Down Under

It's exactly a week since I arrive here. Such a different life; from the 'gliz n glam' of a entertainer to someone who can not find any contacts of entertainment; from a supper lover with the convenience of hawker food to self cooked meals.

Waking is about the same, phone calls from Eric. But after that, it is kinda weird. I'm in a cage waiting for him to be home, hoping that he would not be too tired to bring me out later the night. The only time when I can have this much of freedom. I'm such a monkey, enjoying swinging from tree to tree.

Unlike my stressful life in Singapore, I have nothing to do now. It is all about eating, sleeping, gaming. All the energy that has got no avenue to let out.

That's pretty much all my complaints. Else, it is actually good to take a break. Though the Virgo Brain gets to work and scream at me at times, I must say I did a pretty good job in substaining the little voice from getting my work up and mess up my break.

Eric has been great to me, and doing his best to ensure that I am taken care of. This trip is to see how things go for us, and I must say, we are doing pretty decent.

To summerize, we will be getting ROM some time this year, after August.

Tsk tsk... Think I won't have any luck of romantic proposal, blah...

Away for a Month

I'll be flying off to Australia for a month. I wonder what I can do during then.

Am thinking of learning some graphic design work so that I can help out some stuff in the company. But will I end up being too lazy instead, and sleep whole day? Or will I end up like a part time maid, waking to find used cups and dishes, pots and pans from yesterday, in the sink, waiting for the 'maid' to wash them. I hope not.

My boyfriend will be bring me to a camping trip the minute I reach Australia. I have never being to any outdoor camping before, so am pretty excited about it. I hope that there are not too many aggressive insects over there that will bite. I am very prone to insect bites. It will be really terrible...

Yet to start packing. A month's worth of luggage. Will my language be overweight? Will the customs confiscate any of my stuff? There are certain things that I really need to bring over. I hope that there will not be any problem.

Already worrying so much before the trip.....

Need a Break

It will be soon. Next week I'm heading to Melbourne for a month.

It will be a good time to do some soul searching. Who I am, what I want, what I should do. Things that are happening in my life.

A good time to get away, momentarily, from the reality of life.

Kolkata

My 2nd trip to India wasn't such a pleasant one. Though 4 days were blocked for this trip, we were only staying in the hotel for 1 night and travelling for the rest.

The minute we reached Delhi early morning, we were greeted with badly polluted air. Immediately my sinus started, and only subsided at night. The air over there was so polluted that when you clean you nose at the end of the day, you see back stains on the tissue paper.

The transist from Delhi to Kolkata took a long time. By the time we finally ready Kolkata, we were half dead from all the waiting and the travelling.

No doubt the people likes to take their own sweet time in doing their things, it was amazing when we found out how they try to race on the road. Every other seconds, you could hear honkings. All the honks seemed to have different meanings too. Example: I'm in hurry, please move aside so that I can continue my race; I am overtaking you, please do not drive in to my lane; or I'm seriously in hurry, DO NOT cross the road now!

In their 3 lanes road, one could see many different types of transportations. From cars to lorries, buses to tricyles, rickshaw to motocyles, and even cows. Somehow they could squeeze 5 transportation into a lane. At one point, there were even transportation going on the wrong side of the road. Though there seemed not to be any traffic accidents, we, as passengers were terrified much of the time.

Some of the streets were filled with rubbish dumps. And within the same pile, you could see people, cows, crows all digging from the same pile. Then perhaps a little down the road, clothes that were hung out to dry along the road divider or the againts the buildings. With so much dust, I wondered if these people ever have clean clothes to wear at all.

The 1st thing that we noticed about our hotel was that it was facing a river. Opposite the river bank was one of the biggest slams that I had ever seen... The hotel was not yet complete as the workers were still putting cement on parts of the building...

The 1st few available rooms were given to the ladies. We were glad that we could finally get a little rest. My roommate and my relief were short lived. Once entered the room, there were so many house flies that we were going to faint. Our request to change room was turned down as it was full house. Spraying insecticides was almost useless as there were hole on the walls! The insects could just fly in through the holes. But thank God, just when we were about to take a short nap, the hotel staffs managed to get us another room.

The show venue was lovely. It was at Hilton Hotel. The Indian dancers were great too, putting up native Indian dance items and some pop items. Our changing rooms were outdoor. But since it was a cold season in Kolkata, we did not have to suffer from the heat like in Singapore when doing an outdoor event.

Over all the show was a success. We hope that the clients will enjoy our performance so much that they will get us to do their event in Thailand.

P/S: This time round we didn't get hungry at all. Our dear client had made sure that we had enough to eat for the whole trip.

