Of birds and beasts

Sharp-sharp!

The journey to the Lion & Rhino Park was about 1 hour from the hotel. The scenery, as the three of us who went agreed, was very much like New Zealand's.

My tour guide Pat has the sharpest eyes I know. He can spot things miles away and he can tell you exactly what the different herds of animals are. When they are that faraway, they just look like black blobs and could be anything really.

So anyway I saw in the wild

• ostrich
• gemsbok (this has to be one of my fave)
• common waterbuck
• blesbuck (another fave!!)
  
• marabou stork
• waterhog
• springbok
  
• black wildebeest
• blue wildebeest
• redhartebeest
• sable antelope (the antlers are so beautiful)
• lion (common and white)
• zebra
• cheetah
• eland
  

And in the animal creche:
jaguar (soooooooooooo elegant!)
tiger
many many species of snakes
bat-eared fox
banded mongoose
nile crocodile (they're tiny)
leopard
lion cubs
pygmy hippo
and many many kinds of birds but since I'm not a big fan of those, I don't really care.


The lions and lionesses are so beautiful! They live on the higher hills and when it rained (oh yes it did) we passed by them and they were all looking down at where the other animals at the start of their food chain are. Really reminds you of The Lion King. Actually they were looking that way because they always turn their back against the rain and it so happens that the rain was coming from that direction.

Managed to take a few photos of the king of the jungle before the rain came.
(We were actually looking hard for them because they lie on the grass most of the time and it'll be hard to spot them then. But we got lucky when a group of 6 of them just walked towards our van and then moved to a spot to the right of us to rest.)



And then we moved to an enclosure with the white lions. They were mating shamelessly in front of us... hehe.
But don't you think the colour gives the lion the appearance of being somewhat more gentle and harmless?


You have to enlarge this one!!


I say, these are angmoh lions.


And then we came across the cheetahs. They were so not afraid of us. Too bad I didn't get a chance to see them run.... cz it started to pour :(

There used to be 8 wild dogs in the park but the tour guide told us they all died of the flu recently :(

We then moved on to the animal creche.
The cutest cutest cutest things I saw:



Those are the white lion cubs. If no one had been looking I would have stolen one home as a souvenir from Joburg ;)



There was a tiger show. The two stars were a Bengal tiger and a Siberian tiger. That fella who was playing around with the cats is out of his mind. He let the Siberian tiger climb on him to lick his hair... why would he do that :\ She could just bite his head off!


Can you tell apart the Siberian tiger from the Bengal tiger?

The Siberian has a much nicer coat compared to the Bengal. Speaking of coats, I think nothing beats the jaguar's. So beautiful!! I could just wrap that 200kg thing around my neck :p

Ok, have to show you this one - the blue wildebeest:


Pat says the blue wildebeest is his favourite animal because it seems to have the features of so many animals. It has the head of a common black wildebeest, the body of a zebra, the hind legs of a hyena and a tail of a horse. It's actually pretty ugly.

I love the gemsbok and blesbuck a lot but unfortunately I didn't get very good photos of those.

Here's one picture of a bird... the crowned crane.



It was a very interesting trip to a mini safari. Did you notice though that despite going to a Lion & Rhino park, I did not spot a single rhino? Hmph.


So this is us, from L-R: Siva, Champion (the apprentice), Isabelle, myself and Pat!

And last but not least, "Hakuna Matata!"




Sharp-sharp!!


p/s: Them Africans are so cool I tell you. I kept hearing Pat say "sharp-sharp" whenever he stopped to ask the rangers some questions. So I had to ask him what that meant. He said it's a slang (you can say "sharp-sharp" or just "sharp") that means hello/thank you/how're you/bye. No wonder he started and ended his conversations with that. I'm gonna do that too. It's too cool.

Relaxing

Ahhh, it's so relaxing here. Taking things nice and slow... very slow...... I even lost track of the days.

Two nights ago, after dinner, my colleagues and I went for a cabaret show. It was spectacular (with lotsa nice asses)! And it was only ZAR50 to get in (roughly USD5). The singers were great and the dancers performed dances from every genre, from ballet to hip-hop. I almost went crazy when they did my favourite Candyman dance =)
And there was this very powerful performance by the singers. One girl and one guy came out singing Somewhere Out There and when it ended, another girl came out singing One Moment In Time and somewhere in the middle they just merged the chorus of Somewhere Out There and One Moment In Time. It was like, phwoarrrrr powerful!

