What a News...

I just came back to 'earth' yesterday.

And now, I received a horrendous news affecting the prospect travel of my job.

I have been selected to do at least 3 projects on Auckland, New Zealand every month! With an equipment leased from another company!

O man, I hate Auckland! It's terrible hard work & minimum rest!

I'm kind of on the denial moment. Hopefully this is a mistake. Hopefully it's really not so bad.

Alaska Cruise

Just came back from the Alaska Cruise with hubby on Norwegian Cruise Line.
O yes, I enjoyed myself thoroughly. My hubby, .. as usual.. is quite emotionless with the holiday. Even before I left for the trip, I was all so excited.

For the first time, I could relax. I didn't have to wake up or stay up for work. I don't have to unpack or pack within 2days of stay. I don't have to put massive make-up. (In Fact, I couldn't even put make-up because just after lasik operation) I don't have to walk or stand up more than one hour. I don't have to worry about time. I don't have to worry about anything! I don't even have to do anything.

Our flight to Vancouver (from Singapore) was quite long with a transit in Seoul. Of course, we utilized our transit devouring the Korean soondobu(spicy tofu soup). I watched movie till I stoned. I laughed at Diane Keaton in 'Because I said So' until people thought I was nuts. I laughed at the girl in '200Pounds Beauty' until the crew was startled with me. And then I cried on e same movie until the crew became even more startled with me.

Upon reaching Vancouver, it's a long queue at the immigration interviewing people this & that. Exactly like USA.

I was all excited going into the cruise. Immigration this time was easy. IT was very interesting though. USA immigration in Vancouver at e cruise departure.

The cruise ship was beautiful. Painted with the sun as the title 'Norwegian Sun', it gives me the feeling of bright & cheery. Indeed it did. But hubby has one complain. It's so full with elderlies, we were about the youngest people in the ship. I guess in between the lines, he was complainining of no chicks to feast his eyes on.

3port of calls. Ketchikan, Juneau & Stagway.
All existed for the same reason. Gold Rush.

The towns are very tiny. I suspect it's because they're just port towns. The profile of the people was very petite for girls & very slim for the guys. No, no, no. There aren't igloo or eskimos. These towns are at the tips of the Alaska geography. It's not even the mainland of the big Alaska yet. These are coastal area. They weren't even all that cold. Definitely nothing compared to Moscow in nov, 2006.
They looked & sounded regular British Columbian Canadian. Perhaps a little bit more American accent. Definitely minus the fat & obese issue.

And so we took the excursions of glacier visit & Yukon territory visit.

The glacier was an incredible sight. Now I truly understand why it's called 'as white as snow'.
Not only white. It's blueish white. When we were on the helicopter, the snow covering the mountain top looked so smooth, I wish I was a giant able to sweep my hair through the snow. Snapped a lot of photos.


But the photos doesn't justify the beauty on sight at all.

We were encouraged to try the water from the river running through the glacier. Tasted so sweet. What is Evian, man!!!!!!!!



Yukon territory is in Canada. It's a territory on its own. Once again the snow is incredible. But some of them look so smooth they can be very deep. So we weren't allowed to go too near snow land.
However it's so weird that there was a desert in the middle of the snow covered territory.
Carcross Desert. It's officially the smallest desert in the world. I touched it. It was really warm!

But funnily, the whole feeling of the environment's temperature wasn't too cold. In fact, when I returned to Vancouver, I felt that it was almost the same temperature.

The cruise?
I think it's nice. We had balcony. When we had the very near encounter to the glacier, it was simply amazing.. No words could describe the beauty & enchantment of the sight & experience.

And we were so darn free, we ended up sitting by the coin slot machine waiting for money to drop. Well.. it did. Drop, slot in. Drop slot in. Lucky strike, drop a lot. We had USD10 from USD1. Small fry lah us. But it was really funny.
We both agreed that there is no luxury of casino else where in the world that we could sit there & wait for money to drop.
Oh I forgot to mention. The casino is literally empty. With almost 50 jackpots machine, only about 10players. With almost 10tables, only 5players.

