shirro in guangzhou

the newest street baskers in the gz

2008-12-07T15:31:00.012+08:00

never thot i would have done this... but i did it...
街头卖艺 - street basking is a hell of an experience ;p

it's amazing... what one can do @ 4am on sunday morning, by the river...
look at the crowd attracted to us (^o^)

pat & JD - super powderful combination

me with JD & our 1st supporter, David

our collection after basking for 1 hour

i'm the queen of "longkang"

2008-12-06T03:59:00.014+08:00

it has been a while since i went bowling... the last time i did it was at the safra club at bukit gombak (in spore), next to bbdc with my primary school frens...

today, the folks in gz decided to relieve the moment & went bowling after steamboat dinner... dinner is super shiok especially in the cool winter...

this is the footpath to the bowling center at the tianhe sports center... follow the pins and balls and they'll bring you to your final desired destination...

indeed it's a different experience having beer while bowling... being intoxicated while bowling does improve one's skills! of course the girls aren't as good as the "ah bengs"... of course, there's no prize for guessing who's better at handling the balls ;p

the ninja turtles~

the powerpuff gals~

dummies for wireless router

2008-12-03T21:53:00.003+08:00

hmmm... i always thought it's easy to fix a wireless router to a modem... u know, just need to fix this wire to here and that wire to there and viola! the world without wires.

well... perhaps i've been too naive... spent less than 5 mins connecting the wires... did a scan & found the connection but when i turn on the internet... no connection... geez! fiddle here fiddle there... took an hour, still can't get onto the net...

sigh... guess i''ll be living with the wires till i figure out where went wrong :-(
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guangzhou's night view

2008-12-01T20:42:00.003+08:00

this is the first time i've seen a smiling face in the sky!

formed by 2 stars and the moon.
just looking at it will bring a smile naturally to anyone's face.

i wonder if it's the same on everyone's sky...
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yep, that's my mum...

2008-11-30T22:17:00.000+08:00

my mummy came to visit... stayed a week... complained nothing to buy (becos it's now winter)... went home with 3 luggage (9kg overweight!)... and decided to leave a keepsake on my shoe rack...

yep, that's my mum... she'll be back in May 2009.

just for my sis...

2008-11-29T21:45:00.000+08:00

this post is dedicated to my sis, who was also in gz with my mum... she is the coolie to my mummy... brought mummy to shopping, sightseeing and had to sleep in the living room...

had many feasts... went back home with a big belly & double chin (as what she posted on her facebook status)... loves the winter weather so much that she'll be be in november 2009 and hibernate in my home ;p
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new frens new buddies

2008-11-16T20:53:00.003+08:00

feeling bored and wanting to find someone (outside of work) to talk and hang out with... i was surfing on the net and came across this social networking site.

strike gold! found a bunch of fun & cool singaporeans/malaysians... we connected... had sabah malaysian food... and party party... life's good in gz :p

the feast - eat a lot...

the partying - drink a lot...

my first english movie

2008-11-04T21:36:00.000+08:00

found out that watching movie is a very expensive leisure activity here. a movie tix costs about CNY80 - this can be someone's meal allowance for a week... imagine if it's a date, the poor fellow may have to "eat & drink air" for a while...

thanks to a fren who happens to work in a beer company... which happens to be sponsoring the latest james bond blockbuster - return of solace... so i got a free movie... which comes at an appropriate time as i was desperate for some english entertainment... was so OD on the chinese dramas/movies/programs shown on tv...