Yesterday I just relaxed, watched cricket on TV, ate Oreos, chatted online, slept, watched more TV, ate more.

TODAY, I'm going to the Lion and Rhino Park. =)

In da ghetto

This must be the ultimate ghetto. We have been advised by the company to stay within hotel premises for as long as our stay. If we really want to go shopping, use the hotel shuttle bus.

Other airline crew have been robbed and murdered here. Our own crew have been robbed several times coming back from shopping. And today the pilots were telling us just last week 3 of their own people were robbed at gunpoint when they were walking back to the hotel (they put up at a different hotel from us), 15 minutes away from where they were shopping.
Can you imagine being robbed at gunpoint :S

3 of my colleagues are thinking of going on a safari tour or pay a visit to the Lion’s Park. I’m a bit nervous…. Don’t want the tour bus to be stopped at a traffic light and then be robbed/killed. It’s today’s breaking news in Joburg that a famous local rapper was robbed and then killed in his car at a traffic light.

In view of this, I brought an entire cargo bag of food - a loaf of banana and walnut bread, a packet of Wang Wang rice biscuits, a party pack of Twisties, a box of Oreos, one cup noodle, a packet of Japanese crispy seaweed (Tao Kae Noi, as recommended by Elaine), a box with 10 packets of vegetable crackers, a few sachets of brown rice cereals and Milo, and a box of Koko Krunch. Ohhh, and 3 bottles of water too.
And to entertain myself, I brought a storybook and a laptop loaded with movies.
THIS IS SURVIVAL, MAN!

But it seems like I might have to bring all that food back :\
Because I did not expect the hotel to be so nice. It's within a large guarded area known as Emporers Palace and there's quite a bit to do here.
There's a casino, a few restaurants, a few shops, and theatres. Breakfast buffet at the hotel is only ZAR100, i.e. USD10! (Room service is relatively cheap too.) There are cabaret shows at night. You get the idea? It's kinda like Genting - a few hotels within this area and all of these places are linked. So really, I don’t have to go out and I still will not die hungry without my cargo bag.

The hotel and the whole guarded area is quite fancy. Maybe when I’m bored I’ll just walk about and take a few photos.

Random musings

1. Do you remember the boyband Human Nature? You almost had to dig deep into that head of yours didn't you. I thought they had retired/disbanded/become fathers. Imagine my surprise when I saw an advertisement on TV about Human Nature's little gig with the Western Australia Symphony Orchestra! So these guys are still singing...

2. Tabloids do exaggerate just to sell a few more copies. I walked past a newstand and saw these words splashed across a gossip mag:
RIHANNA
- strangled & unconscious
- bla bla bla
Basically I only saw that first line, rolled my eyes and walked away. What far cry from what was first reported when the incident happened. Seems like they can't stop spicing up the story to sell it to suckers who love a scandal. (so far Leona Lewis, Paris Hilton, Herpes Simplex Virus are some of the names linked to the whole drama )

3. "The greatest lesson you'll ever learn is to love and be loved in return." -Moulin Rouge.
Dare you take the chance or fear a broken heart? For 20 years I proudly guarded my heart. Then I took the chance. I will not tell you if I regretted it or not because I'm still figuring that one out.

4. The conversations used to be about who's gone where to study what. Then it was who's dating who. Now it's who's married and given birth. :-|

5. No matter how much you think you've passed the phase of using a certain kind of makeup, don't throw it away (unless it's really passed its expiry date).
I've currently sort of sworn myself to using gel eyeliners but my pretty old crayon eyeliner came to my rescue today... So thankful that I still kept it somewhere deep in my makeup pouch.

6. Why are we bickering with each other when .....



Have a great day ahead people :)

Not fond of the curious case

With all that hype surrounding The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, I just had to watch it (and Slumdog too). Just so you know how much effort I actually made to watch this movie, I'll let you know that in the last year I probably watched no more than 5 movies at the cinema and the last was 'Wall-E' (in August '08?).

And so I dragged a very tired ass to town the same day I came back from an overnight flight.

The highlight of the evening must be catching up with Chin Shi. =)))

If only I had missed this Benjamin Button movie. It reminded me of the very things of why I'm afraid of growing old. As one might duly remember from this entry, aging is one of my biggest fears. And I was looking right at it in this movie! So agonizing. Young Brad Pitt couldn't even remember if he's had his meal, pretty much like my grandmother. Sure, the movie taught me a few lessons (i.e. nothing lasts; we wouldn't know how much someone is important to us until we lose them; be thankful to be alive) but I just couldn't stand the aging part and the happily never after!