I like the cruise. I don't know if I'd go for another cruise. In Asia, cruising was mostly for gambling. I guess there isn't appreciation of sight. But here, it's genuine relaxation & appreciation for beauty of nature.

I Don't Wana Go Back!

Today's my last day on cruise. I enjoyed myself just being away in serenity, I really don't wana go back.

There aren't any of my company's staff here. No Singaporean here at all. No people with Singlish or Sg lingo.

People here are always minding their own business. Yet, there are warmth & calm mood filling the air the whole time during the trip.

I dread going back. Where to all the rush hour & hustle bustle belonged.

I'm so happy here.

First Anniversary

Today is our first wedding anniversary.
We deliberately chose this date as this was the date we started our relationship 5years back.

I was surprised he wanted to celebrate our anniversary with quite a special way. We had a night at the JW Marriott at Orchard Road. We had our Krug brought there (I intended the Krug for our wedding, but didn't use).

We toasted to our celebrations on the eve of the anniversary quietly in our room. It was a small room but I like being on high floor. They had us upgraded to suite on 26th floor.

Abi, Happy Anniversary! I hope we have happily ever after life..

Parisian

Had my trip to Paris early this month.

I realized that either Parisians have improved helluva lot, or I had begun to understand them better.

They were universally known to be proud & rude people who'd refused to speak English although they can speak almost perfectly well. Not in those lousy French accent that Hollywood movies love to pretend & emphasize but decent English.

However, I don't know if it's because they had been trying to vie for the Olympic Games venue or they really decided to improve, but I found that they're noticeably nicer & more polite.
Of course, my friends who had tried learning French would always defend for their courteous manners & kind heart, especially those from suburb & rural.
But then.. who from suburb & rural aren't nice???

My recent trip, which involved heavy shopping (I blew my credit limit for the first time) & exclusive wine & dine was indeed a very pleasant trip.

To start with, the first meal in the city was great in the sense that they actually had English menu for us. Then the waiter took his time to explain terms that we might find unfamiliar. All happy & well.. food went ok. We ate & drank. We ordered bottle after bottle. So many bottles.. it caught up with some of us (lucky me was spared) the next day. When we talked about it over lunch the next day, I discovered that it was a total of 12 bottles!! The were 15 of us.

At lunch.. I ordered real beef tartar. We had a Greek guy in the group. He told me he'd like beef tartar just before heading for a ciggy break. WAitiers in Paris always asked if I knew what beef tartar is if I order it, seeing that I'm an Asian.
Well.. true to the waiter's surprise, the Greek guy gaped with shock when his meal arrived.

I was equally shocked, "I thought you knew!"
Greek guy: "I ordered beef tartar"
"This is.. beef tartar"
"I didn't know it's raw meat"
"...err.. Don't worry. It tastes like sashimi. Trust me"

Lesson learned: Never assume European knows everything about Europe.
Luckily he found it a good meal after all.

Oh.. back to PArisian.
I noticed: They won't tolerate impatience. They won't tolerate this thing they'd call "Rude" (by their culture).
While our culture, or in our fast-paced lives we aren't used to waiting patiently, they served customer one-on-one AND they would not divert or leave the customer untill the customer is all done. This can either be when the customer is done purchasing or is done enquiring. Before the sales person can excuse oneself, one would check that the customer had permitted one to leave when customer finally said, "THank you" or "I'm fine, thank you."

LV is still very much a famous brand. I was actually treated very well. No, thank you. Not because I looked like I'm rich, multi-million dollar, high-rised-hair Indonesian or shrieking Japanese. It just seems that they have finally learn to treat customers well.

Of course we must play our part.

In a regular pharmacy, I enquire lots of things. The poor pharmacist would not (could not) serve other until I release her. Well.. of course, my English isn't French. She patiently tried to decipher the name of the drug or item I told her. The other poor customer had to wait quite long, because they do not do multi-serving. This ain't Singapore, Malaysia, Hong Kong or China. This is Paris!
And the other customer really waited. I apologized for my hesitance. She pardoned me. This is their culture. This is their courteous manner.
WAIT TO BE SERVED. Do not skip queue or ever interrupt. They would never work like that.

