2008 thoughts...

Wootz! Internship ended today! Freedom for a while b4 sch reopens. Really need a break...Today was kinda haps too as I was sent to the lab to oversee some experiment and witness and verify the lab testing results from contractors, who happened to be my former FWC senior. (not even supposed to be my dept's job scope as the lab guys were mostly on holiday so there was nobody else liaoz.....aka send in the intern!!) Black gold has never been blacker before.

Anw with 2008 coming to a close, kinda time to sit back and really reflect on this yr. I think 2008 has been an incredible year for me. A most memorable, enriching and certainly different one where I decided to embark on a journey of a lifetime and step out to do something different. Took a bit of a gamble also by returning to do an internship which surprised myself and some of my friends. (the fact that I managed to even get the internship stunned me liaoz) And the internship has been reasonably challenging with of course some ups and downs but definitely manageable on the whole.

With regards to relationships, I'm glad to have found new friends, forged new friendships, strengthened some existing ones although my absence and the time gone by has also sort of weakened others and made me feel a bit out of touch at times. Change happens so quickly that it is important to catch up. It's difficult and even more so because all of us will be walking different routes (in fact most would already have), but I'm trying and I hope everyone's trying. Nevertheless, my experience both in SEP and internship has made me more sociable than usual (more chatty and chill-lax attitude perhaps?)

With regards to self, I don't deny that part of my reason to go SEP and then IA was to just get away from NUS, whether is it the people or the system or the way of life. I had to find a bit of a break and peace away from all the noise, the competition, which I must say I'm not performing too well. Yet ironically, during this SEP and IA, seemed to have performed much better than expected and surprised myself at times. (Not just about grades but also my own personal well-being and my own self-management) I won't say I'm totally at peace with myself as I am kinda apprehensive at times, especially with the new and final semester starting. (it's been officially a whole friggin year away from school! And no, taking an evening class HR doesn't bloody count! Plus I have the intensity of 1 fyp, 1 design project, 1 TE, 1 breadth and oh....night training for RT as well) But I'm taking things one step at a time, and adjusting back.

Sometimes, do things and look at life a bit differently. You will be surprised at what you would have discovered and learnt. That was what I learnt in this bloody fabulous year. Cheers to that!

Left 4K Dead

A surprising find. Somebody actually released an online Java game on Left 4 Dead that is like 4kb in size! Refreshingly innovative and to satisfy zombie fragging at home, but gimme the real stuff anytime instead!

http://www.mojang.com/notch/j4k/l4kd/

On the other hand, also found something really crappy for Left 4 Dead too. This was done by combining the various in-game voices for the characters (mainly Bill's) and then matched together. Pretty disturbing stuff!

A Christmas of Excesses

Merry Christmas to all! It's been a crazy past few days of eating and eating and drinking and drinking until I can feel my tummy bursting off!

First up on Monday, our engineers over at Exxon treated us to a farewell lunch! Finally we had a meal with our engineers after 6 months! And at Kuishin Bo at the Jurong Point branch too! Gorged myself silly cos I felt that the variety's really wide over there!

And for a very first too! Our engineers also took us out for a site visit. So Angela, Zhiwen and myself were dressed in PPE. Finally! Check it out!

S4 intern power!!

Following in the evening, had Christmas dinner with my family. International buffet with a Peranakan theme at Plaza Market Cafe. (All influenced by 小娘惹!) Omg...another buffet in the same day! I really died from eating too much good food! Only thing lacking is that they should have more of those nyonya kueis abt!!

Who the heck survives 2 buffets in one day?!?

And Christmas celebs over the next few days go on with dinner and drinks at Brewerkz with Gwen, Tony and Victor where we ordered the tower. More excesses to come...feeling full now.....

Afternoon lunch at The Pasta Shop with the Zhiwen, Angela and KW since it was a half day on Christmas Eve. Pretty decent stuff for about 10 plus bucks range. Fuller as the meals go by.....

And dinner at Cafe Iguana with the other Exxon interns where I gorged myself with fajitas and margarita. And went halfway up the island to find KW that he took us up to Thomson Road for some prata at the Prata Shop. Siao liaoz le..

Ho ho ho! Welcome to my world of excesses....gonna need some time to recover for a while.... :p

Christmas celebs

A great early Christmas meet-up with the Lufbra people at Shiwei's house. After a long long draining afternoon of presentation at work and then having to travel from one end of the island to another (Tuas to Pasir Ris), I was just glad to have made it in time for yummy curry, bread, donuts and log-cakes, and seeing familiar faces for the night.

A space in between for our missing Hazel...we tagged her as the Christmas tree in Facebook though...keke

And a gathering with the 4D guys over at Wine Garage beside Brewerkz. Place has quite a good quiet indoor ambience but of course the food is abit pricey. We tried a range of cheese first that was served up really neatly on the platter. A short description...