YES, that too. Seems like lately I've been watching shows that don't end happy. Guess it kinda goes with my current phase in life, doesn't it.
This movie, and a few days ago I saw a re-run of The Breakup on TV (ironically it was the first movie that he and I saw together as a couple), and and and... I can't remember what else. Oh yah, I also just finished watching The O.C. (ok laugh at me) a few days ago and the ending wasn't even convincing.

Just gonna stay away from movies and dramas and stick to reality TV for the time being.
And football later.

Today I noticed my songs didn't sound the same...

Why would iTunes delete my customized settings for the equalizer when I update to the new version? Why does it make me go through the torture of having to do another one again don't the people at Apple understand how much effort it is to make an almost perfect one considering that I'm stuck with a stupid Inspiron that does not allow me to change to a Creative soundcard and I've already had to live with crappy sound as it is even though I'm using an Altec Lansing pair of speakers and that was the best I could do after playing around with the equalizer for two days and Apple thinks nothing of my blood and sweat and then just deletes it the moment I chose to update?
WHY.

Now I want my bigass PC back, just because it has a more superior soundcard.
sigh.

Perth by night

Click to enlarge

Timothy took this photo with his DSLR. He took this shot three times with three different exposures and then put them together. Beautiful!

p/s: That white overly bright spot somewhere on the right side of the picture is a ferris wheel, something all cities must have nowadays otherwise it cannot be considered a city ^o)

Catching up with TV

Feeling so happy because of the words of a very wonderful lady on my flight today. :))
Safe onward flight to Heathrow, Ma'am! So glad to have met you.

I'm a fan of American Idol but I haven't been able to sit down and follow it closely this season. When I saw the trailer for the current season on FOX last night, I knew I'm missing out big time. I don't know how many are left, I don't know who has been performing consistently well and I don't know who's the pretty girl or pretty boy who has been getting away with elimination because of that cute face. I really want to catch up. I don't know if it's possible to find any of these episodes online. MTV rocks because it posts up full episodes of its shows on the MTV website but I'm not so sure about Fox with Idol. Hmmmm...

Also, I was up early yesterday morning waiting to catch the Oscars on Australian TV. But no, the event's not big enough to be shown live (even though I had Foxtel. Maybe I didn't have the right channel). I heard from Timothy no terrestrial channel in Australia was showing the Nadal vs. Federer match too? Preposterous. When Channel 9 was showing it at night it was time for my short nap and when I woke up (and prepared for work) I only saw them giving out the awards for Best Actor/Actress and Best Picture. I really, really want to watch this year's Oscars! I wanna see Heath Ledger win! I caught a glimpse of Penelope's dress (stunning!) and I'm so curious now who wore what.

Yesterday I was only out on Perth's shopping street for an hour and I blew AUD200+... so I had to impose an immediate shopping ban. :( Headed back to the hotel and did nothing until Timothy came to pick me up for dinner. I blame L'Occitane. L'Occitane has the most wonderful products and L'Occitane AU has products that have been discontinued in the rest of the world. Now I'm a VIP member there ;) Also bought just three pairs of stockings because I really did not know stockings could be so expensive! The range of stockings was so wide I just didn't know what to get. In Europe, it's not uncommon to see people wear fishnets (those with smaller netting, not the whore-y big ones) and I think it's actually very nice! But I'm sure I wouldn't get away with people giving me snide remarks behind my back if I were to walk around in it in M'sia. So I stayed on the safer side and bought safer stockings.

I'm dead envious of all those people (that inclds u Mayne!) who are going to see Jason Mraz!! Can't get the tickets because I have standby duties just prior to his concert here ..... T___T

I guess I'll have to settle for the two guys who sing his songs at Holland V....T_________T

The Brain

Anlynn, this is for u...
Brain stem, brain stem!

Funny-smelling brush

I bought a fan-shaped brush from a cosmetics store in Seoul. It's used to sweep away excess powder. As the packaging is in Korean, I don't know what the brush is made of. Very often, it's sable or goat hair, sometimes squirrel.