And this is proof, that even when there was only one staff, so be it.

I learned this quite long ago, in fact. It's just that I thought it was because I was a yellow-skinned, that was why I had to wait. (You know.. some where, some people 'taught' us that yellow is inferior to white). But it didn't occured only to us, it applies to their own people too.

Well.. It has been kind of them to kind to us. Truthfully. We, proud Asians, who'd only speak English & our own mother tongues, never learn a single word of theirs (except for thank you), dared enter their country. Even the 'great' American (the best spender) would take up lessons learning the language before venturing the destination for holiday. Believe me. They do.

I have never really believe in learning a language I'd forget after the trip. Now I understand that it only shows that I have disrecpect them if I failed to do so. That is their culture.

France is the most visited country in the world. I don't think they do this merely to keep that spot.

Remember, many don't visit a country just because people there are nice(you would live there instead). They visit the country because they had a lot to offer.

France indeed does.

Mandarin & Han yu pin yin

I dislike it when people refer me by my Chinese name & try to disregard my English name.
First of all, my English name was finalized at birth far before my Chinese name. Hence, my Chinese name was 'created' for the sake of pleasing the older generation (my grandparents). My parents both were true Chinese illiterate & gave me weird name for my 1st Chinese name, Yen. I have always been addressed by my English name. My 1st name.

So, when people do that, I strictly feel that it's a disrespect toward me.
So much so that I condemned it by suggesting that I should really omit my Chinese name.

When my hubby found out that my friend recently named her baby without a Chinese name, he said it would be difficult in Chinese class, presuming that the baby would finally be receiving her education in Singapore. (Chinese is a compulsory 2nd language). That would be so sad for her. Not because she had to learn Mandarin/Chinese, but because there would be no condusive environment for her to learn Chinese. Both parents Chinese illiterate. So are all the four grandparents. So, what mother tongue are we exactly talking about?

I have always been against Mandarin education as I was brought up to believe such. Today I realized how Chinese education lead to so many auspicious believes: how they played with number 8, certain characters, numbers, births, dates etc. Because I remember how my poor aunty was rejected at birth because she's believed to bring terrible disaster to her family. Even her foster family returned her to my grandmother after few years believing that all the 'disasters' were brought upon them by her. Having no where to give her to, my grandmother had to keep her. She was always 'verbally' tortured, brought up to believed that she's not meant to be.
All that lead to low-self esteem.

She became someone's else's 2nd wife. Not legally. You know what Malaysia in the older days are like..

I may be exaggerating by bringing this into the picture. As I read the recent books I bought about Chinese culture & literature, I understand why Chinese believed the way they do.

Only surprisingly, they still believed in 'auspicious' & 'omen' after thousands of years.

Even as the society progress, when they have no answer to their misgiving, they turned to this for excuse. Without sometimes looking at their own behaviour & up-bringing.

Okay, culture aside.
I seriously dislike Mandarin because (I found that many people who learned Chinese/Mandarin as their primary language) I have difficulty understanding them when they speak English. They either speak with direct translation from Chinese (which is pure insult to either language) or they can't pronouce many words properly.

It takes few seconds to translate their pronounciations,.. as
b & p,
d & t,
g & k,
z & c are used totally confused from the master creator of the alphabets.
Besides, they somehow believe they can't roll their tongue to say R. Mostly the same 'species'.
Oh, it does drive me up the wall. (ANd now, they're affecting me TOO!)

German, Dutch, French, English, Portugese & Spanish may have use them differently, but the basics will stay. Only a few letters will change. Even with my Malay education background, English isn't a problem to me.

So who says anyone can't master two languages or more????

I have laid the rule that my children shall not receive Mandarin as their primary education for the fear of this problem.

So what(?!) that I'm of Chinese heritage? As far as I know, when my grandparents sailed out of China, they knew there was no turning back. Besides, both of them (sorry, all four of them) DO NOT SPEAK A SINGLE WORD OF MANDARIN.