In case anyone wanna read more about this trip, click HERE

To Vegas!

I got rejected to go for an audition today. I guess it was my fault that I don't usually check my email frequently. The dateline for register was last Friday when the mail was sent out only on Thursday. The audition was held one day after the date of register, for 2 days. I called up this morning, and they told me that all the slots were taken. Well, I wasn't really all that hard up for the audition. Just thought that if I could try out a Mandarin Musical will be nice for my profile. Talking of which, I haven't update my profile for ages. Better do it soon, otherwise I will forget all the big shows that I got involved in.

All right, updated...

Anyway, as I was saying, I got rejected even for the chance to be auditioned. But nevertheless, a great thing happened today.

A few weeks ago, I was told that there might be a show in Las Vegas that will need dancers. Being close to the lady in charge, I told her that I hope to be one of the dancers whom she will call. It is always good to go overseas to perform. So together with some dancers who were present, we jokingly remarked that even if we were paid little, it will still be a great experience.

A few weeks later, I was told to go for a meeting for the Las Vegas trip. In my mind, I thought that it will be just a meeting stating the possibility of the show. And all of us thought that it will just be some multi-cultural stuff that most Singaporean dancers always do when they are performing overseas. But to our surprise, it was not.

We were told that the show will be the 1st one for the year 2007 in Vegas. We are to perform as backup dancers for singers, representing Singapore. BIG TIME singers. Singers like Celine Dion, Kylie, Mariah Carey, etc(pardon if I spell it wrongly). But YES! It was a performance for these singers. We will be taking 1st class, have a room each, accommodation and food taken care of, limousines to drive us around, news coverage in Singapore, DVDs sold worldwide after the show, and loads of other incentives!

This is really too good to be true. And the best part? None of us even need to go through auditioned!

We were all so excited about it. Nothing like this happens to Singaporean dancers. Yes, we do get to perform for some Chinese famous singers. But definitely not to Vegas and be on the same stage with people like Kylie. We had to keep our face straight though out the meeting. But when it was over, all our excitement came bursting. We kept asking if it is really true, that really got this chance. This is so unbelievable.

We decided that we shall start training in our techniques and vocab for the dance. We know that we are not the best dancers around in Singapore. Now that we got this chance, we need to work real hard to make sure that we do not let anyone down.

I still can't believe it... =D

1998

I got this mail from a friend.

This mail is talking about how some of the Indonesians targeted only at the Chinese females in the population in the year 1998. They call it Ethnic Cleansing..

A mail that broke my heart. Back then I was 18 as well. I remember vividly hearing about these news. But since it didn't bother me then, I did not try to find out more about what happened. After reading it, I could not sleep the whole night. I toss and turn in my bed. It is so disturbing. I don't understand why it happened.

What the article says:

My name is Vivian, 18 this year. I have a young sister and brother, leaving a condominium which was located at the ‘safe’ side of the town.

At 9am on 14th May 1998, a group of people forced their way in to our condominium. They shouted, “We want to kill Chinese!”, “We are going to eat the pigs!”

Staying at the 7th storey, the neighbors living on the 3rd storey told us that they were already on 2nd storey. They were chasing after the tenants up the building.

We were terrified. Hopping that God will be on our side, we left everything to our faith, and ran upstairs. By the 15th storey, as we wanted to ran into a room, we saw them coming out from the lift. Immediately we slammed the door shut.

Within the room, we heard cries of women and little girls who were outside. We knew that they would come our way in no time, so we tried to hide as best as we could.

We heard a girl, who’s age range was about 10-12, screaming on top of her lungs, “Mummy! … Mummy! … Mummy!… I’m in pain!”

During that moment, we did not know that she was being rape.

After half an hour later, the noise outside began to subside. Being calmer, we went out to take a look. What I saw was beyond any words of description. Many women lied on the floor, some were just children.

My sister, Fenny, and I started going hysterical. We held on to daddy as tight as we could. Together with the friends who escaped with us, we started heading down. We suddenly heard someone crying for help. We walked toward the sound.

We saw 4 men gang raping a 20 year old lady. No matter how hard she fought, she could not fight against the men who were pinning her to the ground.

We realized the danger that we might face, and decided to rush back to the room for safety. But one of the men caught Fenny! We tried to save her. But there were 60 of them. They used shredded mattress sheets to tie us.

We were brought to a room. When uncle Dodi asked them what they wanted, no one bothered to reply him. They looked barbaric and malicious. When one man grabbed Fenny and throw her to the sofa, I knew she was in grave danger. I screamed and was slapped hard across the face.