I just tried using the brush and it smells funny. What if it's made of squirrel tail and that's the smell of its fart? :S

Scenic journey to Mt. Cook

The 300+ km journey to Mt. Cook from Christchurch is a very scenic one. Once you leave Christchurch, you will see the thousands of acres of farms which rears horses, cows and sheep. Not long after you leave the city, you'll spot a few snow-covered peaks against the clear blue sky some hundreds of miles away. As you drive on the topography changes and you are greeted by beautiful greens on the rolling hills. Beautiful pine treeswhich you don't get to see often in my part of the world grow in such large numbers. And there's a part where there's a sudden burst of yellow flowers. And then you see more and more of the range of mountains. You know that's where your ultimate destination is... So you keep driving towards it.... Then you reach Lake Tekapo, where this photo was taken.



The unnatural blue of the water with the mountains standing behind it gloriously left us awestruck.

For miles and miles on, this Lake and the mountains continued to be part of the scenery... and none of us got tired of seeing it. If I remember correctly, we were still driving along the perimeter of the lake some 30 minutes after we were first greeted by it.

So beautiful.

I'll be going to Christchurch again next month. This time I might go skydiving or go on the Lord Of The Rings tour (although I'm not sure if I have enough time for that).

I will be praying for the weather to be good!

A most rewarding job

A passenger once asked me as I was putting a breadroll on his tray, "You don't get tired smiling do you? You've been smiling the moment I got here."
Another man seated beside him added, "I'm sure they make you go through all that training... and they train you all so well."

So I gave an *even bigger smile*
"No sir, I'm really glad to be here serving you and taking care of all the other passengers."

It is tough when you first come into this job, especially with this particular company. They zoom in on the details and initially these things seem so insignificant. However, as practice becomes habits, I slowly became fussy about details too. One's empathy can take him/her far when caring for his or her passengers. You start to wonder if that tall passenger is comfortable where he is, or if the mother with the infant-who-never-sleeps is tired, or if the two passengers chatting since take-off are thirsty and would like another cup of diet coke with lemon slice and no ice (you start to remember who likes what), or when someone is vegetarian but did not make a special meal request and can't eat what's on the menu, you scour the whole cabin to look for something - anything - for him to eat, even if that meant you had to plant vegetables onboard and let it grow and give it to this poor hungry fella. And you can even use the limited resources to make it look like a real meal to him. Imagine how grateful he can be.

And at the end of the day, the warm smiles from them when they say, "thank you very much, the flight was lovely," or "XXX (company name) is the best!" is more than enough reason to slog so hard. You just know that they really appreciated the effort you made to make their travel so much more bearable if not a memorable one.

Just two flights ago, a Russian woman who couldn't speak a word of English (and all I could say to her in Russian was "thank you") was grabbing my hand and kissing it over and over again.... and it wasn't even the end of flight! And our laughters and body language were the only form of communication...

Today I blogsearched (on Google) my company and saw many reviews. Some bad, mostly good, a few amusing. Through their writing I learnt of their perceptions of the company and it lets me in on how I can improve further. As the saying goes, "A customer's perception is your reality". And with XXX, they take their expectations even higher... Tough job, but definitely rewarding.

~$~

Shopping in Seoul has always been a riot. My stays here are usually stop-go and shopping usually does not last more than 5 hours before having to retreat back to the hotel for ample rest before my flight out.

Myong-dong's the bomb. Everytime I go there, my money grows wings. And now the Korean Won has fallen by half against SGD, all shops are like -50%. Of course, Myong-dong's a tourist hit so prices have naturally been readjusted but things are still cheap. And not just cheap, but very very nice too!! The fashion is awesome and the variety is there. Of course, nobody leaves Seoul without going home with half a tonne of face masks and makeup. I cannot emphasize how cheap it is because it's just obscene. Of course one would go to Seoul to get the skincare the Koreans use. Their skincare brands are really good and do not sell at cut-throat prices. And when you buy like 3 products from any one of these makeup stores, they'll throw in 10 freebies/samples for you. Walaoeh~....
Every single time I come shopping in Korea I think I just lose my senses.
And of course I'm at the losing end everytime because my allowance is not enough for the shopping and instead I have to cough up so much more :S

I hate breakups

I hate breakups. I hate it to the point that I wish it doesn't exist in this world. Childish, I know.

I wish nobody in this world has to go through a breakup at all. The emotional stress is just too much. Maybe there are people in this world who get over it easily, but usually one party will be hurt more than the other. Even though you're the one who initiates the breakup, it will be painful for you too.

I've seen so many hurt in my life because of a relationship turned sour. I myself went through a nightmare and I can't imagine myself coming out alive if I had to go through something similar again.