Yes, with China booming, Every 'Chinese' all over the world are swarming in to learn Mandarin. But with Taiwan having a major influence, some may get caught in between as to which Mandarin to master (namely HongKonger). And with both China & Taiwan being loggerheads with each other, I doubt they'll unify the Mandarin usage. Imagine, American English, British English, Australian English & New Zealander English. All four English language countries, sometimes you can barely understand the other if you're familiar with one (excuse frequent travelers please). I'm not just talking about accents, but Pronounciations & grammer usage.

Well,.. back to people "Swarming In" to learn Mandarin. With so many people trying to enter the market, they'd be extremely proud. And when the society or market matures.. They'd be very judgemental.
Remember when people were so keen to learn Japanese?
People stop not because Japan became less popular. But because they are so proud of their language, if you can't speak it well, pls do no insult the language by speaking you menial Japanese.
Eventually, they learn English too.
The same is already happening for the Chinese.

Many Chinese are learning English. Their population is so huge, their society is advancing fast. Thinking about entering Chinese market? Now is your chance. DO it late, you''ll be scorned. For your lousy Mandarin. Remember, for you to be up to par with them, no matter how, your mandarin will never be up to their standard.
They will see you as 'hua-ren', but you are no 'Chong-kuo ren".

Call me stubborn. But I don't care. I can learn Mandarin for public's sake. But don't condemn me just because I'm have yellow skin. That is how 'English' students in Singapore gave up learning Mandarin. That is not challenging, that is oppressing. This leads to discourage.

My mother tongue is Hokkien.
My husband's mother tongue is Cantonese.
Mandarin IS THE national language of China.

You can never accused me of neglecting mother tongue.
Truthfully, I think people who can't speak their own dialect are the one neglecting their mother tongue.

I only neglect my ancester's national language. But they had decided that China is long past them anyway. I'm not migrating back to China. THey would never accept me anyway. Why bother?

Chinese New Year 2007

Sometimes I dislike Chinese New Year. All expectations & expenditures arise during the festive period.

This will be my first Chinese New Year as a married lady. My hubby will be away though. From 1st day to 6th day. I will be around on 2nd day. But ain't looking forward to it. I don't even feel like going back hometown. DOn't want to give ang pow for the first time without him around. So incomplete.

It isn't that I don't want to give ang pow. I think it's really fun. I was proud standing next to him when he had currency notes changed in the bank. We were talking about the amount to give closest relatives, relatives, friends & acquaintances.
'yan mo tou, hong pow to yu tou'

Now I am planning to work throughout the Chinese NEw Year to rid of the lonely feeling.

Heck with the CNY days itself. Now the preparation period is merry & jolly. However, certain businesses isn't pleasing.

I have always like to eat ba-kwa (dried meat). I would even buy it for consumption from time to time. However now is the busy time for the ba-kwa sellers.
I went to buy some today. Simply just want to eat it myself. I'm home alone for few days.

I don't know how cocky & weird people can get sometimes. I went to the stall yesterday. They snapped me off to tell me to queue. I queued awhile. I gave up. I see so many people working in the store but only one serving customers. One serve, one pack, one seal, one cashier. I think my nieces & nephew can do a better job. (They are 9, 6 & 3yrs old). What the heck???

This only happened during the season.

I went to buy today. Normally buying one packet takes about 2minutes. I didn't have to queue today. Yet, it took 10min. That's 1/5 of the regular productivity. Is the trick to make them cause queue to look famous? I counted 7staffs in the store. I shot a remark about the scene. She defended that it would be chaotic if everyone does the same job.
Take customers order of types & weight, wrap, pack & pass to cashier. Why is it chaotic?
The store is well secured & lined. & this is Singapore.
Chaotic is probably mismanagement & thef. I wonder what are their worries.

Duh..

Anyway, she took wrong order. I don't know if she doesn't understand Hokkien. Because I told her 'pua-ken' (1/2 kati). She packed half kilo for me.

Singapore.. Probably nobody will be able to speak their own dialect Hokkien after 20years. I wonder who are really the banana people then?