要买发票吗？

2008-10-07T22:53:00.011+08:00

the title should be pumpkin soup but i thot the current one is more interesting than pumpkin soup *wink*

people along the streets will also mumble mumble but i never did pay any attention the mumbling... today i heard one lady asking if i wanna buy fa piao (fa piao = chinese government official receipts)... something which i need to submit in order to be reimbursed for my living and housing expenses... anyways just surprised that i can get that off the streets... anything is possible in china as long as u have money...

was at the supermarket looking for round pumpkin (like those back home) and this is what i found.

checked my english-chinese dictionary and confirmed that it's indeed the pumpkin i'm looking for... so got it, went home, cooked and had 2 bowls of it. YUMS! the remaining will be consumed at tomorrow's dinner :-p

boiling the onions, carrots & pumpkin

the end product ;p

getting homesick

2008-10-06T22:49:00.002+08:00

the feeling of missing home is kicking in...

to perk myself up, i bought flowers from a street hawker, very nice uncle and i'm gonna be a regular patron of his :-)

what i bought - lilies + forget-me-nots (vase not included)

missing in action

2008-10-05T10:30:00.017+08:00

been quiet becos i went to hk for the golden week holidays!

to meet friends and also to stock up on clothes in the event the china customs continue to refuse to release my 4 boxes of personal effects ;p

just before i left GZ, i was reading my feng shui book and for Sept 8 - Oct 7, it reads: "A poor month for travelling as you're prone to all sorts of setbacks so postpone long distance journeys whenever possible".

never thot much about it and went ahead to hk.... and it came true! my dear fren's daughter discovered the thrill of throwing things out of the window and there goes my hamilton watch... from the 9th floor to the ground floor...

now i have a super VALID reason to buy a new watch... partly sponsored by my dear fren and thanks to her daughter :-)
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names i never thought of

2008-09-28T17:30:00.006+08:00

today is a slow day in office. to kill boredom, i started looking at the phone list and found very interesting names.

- crystal bao (makes me feel hungry)
- away zhou (shall i intro myself as "here"?)
- gentle li (want to be more gently?)
- day leung (i wonder if his sibling is known as night?)
- mad liu (speechless...)
- unique xu (i hope he/she is really unique as claimed)

it makes me wonder what makes them pick the names? uniqueness? strong recall? and to think i used to find names like "summer" & "january" weird. hmmm...
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walking home

2008-09-27T18:06:00.010+08:00

today, i found an alternate mode to get home from office - walking. peak hours in GZ is terrible, it's extremely difficult to get taxi and u'll have lots of competition. i've to wait at least 30mins for a cab in the morning.

the journey home took 20 mins and it was better than expected. along the way, i passed by

park

fire station

chong qing steamboat (a familiar brand back home!)

fedex kinko (can't help noticing it ;p)

police station

hospital

ah yat abalone (another familiar brand!)

pottery shop

bus terminal

park n shop (my favourite supermarket!)

starbucks (it's huge here! the only foreign coffee that can be found in GZ)

mei xin (from hk!)

and many banks. i realised that there're banks everywhere - just along one street, there're 5 different banks and u can find the same 5 banks one street away .

just counting the ones around my apartment within 5km, i've got bank of china x 1, china merchants bank x 2, icbc bank x 2, hang seng bank x 1, agricultural bank x 1
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www.chinasmack.com

2008-09-27T14:56:00.004+08:00

my boss introduced me to the real china.

the description reads "Hot internet stories, pictures, & videos in China. What’s popular, scandalous, or shocking that have the Chinese talking."

working on sat & sun

2008-09-26T23:05:00.001+08:00

i can't get over the fact that i've to work this sat & sun (which i only found out today)! the chinese govt has declared this weekend end as working days in exchange for 7 days of public holiday.

there goes my plan to sleep in on sat & sun - i was so looking forward to that. plus i need to do my laundry and clean the apartment. i only brought one-week's worth of clothes and my boxes are still stuck at the customs :-(

me so smart lor!

boiling barley is becoming a frequent activity of mine

2008-09-25T22:47:00.002+08:00

alrite... the heat is really getting to me... i'm having terrible headache and that's not a good sign. i wouldn't want to be sick & alone during the golden week holiday... that'll be totally unacceptable!