Right now there's a friend outside my room shouting at her ex over the phone. I can only feel her pain. It's the best thing for her to be out of the relationship, but it must hurt a lot. Just listening to her shouting makes me cry for her.

Seeing all these and remembering my own has turned me into someone very different. My perspective towards relationships has changed so much since. I can only look at other successful couples in envy and wish them eternal bliss. I just don't wish to hear of another breakup. It's just too painful.

Toyol

I would love to throw an egg at Khir Toyo's botox-filled face if I ever see him in person. *steam*

Who is he to commend Elizabeth Wong's wish to step down? I hate his holier-than-thou attitude, especially when his brain is probably the least functional one among the country's politicians.
When he said that it would be exemplary to do so, "like Dr. Chua", he ought to remember that the latter was a married man who was obviously romping around with a woman not his wife. What's wrong with Eli sleeping naked (or topless, whatever, I haven't seen the photos)? All my readers know I was sleeping half naked too in my dream last week! So now you wanna sue me? Being in the comfort of her own room, she can sleep or eat naked and there's no wrong in that. Her ex-boyfriend took those photos of her asleep without her knowledge, clearly invading her privacy, and is now probably in Thailand RM1 million richer.

Politics is such a dirty business and poor Eli is a victim in this case. *touchwood* If I ever were in her shoes, the last person who has the right to even comment on my behavior is this freaking dirty Toyol. His words are full of crap, he himself so corrupt and I definitely do not appreciate being told off by a Retard with a capital R!

In any case, both Dr. Chua and Elizabeth Wong are wonderful politicians who have worked very hard for the government and for the good of the people. The mad Toyol on the other hand has made decisions that did not benefit the people at all and also makes stupid remarks for the next day's news.

I can't wait for the day when someone catches his pants down with another woman - I bet he'll cling on to his post like a leech with no ounce of shame!

My little pick-me-up

I received this gift today...



Doesn't it look lovely?

And it's very practical too!!

It's a miniature gift-set of Victoria's Secret's 7 EDPs. Since I really don't know which scent I like from there (do you know just how many scents VS has!?), this is a good way to try a few of those out. And I'm pretty sure that these 7 are the more popular scents.

Thank you, William!

Things could be worse

Sometimes you just have to remember that things could be worse...
I accidentally stumbled upon this website just a few minutes ago, called F*** My Life. You basically write about an incident that happened to you to justify why your life is f***ed, and then readers vote "I agree, your life is f***ed" or "you deserved that one".

Just at a time when I need humour, any kind of humour.

• Today, I wanted to seduce my boyfriend so I put on my sexiest lingerie and started playing mood music. As he was eating dinner, I climbed up on the table and started seductively crawling across to him. The table collapsed under my weight. FML- I agree, your life is f***ed (2126) - you deserved that one (4226)

• Today, my sister teased me about being a mistake baby. When I told my mom what my sister said, her response was "I still love you anyway". FML - I agree, your life is f***ed (11461) - you deserved that one (921)
  
  
• Today, my crush talked to me for the first time. He told me to stop staring. FML - I agree, your life is f***ed (10935) - you deserved that one (3176)

• Today, I was talking to my parents about feeling insecure with my "beach body" as Spring Break keeps getting closer and closer. My dad proceeded to warn me by saying, "Don't wear a gray swimsuit. People will try to roll you back into the ocean". FML - I agree, your life is f***ed (9715) - you deserved that one (1829)

• Today, I told my mom I loved her and she asked if I was going to kill myself. FML - I agree, your life is f***ed (12670) - you deserved that one (736)
  

• Today, my girlfriend dumped me proclaiming she wanted someone more like her "Edward". I asked her who Edward was. She held up a copy her "Twilight" book. She was talking about a fictional vampire. FML - I agree, your life is f***ed (24505) - you deserved that one (2066)

• Today, I was at a job interview at McDonalds. All was going well until the manager told me that I'd have to remove the piercing that I have on my eyebrow. I didn't think that my mole would be so confusing. FML - I agree, your life is f***ed (1629) - you deserved that one (65)

• Today, I was in India. At the airport, the men and women were being searched separately. The guy welcoming us pointed me towards the women's area. I had to explain to him that I was a guy. It took 15 minutes. FML - I agree, your life is f***ed (1341) - you deserved that one (94)

• Today, I was performing the classic 69 position with my girlfriend. I wasn't able to control it : I farted right into her nose. FML - I agree, your life is f***ed (3161) - you deserved that one (1439)

• Today, I wanted to see if the frying pan was hot. I no longer have fingerprints. FML - I agree, your life is f***ed (282) - you deserved that one (2032)

• Today, my boss fired me via text message. I don't have a text messaging plan. I paid $0.25 to get fired. FML - I agree, your life is f***ed (21288) - you deserved that one (637)

Therapy

This is bad. I've been up since 4 a.m. I feel angry at the words that was said to me because I didn't do anything to deserve that and I deserve some respect.