My daddy had fainted from their whacking with wood. Mummy fainted when Fenny was thrown on to the sofa. I could only pray, prayed that it would not happen.

Uncle Dodi tried to strike a deal with them using money. But it was no use. 5 men took turn to rape her, each saying “Allahu Albar” before doing the act. This is the Islamic way of praising the Almighty God.

After that, I was dragged out along with Aunt Vera. I fainted

About 5-6 in the evening, I slowly became conscious. I recalled what had happened earlier. I was injured on my head, and I was naked. Tears came out.

I saw daddy hugging mummy and my brother, Uncle Dodi hugging Aunt Vera. Everyone was crying. Feeling weak, I fainted again.

The next day I was sent to Pluit Hospital. Daddy and mummy were by my side.

I felt the pain from the needles that were inserted in to my body. Bearing the pain I asked, “Mummy, where is Fenny?” I asked.

Mummy burst into tears. Daddy looked at me with tears in his eyes giving a bitter smile.

Four days later, when I was feeling better, daddy told me what happened to me. I was gang raped by 7 men while unconscious. Daddy was then repeatedly beaten up. It was also during then, mummy realized that Fenny was dead.

My mind started racing. Tears kept steaming through my eyes.

“Why dad!”

Daddy could not answer me. He told me to rest and walked out. I could not stop crying. My life had become meaningless.

1 week later, I was discharged. I found out what exactly happened. Fenny tired to fight them when she was being raped. They hit her. When she did not stop, one of the men became angry. He grabbed a knife and stabbed in to her stomach repeatedly. Fenny died with all her blood over her.

Aunt Vera was raped as well.

“Oh my God! How could such a thing happen? Where is God? Is he even alive?”

Aunt Vera then stayed at her parents place. She suffered from severe shock. Looking pale, she refused to take any food.

Mummy and I always cried when ever we recalled this horrible nightmare. I will never forget how much of a beast those men were.

Dear friends,
This letter was a record of one incident that happened on the 13th to 15th May 1998 at the riot in Indonesia. The targets were all Indonesia Chinese. Their companies were destroyed, they were killed, their houses and shops were burnt in fire, and the females were gang raped. Some were even thrown into the blazing fire after being raped.

The authorities did not offer much help, and not many people know or care about this. We want to create awareness to the world, and hopefully help may be given to the Indonesia Chinese.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Top 10 CountriesThat I will like To Visit

Well, let's see which are the countries that I'd already been too 1st.

Malaysia
- Most Singaporeans would have been to this country since it is just across the border. As for me, my mum's side of the family is from there, so I travelled a lot to visit them when I was younger. Will soon need to travel there on a frequent basis as my business has some deal with certain companies in Malaysia.

Thailand
- A shoppers paradise. The food is great, the people are friendly, and everything is so cheap. The Full Moon Party at the beach was fun as well.

Korea
- Almost like Japan, except for the food. Too much kimchi in every dish. Aiks. People there are as rude as how Japanese are polite. But I made friends with some youngsters who were really nice even though we didn't understand each other's language.

Japan
- Favourite country, but a crazy place to be born in. On average, the people there have to hold about 3 jobs to have cover their expenses.

Myanmar
- Was a hot season when I was there. So I stayed indoors most of the times. It is not so developed, but food is delicious.

India
- Hot season when I was there as well. The airport was badly maintained, and I only dared to eat the food in the hotel.

Brunei
- Boring country, as there isn't much activities to be done. While waiting for the only 24 hrs cafe located in only 1 of the hotels, we had to wait 2 hrs before the last person on the table got his food.

Australia
- Went on summer and winter. Had to head to a kids store to do my shopping for clothes. Beautiful scenaries, friendly people.

Well, and here is the list for other places.

1. Hong Kong

2. Macau

3. China: Beijing, Tibet, Shanghai

4. USA: Alaska, Texas, California, Hawaii, New York, Las Vegas, Brazil

5. Egypt

6. Vietnam

7. France

8. Russia

9. Paris

10. Roman1a

After looking through the list, I wonder if that will ever happen at all...

My Kinda Hoilday

I love to travel. I guess most people do. Most of the time, when I go overseas for a holiday, I will prefer to get away from the city, away from the crowded places. Unlike some of my friends who are crazy with shopping, I tend to just glance at the shops and relax while waiting for the rest of my friends to be done in their shopping.

In the coming Jan I am thinking of going away for a short trip. Probably for 4 days only. And I have a hard time deciding where to go. I'm toying between Penang and Bintam. I have friends in Penang, but the beach is not fantastic. As for Bintam, I heard that the beach is beautiful but Im not too sure if there will be any terrorist attacks.. So much concern just to find a place to chill out.

