Just Because....

hello to you..YOU who can still be bothered to read this nearly-dead blog...well, today's a decently good day...coz i've just handed in my first uni assignment and i got home early so i've decided to post this entry..and guess what, i'm also going to post up some photos! yay....

first let us back track to March 2008...when i was back in Singapore for my dad...here are some super long-awaited photos from then...

our lovely friends who used to reside in Perth..they have all now deserted us for sunny Singapore and Brisbane

and their kids..."melvin junior", "little catherine" and "roy junior"...i'm sure u can match them up with their respective parents...now all we need is a "little karen" for a complete set!...

and here's catching up with some of my most favourite people in the whole wide world....luckily no pictures of us at Luna...only this decently glam shot at Fashion Bar...

wait...i lied..i do have pictures at Luna...but..ahem...since i'm trying to maintain a PG rating here..it shall not be published...let's just say it involves a gi-normous wall mounted poster and air (ass) kissing....

There were obviously more photos with the girls as well, but sorry...i'm vain...i look terrible in those photos...so while i'll give them to you (someday), i won't be posting them up here too...:P

Fast forward to May 2008...my first work trip to Vancouver to meet our global marketing team...great trip i got to say...work-wise it was definitely fruitful...and the food and shopping was simply awesome as well...here's a pic of all of us at a cooking school...great idea for a team building event but not so sure about the menu...blue cheese with chicken...hmmm....

i also shelled out about 100 bucks for my first ever sea-plane ride...it's a 20-minute plane trip which basically starts by taking off on water and landing back down on water as well...mere reckons it was super cool when he did it in Indo visiting Newmont's Batu mine site so he insisted i try it out in vancouver...well, i wasn't as excited as he was but i got to admit it did provide a very breath-taking and unique view to vancouver....already one of the most beautiful cities i have ever been to, the bird's eye view just made it so much more wonderful....

so cute right...a heart-shaped freeway...

ok let's bring ourselves back to current time...last week i attended my first ever user conference in the Philippines...pretty shocking considering i have been with this company for nearly 3 years...duh...so here's me with $1,300 worth of excess baggage...

i was basically there simply to make sure nothing went majorly wrong...and if things went awry then i've got to fix it...so, sadly, there wasn't a lot of time for me to go shopping or do any interesting for that matter...i was staying right next door to a massive shopping mall for crying out loud...and yet i only managed to pop in for a couple of hours on the last morning that i was there...

BUT i did get to do one cool thing tho...and that was to try the local delicacy - Balut. My first attempt at balut was at a restaurant...looks good doesn't it...but bear in mind this dish is aptly named "balut surprise"...

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TADAH!

Don't be grossed out just yet!!...let me explain...balut is an egg with a semi-formed duck embryo...it's usually a 16-day old embryo..any older and you'll get feathers and beak...what you are seeing here isn't the duck embryo at all..it's really only your regular hard-boiled egg with slightly more prominent veins than usual...presumably coz there is (was) an embryo in there that was feeding off the nutrients from the egg itself...


"balut surprise" was decidedly a very westernised version of the real deal...so after dinner, we requested to go find a street vendor and taste it for what it was meant to be...

my very willing-try-everything colleague peeling open the REAL balut...

and here's mine after eating/discarding the yolk and egg white...

(you can't actually eat the white as it is very very hard..hence the name balut, meaning "stone")

...now you get the embryo at the bottom...

ok, i guess you can be grossed out now...:P

a bonus of most of my work trips is that i get to have a free stopover in Singapore..how can i resist right? i had a really FAT weekend...eating and eating and eating...and drinking and drinking and drinking...

what capped off a really fabulous weekend was my time at Wine Connection with my favourite bunch of people again...best friends in the whole wide world!!!!

Eying - Thanks for always being the life of the party..love your vivaciousness always!! Hope Hei wasn't too bored..
Siheng - Don't panic about your wedding plans...it will be fine...so nice to meet your wife finally..hope we didn't scare her to much...hahah
Jason - I've never had someone who has ever been so anxious to celebrate my birthday..this is certainly the first!! Love you to bits for that!!!
Mok - I'm so glad you are always there when I come back...unlike some people...(just joking!)...wish you all the best in your new job and i certainly hope we can work together!
Andrea, Serene, Dana - What fun would it be at Taboo without you guys...our Mr. Popular would have simply ditched me after introducing me to Jackie for the 7th (or was it 8th) time in just as many years...

See you all again in November!!! Hopefully i would have more entries by that time....