Stilton Blue [England]
Cow’s Milk, Notoriously pungent, creamy blue from England’s top producer
Havarti [Denmark]
Semi-Soft Cow’s Milk Cheese with a pleasing creaminess and hint of almonds
Manchego Forlasa [Spain]
6 Months aged Sheep’s Milk Cheese with hints of roasted nuts, semi-hard
Fromage Blanc [Australia]
Fresh Soft Sheep's Milk cheese, mild with a pleasing acidity
Montgomery’s Cheddar [England]
Cow’s Milk cheese with a superb richness, spicy acidity and a real depth to the finish

I died from the blue cheese.....

Asked for recommendations over what wine would go over a predominantly burger meal...much to the waiter's amusement...they gave us Pinot Noir, some Australian wine.

Hilarious part was when Wei Wang turned up to meet us in a bit of a tipsy state after drinking in Sentosa, so he started talking loudly and being rowdy. Damn funny cos it was so out of place in such an "attas" and posh wine setting...saw the waiters were seriously amused when he barged in to join us. That was one of the few times I tried to keep myself from laughing so hard that I actually cried!!

Chilled the night at Minds cafe. Seems like hanging out at Minds and playing board games is becoming into a bit of the 4D routine. And Citadels is one of the games we always play! Other games we tried were some Mr.X detective board game and another game where we were literally holding plastic guns "clicking", "bang" and "bang bang banging" each other! Ahhhhh good times good times!

Why is there a Roman centurion for Christmas?

Some sights on a stroll along in Orchard one week before Christmas. This year's deco and lights were kinda....mehhh. Did everybody start cutting back on the budget or what?

Theme for this year seems to be this family mascot with lotsa lotsa sweet and candies

Hmm...Moses must be in one of them

Dont understand the Romans involvement. Maybe I shld have gone up to take photo with the gal? Hmm....after all when I was in Rome, those bloodsuckers charged about 10 euros for a photo outside the Colisseum

The Smiling Screams

Got a bit bored, so I decided to put my 2 Animated Starscreams (one mini and one voyager) together for a little shoot. Both have that same smirk on the face!

An Orangey Festival

I was sent a few interesting photos regarding this festival held in the Netherlands. Seems they build everything out of oranges. Intriguing stuff. The castle shot is my favourite.

Transformers minis

A fruitful trip to CSC flea market today yielded some Transformer miniatures, including my all-time favourite character Sixshot! Got the other prominent figures too such as Optimus Prime, Megatron with Laserbeak and Devastator!! Raiden and Omega Supreme were a rare find too.

Ignore my smiley figurine in the background...keke

Skye and beyond (3 - 4 May 08)

The Isle of Skye is the second largest island in Scotland and the northernmost of the Inner Hebrides located off the west coast of Scotland. In short, a very ulu place and a quiet getaway from the city. We made a round-island tour by coach.

It seems that Skye has a very rich culture in folk music. Lots of music artistes also hail from Skye. We were introduced to this very catchy tune aptly known as "The Isle of Skye" by the Corries which was played in the coach. My roomie got so hooked on it that ever since returning to Loughborough, he's been having this song on repeat in his laptop!

A drawing in our hostel depicting the Isle of Skye

And off we go! Slight rain in the morning, and our first stop was this stream where I seriously forgot what the guide was trying to tell us, but the whole point of it was to dip our faces into the cold, fresh water. Think it's trying to say just how erm...pure the water is here on Skye?

Yes...soaked and endorsing the freshness of Skye!

Not just me..but everybody!

Ok...so I'm really very very awake after dunking my head into the cold water

Sights on Skye




Black houses in Trotternish on Skye. Black houses used to accommodate livestock and people and were very common throughout the Highlands in the past. These are restored ones.


Arrived at the Kilmuir Graveyard where here lies the remains of the MacDonald clan, and most notably, Flora MacDonald.

A bit unsettling to be touring a cemetary. However, our guide gave us quite a history of the MacDonald clan. The view here out to sea also somehow made me think that this place is actually quite a good resting place indeed.



Next destination was the ruins of Duntulm Castle. But before that, some scenery, jumping shots, landmine of sheep dung and erm...a very cute lamb that kept following us all the way up! Mehhhhhhhhh!








What remains of Duntulm castle....inhabited by alot of sheep...can you spot one?

That's one over there....



Wonder what living on Skye would be like...to wake up to the open sea everyday...

Hmm.....toilet break at the smallest toilet on Skye?!?

A lone phonebooth with the Cuillin Mountains in the distance...there's this postcard with this booth and a highland cow beside which I thought was pretty cool...pity no cow in sight...