A friend showed me these pictures of a very nice beach resort, The biggest resort (Bahrain). It looks awesome. Wondering if this place already exist, or is it still under constructing. It will be great to be able to visit a place like this.

My trip to India

as the plane flew in to the middle of the city before landing, i could see that there were lights all over the city of india. i had a hard time deciding if the lights were coming fr cars or the buildings as i was not sitting by the window sit. as the plane flew nearer to the land, i saw some really conjested road. it was 2am in the morning.

the 1st thg which all of us noticed was the smell of the country, somethg which we were prepared of. the coach picked the passengers up heading to the check out counter. being in the city of india, the airport does not give a 1st gd impression. we smelled cow dung, and saw a dog lying on the sand pile, not sure whether it was dead or alive. the workers were slping around as it was past midnight.

we had a huge luggage to store the chinese lion dance costume. it couldnt fit anywhere into the coach that was bring us to the hotel. so after much discussion, it was aggreed to be place on top of the coach, tied with ropes.

the the 1/2 hr ride to the hotel to the hotel was bumpy, making me sick. it was a relief when we approached the hotel. however, we were brought to the wrong hotel, and Aidil had to tell them that we were supposed to put up in Taj Palace. another 10 mins ride on the bumpy road.

upon reaching Taj Palace, we were impressed. it was really beautiful. the stairway leading to the hotel lobby was really grand. we were all glad that we were able to stay in such a nice place in india. the room rate for 1 night is S$350.

as we went to check out the rooms that were allocated for us, we were shocked that there wasnt any rooms reserved for us! after 2 hrs or so, the cilent came down from his room to tell us that the room reservation was full and he had arranged for us to stay in the 'wrong' hotel. to think that the client was there the whole time, making aidil used auto roaming at S$7/min, and only come down after so long.


saying goodbye to staying at Taj Palace.

looking like pandas, all of us head to the other hotel, The Ashok. taking the shortest possible time, we hurried to our rooms, took shower and went straight to bed after asking the reception to wake me up. decided to cancel my R&R in the morning. didnt want to tired myself before the show.

the next morning, i woke up before the reception called. i took my time getting ready for rehearsal. by the time i was getting out of my room, they still haven call. hmm...

after waking up everyone, i headed to the cafe. no breakfast for us as we had technically not stayed the night over. luckily we bought some light snacks, which managed to keep us away fr hunger.

as we waited for the coach to arrive, i took some interesting pictures at The Ashok.




i looked out to the sky and saw many interesting thgs. they have strange looking birds that i have nv seen before, and i think i saw eagles too. im not too sure if india house stray eagles, but neither do i know if there are any other species of birds that soar through the skies.

it was red light. but no vehicle stop. the only one that did was the coach that i was in. it seemed like it was too big to squeeze ahead. the old ladies were sitting at the pavement under the afternoon sun for a chat. i wonder why they didnt look for a cooler place to do it. but it did seemed normal for them though.

reaching the hotel, we started our rehearsal immediately. it was only then did i realised that i was doing more then performing 4 items. all of us had to back up for the singers after our segment. zzzzz......

we had late lunch, our 1st meal of the day. lunch was great. was a bit more spicy than back home. but it was good. guess hunger took over us. after lunch, we started distributing the costumes. we had to keep shifting amg the changing rooms before settling for the one at the corner. too many gals. too much opinions...

through out the day, one can hear indian music being played. it reminded me of the Banglah wedding that i had attended the year before. these bunch of ppl really know how to entertain and enjoy themselves.

by 6pm, we were all ready for the show. in order to keep ourselves awake, we kept doing warmups and rehearsal the numbers. i entertained myself by taking pictures. by 8pm, we were exhuasted. the thg abt dancers is tat we hate to wait. it sucks all our energy away. by 8.30pm, we were told that the event would kick off by 9pm. we were hungry and slpy. only then, we were served some light snacks.

the event started and ended well. there were many Indian dancers and singers around. it is funny that most of the lady artistes are slightly on the plump side. it seems like its a very normal thg in India. if it is Singapore, the dancer will be condemned. nobody will even think abt putting plump dancer on stage.

it was nearly midnight when we had our dinner. their food was so spicy yet so delicious. we feasted on, trying to fill everythg into our empty stomach. i was half aslp by then.

after getting back to the hotel, i was so stoned that i couldnt even find the strength to shower...