Right now I would love to do some shopping even though shopping therapy rarely works on me. Reckless shopping is not the answer but I know there's something that I really want. It's that Frank Gehry necklace that I want now, only that I can't because I'm not allowed out of the house. I'm on standby so I have to sit at home and wait for a call-up that might or might not happen - this is as good as house arrest. I wish I also had Royce chocolates with me. I don't know how on earth I do not have chocolates stashed aside in my fridge. And there's no way of getting any until Julia comes home.
:(

And did I mention that LV's prices just went up?

Hmm. Monday blues.

Some more than the others

Some songs appeal to you more than the others.

Some thoughts come to you more than the others.

Some help you more than the others.

Some lives count more than the others.

Some people love you more than the others.

Some make you laugh more than the others.

Some days are better than the others.

Some days pass slower than the others.

Some people are more difficult than the others.

Some you care about more than the others.

Some hurt you more than the others.

Some you think of more than the others.

Some drive you mad more than the others.

Some teach you more than the others.

Some events matter to you more than the others.

Some moments you want to be alone more than the others.

Some days I sit in wonder more than the others.

----------------------------------------

There's a whole load to get off my back. If only I could make life simple again. If only one's troubles, disappointments, sadness and setbacks could all be swept aside....


My life has a superb cast but I can't figure out the plot. ~Ashleigh Brilliant

There's something about the air

It's as though Australia is a neighbouring country - only that it's not.

In my little town, there are two hills which you cannot miss from whichever part of town you're at. Now I can see neither of the hills, no thanks to the haze. And the air stinks.

So it's that time of the year again where all Malaysians and Singaporeans stand up and show the middle finger at a certain neighbour...

Random fact

I made this observation for a while now and I have been double-checking and triple-checking to make sure I'm right. And I must be right.

Fact: Nowhere else in the world do as many girls carry brown handbags (leather or faux leather) as those in Australia.


Let me know if you want to dispute that.

The first thing

This was the first thing that put a smile on my face this morning....

#877038 +(100)- [X]

[Fyad] When I bought siemens cellphone, siemens sold its cellular section. When I bought yakumo screen, yakumo got bunkrupt. When I bought fujitsu-siemens laptop, siemens sold its share.
[Fyad] Just curious what to buy next...
[r_heart] apple
[hoobsta] Apple
[sailo] apple

plucked from http://bash.org/?877038

Been waking up too early the last 2 (maybe 3) days. I sleep late, but still wake up early. And if you knew me better, I'm the last person to ever be early - I wake up at 3 p.m. if nobody bothers getting me out of bed. But I'm so early now even mum's still in bed. Not that I'm all proud and happy about it because by early evening I would feel so, so drained.

One weird dream

Jet-lag must be one of the shittiest thing in the world.

7 nights in a row already, regardless of which timezone I was in, I have not been able to sleep. I trudge through the days with minimal rest, usually from just an hour or two's rest at night or sleeping through hours in the day.

Arriving from Dubai yesterday morning at 7 a.m., I didn't go to sleep until 1 p.m. I slept all the way till 8 p.m. Very reluctantly I pulled myself out of bed, still feeling very tired from not sleeping well in so many days. At 1 a.m. this morning, I went to bed. I fell asleep almost instantly. Then I woke up because of a stupid dream and now I can't sleep again. How long is my terrible sleeping pattern gonna last and will this start to take a toll on my health?

Speaking of this dream, it was weird.

I dreamt that I was sleeping topless and then this friend of mine walked into my room. He stood still in front of the wall facing the door to my room, as though he was guarding my room. I grabbed a towel that was lying on my bed to cover my exposed self and continued sleeping. I was too tired to ask him what he was doing in my room. He must have stood there for a long time because he suddenly fell on top of me and mumbled that he's very tired. I pushed him to get up but he won't lift himself off me. His top half of the body just rested on me. Then he suddenly stood up and went around the bed and tried to climb into bed with me. I tried to kick him before he could get in but I think I failed. So I got pissed and took my pillow and went to the bathroom to continue my sleep.


