My Alma Mater

"Men are like wine. The older the wine gets, the finer the taste."

So are women. I think. Value grows with time.
We're no longer the high-school, bubbly girls anymore. We've moved on. Have to.


I returned to NUS today, after a pretty long time....

From the train ride all the way back to school, it felt like a joy ride. Never happier. Perhaps it's because of the lack of the burden of school work.

The rainy weather adds a perfect ambience to reminisce. About the past, the good and bad times... All so familiar yet so new once again... Quite alot has changed since i left. Through sharing, i remember a little here and there, my journey from the junior year to my last year. It may sound a little exaggerating that i cant remember much, but fact is, it seems so.

Fruitful day. As fate allows me to bump into yet another friend, YY, the non-Hi-Bye category. Our friendship was forged in a rather interesting way, as we took part in the challenging Race game back in NUS, not just once but twice... Outside of the game, i found a friend in her; to add on the countable-by-fingers list of good friends i had. I'm amazed actually, at the number of Hi-Bye friends i've got, some of which i can't even tag the name to the face =P

Not that important, cos a few good ones are enough to take away....

It was good to see you again, Gerry =)

London

"Oh, Shut the F*** up, you Big, Fat B*tch!"

For the entire flight back from London, this was what i had to refrain from hauling at her. For 12 hours!!!! Could only did it silently in my mind, which was really driving me insane.

Pardon me about the language. But i aint no saint.

Weeks ago, when the bomb threat surfaced, i already dread the flight. Day or 2 b4 flight when i saw her name, i dread it even more. Cos i've flew with her Jakarta b4, not exactly a nice experience. First impression of her was good, then when i worked a little with her, her bitchy side effaced.

And SUAY enough, i ganna her as my CL for ex-LHR. I wasn't sure if she remembered me, but she picked on me all the time. Initially, i thought i deserve it, cos i'm really not-so-good with my work yet. But with only 2 months flying, WTH do you expect. Noone's born to fly. As she continue to give me helluva time, i knew she's just being an absolute BFB. Eating the humble pie's simply not enough, she (like the old school ones i guess?) simply wants to stripe us (or rather me) of all dignity. She can even bitch about me to all CLs and to the IFS trying to affect my check report for SIN-LHR.

THANK GOD, she's not the one doing the check on me. Otherwise i'll run into more trouble with Miss Empress, as she starts forming impressions about me b4 even coming on my flight.

So, i've experienced the worst zapping, on my records, but yet according to my GS, that was the mildest of the mild as compared to their time. He went on elaborating a little of what he went through and i thought that was really ridiculous. We're human, not dogs.

It's good that things have changed for the better, but the old ones questioned the standard of the crew now... Oh well... There's always a more professional way of training people than adopting the olden days army techniques.

However, if not for her, i wouldn't have learn as much too. Not from her definitely. From other nicer CLs, who imparts knowledge objectively.

Enough about my grievances.


~LONDON~

London's cool. I like the place. Though slightly rainy, the weather's good. Perfect weather in fact.

Decide to give the crew favourite duck rice a miss for sight-seeing, as my only companion's not interested in spending 10 pounds on it. The senior's not been to London for more than half a year, so she doesnt mind going out again. Lucky me =9

The tube.

Got lost once and took us a while b4 we met a kind soul who taught us how to take their tube. It's very common to see "lost ones" jumping onto 1 train and ask if this goes here or that goes where. =)
But after figuring it out, it's easy! Just a little complicated...


Buckingham Palace.

Darn. Missed the Change of Guards. When we reached, lots of people were just leaving... Zzzzz...







St. James Park.




Horse Guard Parade.

Poor thing. He stood there, do nothing but to allow thousands of tourists everyday like myself to take pictures... If i'm him, i'll be so *pukez*


Tada! Big Ben.... Also the Parliament house.




London Eye. Saving it for winter, cos it's cheaper to go on it then. Singapore adpoting the idea for our new IR too i think?


Westminister Abby, where Princess Diana's funeral was held too.