i decided i'll boil barley to counteract the heatiness (that's what we'll usually do in singapore). the other problem is that i've never boiled barley before - in the past, i just need to tell mummy and i'll have barley water to drink... now it's me who has to do it :-(

after speaking a "food consultant" (actually it's just mitch in hk), i went to buy the required ingredients (actually just barley seeds & water :p). went home & followed mitch's instructions - 1 cup of barley + 1 litre of water + 20mins boiling time.

end result - drinkable barley water!

raw barley seeds

1st experience with typhoon

2008-09-24T22:27:00.002+08:00

it was declared typhoon 8 in hong kong while it guangzhou, it's business as usual... afterall it's only rain + flood + strong wind here - not serious enough for the government to declare it as a non-working day :p

however it's a welcome change to me... the weather has been horrible hot the past couple of days - 37oC! the moment i step onto the streets, i was soaked with perspiration. unbelievable!

to celebrate, i happily walk on the streets enjoying the coolness... never did i realise the wind is STRONG and i mean REALLY STRONG... i thought i was gonna be blown away! wow. i shall never wear skirt/dress on typhoon days.
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i'm connected

2008-09-23T22:16:00.003+08:00

opened the bank accounts today - Bank of China & China Merchants Bank

if u're wondering why i've got 2 accounts, it's not becos i'm rich but becos of company's requirements. one for salary and the other is for allowances and claims. dun ask me why - i dun know the reasons. what's more puzzling is that i've to go hong kong to open a hk account just for my medical claims...

got my china SIM card (operator is China Mobile, similar to the Singtel in spore) - had to skim through 300+ numbers to find a suitable number. problem is u have to select 4-5 options as the number u like may already be taken but it's not removed from the booklet. i didn't know that and had to skim thru the booklet twice :-(

breakfast is served

2008-09-23T09:00:00.001+08:00

one of the staff benefits is that breakfast is provided :-) you can pick either a chinese or western breakfast.

what i had today - beehoon with chicken + seaweed + veggie + man tou. yums!

medical check-up

2008-09-22T16:05:00.001+08:00

feeling jittery about the medical check-up after hearing horrid stories and also becos i wasn't comfortable/convinced about the hygiene as well as the professionalism of the chinese medical staff.

what a surprise it was when i reach there - amazingly clean with helpful nurses and doctors. except for one who was so rough in opening my mouth & throat. i nearly choked! overall experience - good although long waiting time. the whole entire check-up took 2 hrs.

i have to register using my passport, thus all details including name is in english. the staff are unable to read english and thus i'm being called as 新加波的小姐 (miss from singapore)... i felt like i was in some beauty pagent ;p
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where i work

2008-09-22T15:44:00.012+08:00

today is the day i reported for work. a huge bouquet of roses awaits for me at my desk plus a yummy welcome lunch. a very warm welcome from the head & shoulders team :)

office interior really wows me and i'm loving the decor of my new work place!

office entrance

washroom - just how cool is this?!

see more pictures on facebook!
http://www.new.facebook.com/album.php?aid=60483&l=be0e5&id=594239407
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guangzhou, china

2008-09-21T22:20:00.004+08:00

today is the day i start a new chapter in life in a foreign country. well... not that foreign actually... will be surrounded by lots of chinese. every street. every corner. in short - everywhere.

not sure how well i'll be able to adpat but i'll try my best lor... afterall, i'm a SURVIVOR! :)

my family sent me off at changi airport and i arrived at baiyun airport at 1220pm. cleared the customs smoothly with my 2 luggages - i had excess baggaage of 19kg! (the allowance i'm given is 25kg). tried to get away with paying using the pitiful "i'm relocating" reason but no luck! i gotta pay :-(

company driver drove me to my apartment - a cosy one-bedroom in 天河区(tianhe district). there's a supermarket, mcdonald's, subway sandwich, brzilian restaurant, all banks etc etc. very very convenient. oh! the local tax bureau is just across the street - no way to evade taxation ;p

more pictures of my humble abode on facebook!
http://www.new.facebook.com/album.php?aid=60224&l=e7bff&id=594239407