Just then, I woke up.

But I couldn't move my body. I had not yet opened my eyes but I know my mind was up and I had realised that was a dream. Yet, I was paralysed. I could not move my body. I then realised I was clenching my teeth and I tried to release it but I couldn't. I couldn't control my muscles to make them relax and my heart felt like it was being stretched and then stopped. It took me a lot of effort before I could unclench my jaw. Then I really woke up - eyes opened and my body could move. I had a few seconds to clear my mind before I heard the laptop that I had left running restarting Windows.
WHAT IS THIS?!

Muffin monster

:D
So cute, right?

L'Occitane's Rose Hand Cream

I was a big fan of Aesop's Ressurection Hand Cream (until this morning). I go through a tube really fast so I buy a few tubes of it each time I go to Australia. In Singapore it sells for $30/tube (50 ml) but in Australia, it's only selling at A$23. Considering that SGD:AUD is almost 1:1 it only makes economic sense that I stock up.

Lately though I've noticed that the Aesop hand cream isn't doing its work. Maybe my hands are just overworked. So I've ditched it and this morning I bought the L'Occitane's Rose Hand Cream. L'Occitane's hand creams are legendary, especially the shea butter. But I was so taken in by the lovely fragrance of the Rose Hand Cream (I tell you it smells so good it calms your soul) that I had to have this one...

And the best thing is, it works so. darn. well.

I'm saying this after using it for only a day. Your hands will feel smooth instantly and it doesn't feel greasy. And the smell... <3 divine.
At $39.60 for 150 ml, it is slightly on the pricey side but it's still cheaper than Aesop and works much better.

Highly recommended!!!

Muller Corner advertisement

I really like this ad that I saw on MTV UK last week. I think I'm inclined to like it because it uses my 2nd fave East 17 song (after Hold My Body Tight) as the soundtrack...





I remember playing this song over and over in the car years ago. East 17's greatest hits album (The Journey So Far) was probably the most played after Boyzone's albums. Mum finds the whole East 17 album very noisy but I loved it! Whenever mum gets off the car to buy food Anshii and I would turn up the volume. Then one of us will have to check the rear-view mirror constantly to see if mum's on her way back.

Little memories like this :)

Stimulus approved

More than US$800b is gonna be used to save the US economy. Should the rest of the world rejoice too? I hope so. God save us from this recession. I hate it. Doing any more flights with only one-third of the cabin full is slowly killing me.

Visiting a NASA space centre

This was a childhood dream of mine - and I thought it was only like 10% achievable. Never thought I would one day be able to visit the Johnson Space Center. This is the place where all the astronauts call and say, "Houston, we have landed." or "Houston we have a problem." This is the place astronauts are trained before they can go outerspace and this is the place the astronauts call home.

With a workforce of over 10,000 people, this is apparently the biggest science lab in the world. I took a short tour which took us past most of the buildings that was part of the Johnson Space Centre and this place is big.



Plaque + birdcrap


One can get a tour of the 'cockpit' of a space shuttle. The left tyre of the above picture was a part of the blown-up Challenger.

The visitor's centre was full of activities and was pretty much like most science centres. There were shows and demonstrations and tours. In one of the demonstrations called 'Living In Space', a little boy called Cole volunteered to help with the demonstration.



The guy in red was trying to show how astronauts sleep in outer space. They have to be zipped up and then strapped across at the legs and arms and there is also another strap that goes across the head because the head bobs with the heart pulse when you sleep in outer space. The guy also explained how the astronauts showered in space... well they used to but not anymore. They just sponge themselves because water will stick to any surface it can find and just showering and drying yourself up will take too long. Brushing one's teeth can also become tricky in space so NASA developed its own toothpaste which can be eaten. This saves water and also prevents all the foam and dirty water from dirtying the bathroom.

We also learned that before they take off, the astronauts choose their 13-day menu. So in space, they eat their 13 days of different foods before repeating the cycle again.. and again. Considering they stay in outspace for 6 months at a time, they must lose their appetite by the 3rd month! Worse, they eat food like frozen pasta, frozen sandwich... :s


This is where food is kept. All of their food are frozen and prepacked. When ready to be eaten, they pour hot water through a tube into the tightly-sealed packet (cz you don't want hot water to be floating about and then sticking on to your body - as said previously, water will stick to any surface it finds).

