Thursday, 30 July 2009

binge shopping

For the past 2 weeks, all the dullness about starting work soon has led me to binge shopping. I need to get a grip. No taking of random leaves for at least the next year to accumulate AL for a decent get away. I'm sure everyone gets more than 10 days. You know when you think about school or attachment, you can always see the end and that's comforting. But work, sigh....

Photobucket
Align Centre

Monday, 27 July 2009

back to civilization, back to reality

I'm back from desert land. Mongolia was an experience. Not my favorite trip but something different. It was like a culture and history lesson with a twist. Firstly, Inner Mongolia is still rather fresh in the tourism industry. Many of their sights housing historical information were newly constructed (eg. 2005) unlike the synagogues in Turkey or the Valley of the Kings in Egypt, which have been there from the start and not specially constructed for tourists. I believe that they do have their rich and deep history but much of them were not recorded or preserved well. It might also be due to the fact that they were nomads, thus not leaving much presence behind. Secondly, famous Chinese novels like 射雕英雄传 (Legend of the Condor Heroes) and 天龙八部 (Demi Gods and Semi Devils) introduce famous heroes and places like Genghis Khan and 西夏国, but mixed them up with fictitious characters, leaving me somewhat confused due to my lack of factual Chinese history. But overall, the trip was better than expected even though the weather did catch me a little of guard. It's freaking summer, with temperatures averaging 35 degrees Celsius and we had to cover ourselves with layers of sunblock (SPF130) and long sleeved clothes. I still managed to get burnt...

Photobucket

The vast grassland with views only limited by the polluted air. Of coz the highlight was to stay in a traditional yurt which means a wooden plank as bed, dripping cold bath water, non-existence sewage system and tons of insects. Luckily it was only for 1 night.... I bearly slept and was companied by the sky of crowded stars.
Photobucket

There was nothing much anyone can do on the grasslands except for horse riding. We were assigned our horses and 2 horsemen led a pack of us, galloping through the plains the whole afternoon. I never expected horse riding to be that physically demanding. It was fun though. We had to literally lit our asses from the saddle to damp the jerking.
Photobucket

The desert was hot hot hot. It was all brown and blue. The sand is super fine and soft. We played desert golf, rode on the sand mobile, drove a sand OHV, conquered the sand slides, did a flying fox across China's famous Yellow River and melted under the sun. Summer is a tough season to travel...
Photobucket

I jump, and jump, and jump some more
Photobucket

***********
Did I mention that 1 of the greatest motivations of this trip is shopping at Shanghai (I <3 H&M!!!!), besides the fact that this is probably the last trip I'm leeching off my parents since I'm employed now. I should be happy if they don't ask me to pay for their future trips. When they were discussing our next year's holiday destination, it struck me that I'll probably not be part of it coz I won't have sufficient LEAVE to juz take off. Oh well, that sux and that's life.....

Thursday, 16 July 2009

signing off to the land of deserts and grasslands

more commencement photos

Commencement photos taken at Botanical Gardens credit to Yiren and Zeming. Forget about paying the pros to do a studio shot. Get them!! It was HELL lots of fun =) Each of us had our individual shots directed and taken by Yiren. Ignore me and juz admire the lighting, the angle, the background etc. At time, it felt as though my presence destroyed the beauty of the shot. hahahaha
Seriously, college couldn't have gone any better without these great friends.

Monday, 13 July 2009

I've signed my employment letter =)

We are really excited to have you join us. I have received over 450
resumes for the position and could not be happier then to have you
“on board”.
Also, I just received word that we got the J&J project!

Steve

Friday, 10 July 2009

the graduating class of 2009 (Bioengineering)

All the fuss about commencement. Oh well... Basically a chance for us to photowhore like mad. Tons and tons of photos to be complied from various cameras so this shall be it for now. I've made it through these 4 years =)

Tuesday, 7 July 2009

I wonder why am I so happy

LiQuan aced her first official job interview and she's unemployed. The best thing of all is that she didn't even need to mention about her crappy grades and so it won't make any different even if she had first class honors. All credited to the 6 months she worked at Baxter during her industrial attachment. And little did she thought that her list of sporting achievements implied determination. Also, she hopes that she didn't over sell herself.

Monday, 6 July 2009

my blood pressure juz rocketed

2 weeks of awesome tennis ended with a sweet 15 and the king of tennis claiming back his well-deserved throne of world no. 1 =) I have to admit that Roddick was playing better but in the end, it all comes down to mental strength and composure. For Federer to serve 50 aces in 1 match was totally insane. The only other person who beat him in no. of aces per match was Ivo Karlovic (tallest pro tennis player at 208cm) with 55 aces during 2009 Roland Garros against Lleyton Hewitt but still lost in the end. Anyway, you know how tennis players throw their rackets when they are utterly pissed, Federer had his moment few months ago too. I can't wait for US Open...

Wednesday, 1 July 2009

1 by 1 they get strike off my circle of unemployed

Pork knuckle, sausages, german beer and tons of catching up =)
Photobucket
Photobucket