the next morning, we reached the airport at 5.30am. the 1st thg that we did was to find a location to slp after checking in. i was in my dream land when i left that someone kept bumping on to the chair that i was slpg on. i opened my eyes and was irritated to see that one of the performer was stretching himself and knocking against the chair everytime he layed back. after staring a while, i realised that he wasnt stretching. he was playing with a child who wouldnt allow him to slp. the child was annoyingly adorable! he couldnt stop laughing nor let us slp. but then sleepiness took over us, and soon we were aslp agian.

by the time we were supposed to board the plane, we started worrying. it was 10th Sept, and 1 day later it would be exactly 1 yr after the 911 incident. the security was tight. we had lots of thgs in our hand carry that must be checked in. and time was on our side this time. finally, after madness for delaying the plane abt 20 mins, we managed to board the plane.

i was so happy to reach home. nothg is better than the comfort of ur own home.

i think i might have another trip to India next month. perhaps this time i will ask for extension to enjoy the sight of the country instead of rushing everywhere.

The KL Trip

i had wanted to make it into a working trip. was planning to meet up with some potential partners in KL, but due to the short time frame given for informing, we couldnt arrange for the meeting.

i had a delicious meal in this trip. the shark fin noodle. not too sure if the shark fin is real, it was dirt cheap if im given the real stuff. met up with many online gamers after a session of the game. should say that we have only one thg to bond us together. the game. the whole night's topic was all abt the game, and nothing else. i wasnt quite listening to wat they were saying. was more concern abt keeping myself cool. it was a rather hot and humid night. >_<

on the way back at the toilet stop, i bumped into one of the event ppl. wat a small world

KL Trip

tml i'll be going for a KL trip with jes. its her birthday on Sat and she asked me to accompany her to KL. this trip will be meeting some of our frds in my gaming world. it seems like it is going to be a big affair cos fr meeting ppl of our own guild to ppl of the server. think it will be at least 20 of us who will be present. not too sure the exact amt of ppl yet though. but i think it will be fun.
=P

My trip to Melbourne

Recently I went to Melbourne to meet my boyfriend. Its my 1st trip to Melbourne, and my 1st time meeting him. Many frds told me that they are skeptical about my relationship with him. Questions like how is it possible to fall for someone whom u have nv met before, are u sure that u want to go thru this, etc. as much as im afraid of falling, i also need to know how far this relation can go.

and the result? im glad that i have made my trip there. i had a wonderful time, and the holiday did me good. i was like a housewife for 2 weeks, when he went to work. and on top of that, i realised that i can cook! haha. and i actually slp more than 8 hrs a day when i was there, without taking a single pill. any way, here are some pics that i can share with all.



my bf and i. oh yes, his name is Eric



met up with our frd, Cze, who's studying in Melbourne. we went to a pub, and made him drink long island tea while we had orange juice. kekek. and he got high after tat... oh yeah, he's only 18 this yr.



met up with gorgeous tania. she is studying there as well, inspired to be a vet one day. work hard gal!




Melbourne night scene near the Crown. isnt it just beautiful?


these are Eric's parents and his little sis. they were on their way to Singapore. met up with them when i can back to go karaoke. ^_^



eric brought me to the wildlife park. fed some kangaroos, emu, duck, pigeons, etc. was kinda scary when the kangaroos all came towards me knowing that i have food for them. it nearly made me run for my life. keke. dun u think tat the baby kangaroo is so adorable in its mother's pouch?






i was brought to the Gold Mine in Ballarak. all the workers dressed up in the olden days where the mining period was. i was so tempted to wear their out fit to take a pic. so eric brought me back the following week to do the photoshot. and mind u, it was a 2 hrs, 110km/hr drive fr his home to the venue. i had to do my part to talk to him, find him with chips, to keep him awake.




then we went to the 12 apostles. it was a grand sight. the whole stretch of the great ocean road takes abt 4-5 hrs drive to complete. the roads were slippery due to the rain, and there were so many turns tat i felt a bit sick. we saw many beautiful rainbows one after another. and manage to catch one that is a complete rainbow. too bad, we were too near to capture the whole thiing in the camera. and trust me. there is no pot of gold at the end of the rainbow. kekeke. because we were so near the sea, the wind was freezing. my ears were painful, my clothes will too thin, and i muscles stretched till it was unbearable. and can u believe that there are surfers during winter too?

we stayed at backpackers inns for the great ocean trip. one on the night before we start the trip, at bells beach, the next at port campbell. its cheap and the facilities were okay too. but of cos, dun expect 5 stars services. we also got to know some interesting ppl at the inns. i'll also recommand frds who wants to go to melbourne, u should take time to go to the great ocean road. u will love the sight there. its really worth it!

well, this almost sumed up my trip to australia. coming back home was terrible. we were quite upset that the trip had to come to an end.. but thats life....

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