Arrived next at Staffin, where the Kilt Rock and Waterfall was. Used to be a place where dinosaurs roamed and some fossils were found.




Up next was the Old Man of Storr, a famous rock in the Black Cuillin. It's the piece of rock sticking out on the right hand side of the pic, after much confusion and finger pointing by the guide

Legend says that this old man living on Skye loved hiking through the mountains all his life that he became one with nature when he died...

Portree, which is the capital town of the Isle of Skye. Although there's significantly more activity here at the marina, the pace of life here is relatively slow...


Parting shots to Skye

Our bus tour next led us to the Clansman Centre in Fort Augustus. The memories of Skye were now behind us and we were now treated to a bit of an insight into the life of a Scottish highlander in the medieval times

Showing off some weapons used by the highlanders. That shield is menacing close up with spikes portruding out...a sheer example of how a Scottish warrior could easily dispatch off 3 to 4 English warriors..

A demonstration of how to wear the kilt..this guy (one half of the Canadian couple and sabo-ed into volunteering) had to strip to his undies to wear it and he was so darn paiseh abt it!!

A bit of role-play here...oh and they found a Highlander wife for him too!


It was a short walk next across the Fort Augustus bridge to our hostel, the Morag's Lodge where we stayed the night.

This leads out to Loch Ness...yes, u heard it...the Loch Ness as well as the legendary Loch Ness monster :p


Retired to Morag's Lodge where our allocated room name was Skye! Odd, considering we have already left the Isle of Skye. Regardless, spent the night playing cards, hogging the piano at the main hall and chilling before we start our Loch Ness monster hunting the next day!

The next morning started with a stopover at Urquhart Castle along Loch Ness. Did not enter the castle though as we were there even before the opening hours! Therefore it was quite funny that we had to climb across a bit of the barricade to take photos

That darn barricade there



Managed to peer down to see a trebuchet model in the field

After this, we arrived at this huge shop by the banks of the Loch Ness selling all sorts of tourist souvenirs. A bit of shopping underway here...

Filled with the Loch Ness monsters...

Call him Nessie!

Ok...i gotta admit...Nessie's kinda cute

What's under the kilt?

Nessie statues outside the shop


And a very fat one...


The Loch Ness...trying to spot the monster....


Aha!! Gotcha!!

Nessie's running away.....

Keke...truth is...all of us bought a Nessie soft toy!! Ben with an extra pink one though....hahaha!



Gah!! Weisiong got mauled by Nessie!

Group pic of the entire Haggis tour group....and we are still hanging on to our Nessies...our guide is wearing the Nessie hat though.... :p

I conquered Loch Ness!!

Fun and goofing aside, our next trip was to Culloden where the famous Culloden battle was fought in 1746 between the Jacobites (consisting mainly of Scottish highlanders) and the English forces. Historically, the English won the battle and the aftermath resulted in outlawing of Highland dress and the oppression of Highland clan system.

Panorama of the battlefield; the blue flag representing the Jacobites and the red, the English

Memorial to the clansmen



The enclosure where English troops lay in wait for a devastating ambush

Many more Jacobite soldiers fell as compared to the English government forces. The numbers of fallen on both sides are represented by the 2 groups of projecting stones in the wall...can you guess which side is which?

All in all, a very informative afternoon as we got to tour the entire Culloden Moor to witness the battlefield. There were quite a few helpful boards that explained to us the positions of the Jacobites and English as well as how the battle panned out.

Lunchtime at The Tipsy Land bar at Kingussie where we tried haggis...


This is haggis, a traditional Scottish dish. Comprises of sheep's 'pluck' (heart, liver and lungs), minced with onion, oatmeal, suet, spices, and salt, mixed with stock, and traditionally boiled in the animal's stomach for approximately three hours. Sound disgusted yet? But surprisngly I found it rather delicious!

After getting recharged by erm...sheep intestines, we headed to Dunkeld for a bit of a nature walk in the Hermitage.

I must admit...did not expect to actually walk through a temperate rainforest...kinda recalling my past geography lessons liaoz...but the trees are very thin and tall here


Fast flowing waters of the River Braan

Entered a shelter (later learned that it is actually called the Ossian's Hall of Mirrors) where we had a glimpse of the Black Linn waterfall



Other sights



4 leaf clover...YS and Sista were particularly excited to see this cos it's quite rare and we should make a wish!

Hiding out in Ossian's Cave



And finally our drive back to Edinburgh where it all started...the Forth Railway bridge seen here upon entering Edinburgh...a marvelous feat of engineering

Camped at airport for a few hours awaiting our flight back to Loughborough where we started writing our memorable Scottish experience in postcards and sending it home!

For more pics, go http://picasaweb.google.com/eicko2000/SkyeBeyond