Too bad i din get a chance to go in cos it's close on Sunday.


Eros Statue @ Piccadilly Circus. No idea about the history but i'll find out again...

We spent sometime walking around Piccadilly looking forward to quench our shopping thirst but yet all we find are mostly eateries.

Stumble across the Chinatown @ Piccadilly circus.

Then we found out from passerbys the shopping area is at Oxford circus instead. Off we went.
Finally shopping @ Oxford circus.

We didn't have much time to shop as they closed at 6 pm on Sunday. Head for dinner with S back @ Piccadilly, where the food are. She had a craving for steak, thus we patronized this Angus steak house, where i opt for pork ribs instead. We both agree it's not so fantastic... My most expensive ribs dinner so far, about 51 sing $ after conversion.... Zzzz...

The next day b4 departure. Head out myself in the morning to finish off shopping at Oxford circus =P

Then to Harrods to take a look.

Everything about Harrods is just posh, poshy and posier. They make food look so poshy too... Tsk Tsk... Oh! Tried the dougnuts recommended by Lindy... Absolutely YUMMY!!!!

Return to hotel after about 3 or 4 hours of dashing around trying to complete as much as possible b4 i gotta leave. B4 i gotta go on the most dreaded flight.

Anyway, i survived it.

That's about it for London. I definitely would want to go back there again a few more times. There's many more that i've not seen. Stone Hedge and the Roman bath is one. Even the city itself is oozing with so much history...

But i don't like the flight. How?



30 08 06
After more than 12 hours of sleep, i was still in a state of daze when i went out. It's either i slept too much, or i didn't get enough rest yet. They'll always ask me,"Are you alright?"
Met up with a couple of us to celebrate Tiffy's Birthday at Fish & Co.




And we love doing this, Our tag line: Soar! And they laughed about me and my mini soar =X

Fish & Co's service was good, almost comparable. I'm impressed. But it was really disappointing when the nice staff failed to warn me about the "warm" water being scalding hot.
Ouch! There goes my taste buds....
Zzzzz....

Adjourned to Acid Bar.
The singer was good! However, the service sucks. We can get such bland and almost- rude reply when questioned why their screwdriver has minimum vodka, coming from the manager somemore.


Haa~ We aint angels all the time ya?
The look we wanna give most when the meanies zap us. Hmph~

My 1 precious Offday

"What have i done in my college days?"

Funny... Cos i hardly recall a thing, though i believe there's lots of things i did.

Was looking through some old stuff and i found an old ODAC write up with one of my contributions on the first "Race" i participated with Yuyan during my Year 2.

Suddenly everything came back, like waves of memories... Together with the pictures, i remember that i had indeed went through NUS...

In my line, people love to ask if we're from Uni? I find it interesting becos for the first time, graduates seem unwelcome =)

The next question i get is of course : "What course?"
Answer: Economics.
And then I'll always go like "Nah ~ I hated what i studied..."

I even hate myself for having to say that all the time, but unfortunately, that's the truth.
I pity myself too... Life would be much more memorable had i love what i read in NUS. Now, i could hardly remember everything at school, especially the theories... Haiz... *shake head*

Shanghai + Auckland

Looks like my efforts have gone down the drain....

I meant, catching up on my sleep after i came back from Shanghai... Been in a sleep deprived state ever since everything took flight 1 and a half months ago.

Just got back from Auckland this morning, cant sleep yet cos i feel like blogging... Certainly been sometime... Find myself questioning the rationale behind this...

Pax back from Auckland. Out of the 10 hrs + flight, i barely slept 1.5hrs. Had movie marathon partly becos of the uncomfortable sleeping position for neck, and partly becos i cant resist the movies! There's so many i have yet to watch!

Take the Lead, Quill (about the life of a guide dog), Kinky Boots (Zzz, boring!) and lastly Leon Lai's Moonlight in Tokyo (waste my time =9).

The shows are a good way to keep me occupied as i'm cramped up by the window beside my IFS. As predicted, being the most junior i sure ganna seated next to him... Initially, i was hoping to sit with Cindy to catch 'Take the Lead' together... Haiz... The result? Didn't dare to go toilet too much >.<" Working is so much easier than paxing ....

