Another singaporean stranger

I feel like I am in the eye of a cyclone. One bad move and I will be swept into a horrific mess and being flung a thousand miles away. Sigh

Anycase, had quick dinner at local hangout (Yun Qi). A lady came to sit opposite me to share table (common in HK). I was almost not paying attention to her until i heard her trying to order her dinner in English. She looked like a singaporean and she could obviously not understand nor speak cantonese. Not wanting to leave her in a lurch, i asked her in english what she wanted with prawns. The look of relief on her face, brought back familiar feeling! haaa haa

So I helped her order to the delight of both her and the waitress who couldnt speak english. We exchanged info and she was with citigroup doing her biz trip. She apparently decide to venture out on her own without her local colleagues.

We chatted for a while more and then i made my move. It's nice to see a fellow-woman back from home. but i'm getting use to HK and it doesnt really has that sort of impact for me like "OH GOD finally someone can speak english to me!":)

Desmond also started to converse with me in cantonese rather than english since he realise i could understand him and reply a little back in cantonese. Hopefully my cantonese will improve soon!

People keep saying singapore is boring...

I think its quite sad, that everyone else in the world, including ourselves think Singapore is such a boring place. There is hardly anything for me to defend it with.
"Please, not sentosa again. "

Desmond's boss fly in from singapore. He didnt realise i was from singapore i think. So when asked how he thought sg was, he paused, thot very hard and all he could say was "nice". I could see he was struggling to find a right descriptive word.

We asked him what he did and he said someone brought him to Raffles hotel, and "tallest building" asia grill bar at swissotel. I was thinking, OH MY GOODNESS, is there all we can offer????

As luck would have it, a table behind us, an animated american pair of male business men was talking about their business trip recently. I overhead the guy said "oh i just came back from singapore. Ghees that place is SOOO BORING. There is nothing there. Just Boring"

I was feeling aliitle indignant. Then again, he is almost right. What can i say? Compare to HK, we are like plain congee next to a bubbling pot of steaming hotpot with variety of seafood!

I feel sad that there is nothing worthwhile in sg to mention. Nothing. Forget abt the damn IR. Where the hell is our character, the vibrance, the brillance??? None. Sad to admit. Its a nice country to settle in, live in, but not a tourist place.

We are just too clean, too eager to be modern, that we have lost our essence of our own character. Look at china town, its the fakest chinatown i have ever seen around the world. Even I WONT GO THERE, least of all visitors.

So sad....

Towards the end, desmond's boss realised i was from singapore. he keep adding "oh its a nice place" I smiled, trying to be nice too. I am afterall an unofficial "ambassador" of my lion city.

Typhoon 3 in Hk again

Woke up late this morn. I forgot to set the alarm and was rushing like hell to work. The minute i step out of the lobby, I had wind blowing straight in my face! It was cool and the wind was strong! So i gave up the idea of braving the wind by the road and took the shuttle and MTR. Longer trip but safer and dry!

When the shuttle turn along the coastal, u could see how high the sea water is and its super choppy! Its almost scary looking at it! I mean its all new to me considering there's hardly a stir in singapore's water. I truly thank god for having such a safe isl I had all these years! No earthquake, no storm, no black rain, no cyclone...

I didnt have time to plaster tapes and marked an X on my windows. I figure its still quite safe. Luckily i came back to an intact home.

Work was hectic. What is new?

Marten shoo me home abt 8pm and again i took the train back this time. When i alighted the bus, the typhoon wind almost blew me away! Ha ha. I wondered if i lift my arms, would i ne taken off into the air and fly?! :)

Canx wait to get home tomorrow!
I hope the typhoon wont delay or cancel my flight! I'm taking SQ this time and so i feel safer in comparison! At least i know they wont try to push it!

Home sweet home. Canx wait to see my frens again!

A day in Macau

Went to macau on sat with tracy and her Hubby. We decided on a day trip and we set off abt noon after lunch. The ferry took an hour to Macau and it was bloody bad for me and Tracy. We were suffered from motion sickness. The water was so choppy and we were giddy and feeling puky the whole way.

We took bus 3A (cost us only Hk$2.50 each) to the senado square and walked towards St Paul Ruins. We stop by a church to visit the sacred treasures museum. Basically its all artifacts of paintings, models and tools used in their mass or priests etc dated many years back. It wasnt anything grand but still okie.

St Paul's Ruin was truly a wall on its own. We speculate on the 101 reasons why it was just left with the wall that wasnt burnt down. We walked up the stairs behind the wall and as we reached the top, me and tracy froze. we were both afriad of heights and it didnt help that the metal railings was the sort with holes that u can looked down. So we immediately did a turn and head straight down and to visit the crypts instead. There was nothing much except piles of incomplete bones that was matyrs of Japan.

After that, we went off to the fortress which was really nothing and then we moved on to casa gardens. In the garden, we saw 10 murals on the floor and realise that it was a story telling mural. We saw the sign that said waterfall and so we walked in. Only to discover 3 stacked up rocks and waterfall that had long ceased operation. Such a con job! Instead we found ourselves in a children playgrd and libray. Sigh.

After which we walked back towards St Paul and bought so much local snacks, esp this cuttlefish speciality that was absolutely fabulous! We swiped each a huge bag of snacks! I bought till abt HK350.

As we head towards the bustsop, we saw a crowd of people outside the St dominic church with cameras. We saw school scots forming human barricade on two sides outside the entrance. I whipped out my guide book and realised it was an annual procession (on every 13th may) from this church to another chapel, where the nuns will carry the holy mary figurine etc and walked the procession.

Dunno why the people in front of us went away and went into the church but we stayed put and so we ended up rite in front of the Q. The processions started abt 5.30 -6pm and it was pretty nice to watch. I didnt know why they were chanting the same verse over the loud speaker over and over again in cantonese until tracy explained they were doing the rosary chants in sets according to the beads. Argh i see. Always handy to have catholic frens to explain the mystery.

We waited for a while for the bus back. It was dusty and crowdd and we had to stand on the way to the ferry terminal. We manage to catch the 8 pm ferry but it cost HK176 instead of HK150 coz it was a nite service. The trip back was slighty better as the turbo jet ferry seemed more stable. But once we hit HK waters, we felt sick again and didnt help when we were so hungry. We ate like a cow at Maxim food place.

All in all, a good day coz it was cloudy and wasnt hot. Havent laughed so much for a long while. Its always fun to have tracy and hb ard!