. insane static drills. pass with compensation. results. bens ORD. blk 119. coffee shop. seletar airport. kota tinggi. jose. poker. more poker. brewerkz at 2pm till 10pm. NRC 15s. rugby league. rizal. interns. more farewells. jurong west african grey. variete festival. gwen. powerjam. D&D. gerren. more parties. huilings visit. rock climbing craze. zoo meetings. facilitator camp training. sentosa day out. ASA card craze. car accidents. bali. mas. xiaoyi. diving. mola mola. mantas. mt batur. my birthday. fish spa. christines spa. project LV. project aware. equatordive. eugene. grace. jack and rai concert. bowling competition. bike lessons every other day. rone & gigi childrens day clown fest. zoo camps. sing to the dawn. halloween. night safari. fireflies trip. horse riding. last dive of the season. dayang. rocking out on the upper deck. i think we're alone now. long lost brother jiawen. bloody africans. captains ball competition. juns house party. KL havoc. Laos. grace. vientianne. Mik. Vang Vieng. Jeff. Luang Prabang. south africans. divers havoc. christmas. countdown. 2009

Monday, December 29, 2008

run gloria run!

i havent really worked since i got back from laos. the only thing that has kept me going, as in, kept my fingers working hard, typing frantically away on the computer has been tagging on fb. that, or ive been surfing the net for jobs on lonely planet, diving centres, padi, national geographic. or volunteer programmes.

ive really been bitten bad by this 'flee from sg' bug. i dont know what caused it, or has it always been in me to get out. my entire family travels. i, surprisingly, travel the least. urgh, this is driving me insane! i really wanna be a farmer now now now..

i just took an australian work visa eligibility test online. results aint too bad. how temptinggggg... and even though its only australia, its a start, and its close to home. i even saw vacations jobs there which beats our local ones hands down. to be a paint ball referee for 25aussie per hour. why not man....ahhh, take me away somebody. please!

embrace 09

i am finally done with laos and its posts and pictures. it was one of the top priorities on my to do list by the end of 2008. along with random errands like waxing my eyebrows. which kevin insists i should wax them all off so they'd have saturday night live, well, LIVE entertainment to watch, quite literally.

this years christmas treated me good. i love being around people i love most. i mean, who doesnt. but this year was different somehow. and i managed to pack it all in.. previous years left me being selective. this year, i had everyone around me. new people. i havent really met up with the classmates, or christine even. its part of being gloria, ive realised through the years, that im really not an everyday friend kinda person. and i get ever so easily distracted by new found friends and end up totally indulging my time with them. perhaps thats why the only 2 best friends ive had in my life are exactly the same as me. pretty much out of sight, out of mind. not till that extreme, but you know what i mean.

this month has been a good month for me. i love decembers. and i cannot wait to embrace the new year and its forthcomings. it will be a challenging one, i know. but its time for some action to take place. i promised christine we'll be farmers someday; that we will fulfill our farmer fantasy soon. maybe 09 will be the year it actually happens. i wish for so much more. and i really do want to get back to church. and despite how much i love the birdpark, i still want out. nowhere in singapore will cut it for me anymore. unless our dreamdiveshop actually materialises. hahaa. which will be really really cool too.

i shall finish up work real quick and steal the car out for a spin. errands to rush before the year closes!

kuala lumpur, Malaysia - part 2

we saw this weird bike. so obviously gloria will swipe her camera out and attempt to shoot at it. the guy in the background goes hysterical and screams his head off telling me to read the sign. i acted totally oblivious to it and walked off, just to get a picture of it. so i never really got to know what this was all about. darn it. hahaha.

the best you tiao and friends ive had so far...

ooh yummy. this trip is all about food aint it. and botak trees of course. haha.

i saw a hoard of pigeons. and i just HAD to run into it. it was way too tempting. it was worth the shot nonetheless. :)

air strip

waiting for the airport transfer bus.. the one with the gaudy hindi pop blasting away..

we finally dug out the laotian bananas we smuggled out of the guest house and into malaysia... oohhh....yummy yummy.. haha.

i made grace push me all around the airport like that.. hahha. KL international airport ah. not some small jiapalang terminal...

it was great traveling with you, girlfriend :)

luang prabang, Laos

she obviously hates that fact that i'm taking a picture of her. grouchy kid.

poor monkey was chained up with absolutely nothing to do. he was playing with his new found toys; the chilli padi and his little ding dang. yes he was sucking on it if you really had to know. poor fella.

gorgeous huh...taken on the busride to luang prabang..

the sunset that greeted us when we arrived...

grace in my clothes. haha. great traveling with someone your size. can share clothes. hur hur.

gloria picking off from random street food again. sir liang's in the background. at least i got a picture of him, however blur it turned out to be..

painting for sale at the night market...

turtle shell for sale. she was trying to explain to me what it is used for. but i had no clue what she was trying to hand gesture me into thinking....

JLUM PA whisky. tsk! how crude!

our first massage after we got to luang prabang. our first massage by guys. oooh...

jeep jeep jeepp! along with the million others that i posed with. haha. laos is like hilux, triton, jeep land!

temple...

the 2 kitties were sitting in a tub of hot charcoal to keep warm. how cute. they got so so affectionate when they saw us. its a lao cat thing we realised.

ooh...look at the silly bugger...

roar! check out those muscles! stupid lao shirt i bought. so tiny sleeves. i ended up giving it to gracie. haha. thats what sisters are for :)

the book i bought in vientianne, highly recommended by grace. about missionaries who were held hostage by the abu sayif. the book which grace is now holding hostage. grrrr...

the morning after we woke up. just before we hit the showers. i mean, I hit the shower. hahaha.

bbqued peppers..

coffee uncle's kiddo mending the store...

oooh....coffeelao... grace's rationale is that whoever drinks coffee usually has the microscopic eyes. she was having tea... hurhur..

my favouritest est est est veg omelette thingy. ooh..how i miss theee!

pork noodles!

glor the chef..

damn handsome kiddo...

bumped into them...yet again :) .... at kuang si waterfalls...

come on, give her some credit. she did try hard to blend in... like really really hard. hahaha.

so trekking thru the forest got a little boring. well..

the beautifulllllll kuang si falls..

grace glor

looks like a painting huh...

we made itttt!

down the cliff we goooo..

sweetie pie...

on the tuk tuk back to town. the falls are like. 38km away.

like i said, everyday's sunset's different..

oh mama. save me......

they looked so pretty, i wanted one for myself!

oh goshhhh.. my favourite banana chocolate prata... i cant look at a prata the same way ever again...

oh save me. it was soooooo sinfullll......

bbqued fish from the mekong river! uber fresh!

i was looking so mismatched! but who cares.. haha..

christmas flowers :)

green piss that made my chest feel so tight everytime i had some. the lao water really takes getting used to, even though we boiled it like...twice!

my last koi soy before we left :(

and grace's mekong river fish. its so fresh and deeply infused with herbs and lemon grass (spilling out from the head) that you cannot taste the typical mud fish taste at all...

my koi soy.................

the elephant mahout!

it was manderleen orange season! mountain and mountains of them... haha, 2 manderleens for flendsheeep...

sticky rice party yo! traditional lao style. hahaha.

so when we finally decided to rent bikes to scoot around, we realised luang prabang was the only town in laos that didnt allow tourists to do so... :( urghhh!!!