We also saw what the toilets were like... and how you have to use a tube with a small cone at the top to urinate into. The toilet bowl and this tube all have a negative pressure to suck the astronaut's crap in before it has any chance of floating about in the cabin. We were also explained how the urine is recycled and re-used... e.g. to become drinking water for the astronauts. Even the sweat and breath which evaporates quickly in space also is reused. Every droplet of water is precious in space.

NASA's next mission to the Moon is scheduled for 2020 and mission to Mars is in 2030. This time, their mission to the Moon is to build a base for the astronauts to shuttle between the Mon and Mars. They're going to be living in Moon for a much longer period (probably building their own Starbucks or McDonald's there since there's a Starbucks AND McDonald's virtually every 1 km in the States) and this will really test the possibility of mankind inhabiting the Moon. I suppose if we're going to be migrating to the Moon sometime soon then we should start appreciating the taste of our urine and the next person's breath.


McD's in space.

We went to another theatre to watch the Starship Gallery. Great film with great music, very touching. It traces man's success in manned space flights and there were many footages of the funny and crazy things the astronauts do onboard. It sure looked like a lot of fun without gravity! But there was also a part which showed how tragedy struck the Challenger. For that whole time, the theatre was just silent. The music stopped. Nobody in the room made sound as we watched the horror of the space shuttle fail just after take off.
At the end of the film, we were led down a room with things like moonrocks, the Apollo fuel cell and a few other things.


Just a small vault at the visitor's centre. The real vault is in another building, housing over 800 rocks from the Moon.








That felt like, "whoaaaa...."...


And this is what I might be like on Jupiter. I refuse to tell you the weight (yes the machine did a calculation of it).





Astronaut eating


Astronaut having a sponge bath. This is a mock-up of the Skylab used ages ago. The current International Space Station has nicer bathrooms than this.


Astronaut-wannabe being stupid

Then we went off to the Blast Off Theatre. I don't know which blast off we watched exactly but the theatre's awesome. They even have the smoke for the effects (not funny for those who were standing right in front). Then we were led to another theatre like this:

The pictures on the left and center were live feeds from Mission Control. The picture on the right showed the live position of the International Space Station (at the NE of Australia when he started, and was already at Canada when he ended his presentation. The ISS does about 16 orbits a day, In other words, the 3 astronauts in there get 16 sunrise and sunsets each day, going back and forth between Sunday and Monday for example).

This guy here gave us more information of the past, present and future shuttle missions. He also told us a little bit about the next mission to the Moon and Mars. Very very exciting :)

We then took a tram to Building 31.




This is the Mission Control Centre. This is where Neil Armstrong called home to say, "The eagle has landed." This particular room is now obsolete. It was used in the 60s till the 80s.

Then we proceeded to another building which has the mockup of the International Space Station (ISS). This is where the astronauts train to use and build it. The ISS is almost complete, and I think we only need another shuttle mission to build two more solar panels to complete it. This info needs to be clarified. Anyway this place is a mess and it is huge. Just a photo (I took too many) to show you what it is like in there.



This white vehicle in the photo below had just returned from Washington a few days ago. It was there for Barack Obama's inauguration ceremony! I didn't watch the inauguration so if anyone spotted it, can you please tell me what it was used for that night?


And ladies and gentlemen, Building 31, where the moon rocks are kept.



Rocket, rocket!!



And then we went to see the Saturn V rocket. It is so big it filled that container behind me from end to end.


The nozzles of Saturn V



You cannot imagine how large ONE nozzle is so I have invited my friend to show you just how big it is.



The Saturn V was used for the Apollo missions and since the Apollo missions have now ended, the rocket has also retired.










So if you knew how rockets function, you'd know that part by part the rocket sheds away to decrease its mass and to help its propulsion. In the picture above, you can see a rusty-coloured capsule (which isn't rust) which houses the astronauts. In case of a failure, this capsule can be ejected and the crew will end up somewhere in the Atlantic ocean.

That was the end of my great trip to the Space Centre. I sure enjoyed it but I had to leave because my colleagues and I had another big programme ahead (it's called shopping).

Alsooooo, before I end, must pay tribute to the two powerful 3.5L cars that took us to the Space Centre and shopping....
The Dodge Charger. The two guys who went to rent the car kept reminding us that it was Transformers' car.