Yet, if not for the twist of fate, sitting beside him seems like a blessing in disguise actually. He turns out to be the fatherly type and we chatted about crew culture, new crew's attitude etc etc... Learn a thing or 2 on what to look out for, esp OBA... And his compliment came as a soul booster; needed that as my strength to carry on... =)

Anyway, Shanghai last weekend.
The interior of the hotel, extremely enchanting... I like the oriental feel. Sorry the pic's too dark. I proudly declare my camera a 'non-nocturnal' one. Zzzzzzzz....


The semi posh place, 'Xing Wang' Restaurant, where we had our affordable, yet sumptous dinner =)


Cant remember the name of this street... erm... is it 'Bu Xing Jie' or something like that? This place is soooooo much more fascinating than Hong Kong....


The only nice night-pic we had of the architecture, among many others =(


The Bund, or 'Shanghai Tan'



The night was fun, as Cindy's laughter is always infectious.
But i dun really like Shanghai, cos there's simply tooooooooooo many people and i felt hyper pressurized walking amongst them. I don't get that in Hong Kong though... =/

And thanks to KS, we learnt a hilarious new secret term call "Ah Tiong".
It's just a term that they, the NUS gurus there, named them. It describes a certain characteristic or behaviour. It's similiar to what we understand as "Ah Beng" in Singapore, but we can't really define what exactly is "Ah Beng" or put into words. So Ah Tiong is erm... Ah Tiong?

You get what i mean? *smirking* =9



Auckland.
I think luck is still on my side. Why?

Shortly after i come back from the 1st crew rest, the captain opens up invitation to the crew to go into the cockpit to take a good look of the famous Australian Uluru Ayers Rock. He even descend the aircraft a little and sway to 1 side to let the few 'suaw ku' us get a reaaaaally good view. Now the rest are 'pestering' me for the photos hehehe.... =9

It's a famous natural landmark supposedly becos it's the world's largest monolith and an Aboriginal sacred site...

Weuu Wheet! My camera wakes up and takes gd pics during day time...=9





One can't always be lucky all the time (not even Lindsay Lohan in 'Just My Luck'), but at least i have the good ones to propel me forward and keep my spirits up. Wen, i hope things will be great for you too =)

~Fight, Erene fight~

Amsterdam 110806

Just when i thought everything was going downhill for me, this AMS trip lifted me from the dumps.

I reported for AMS still in a state of shock and ultra stressed up, for i know i'll ganna check this trip. I wondered what should i do in AMS cos i wasn't sure if anyone's going sight seeing, except for Eugene, a FO i flew with to BNE b4 but hardly know, and Cindy whom brought her mum along.

To add on to my misery, i caught a cold in the crew rest bunk, as usual. I was so pathetic on board, as i can hardly serve snacks and the 2nd meal without being interrupted with blowing my nose, away from pax's view of course. With more than 6 hours of running nose, my nose almost came off @ the end of the flight. Zzzzz...

I felt so down and sorry for myself, i just wanted to be left alone after flight, sink or disappear. Which they did. Hardly anyone, esp from my team, asked me anything, only Cindy, my LSS who advised me to send for doctor and Eugene, who noticed my miserable state, offered me some flu medication and his spare jacket. Thank god for those.

Caught about 4-5 hours of sleep b4 i joined Cindy, who's bringing her mum to the walking street. I should have slept all the way till dinner time but heck, i wouldn't want to waste my chances afterall i have Cindy and mum as company, and the running nose had ceased.

Their shopping district.

The weather was very chilly, i was shuddering all the time, coupled with the wind and rain !!! Grrrr.... We weren't prepared as Cindy told us it was very hot the last month she came. Thus we decided to hunt for some winter wear, but in the end only Cindy got a red Zara jacket, while i decided to save and make do with Eugene's charity jacket.

Those were the only 2, plus another 1 photo, i took b4 it rained. The sun was only out for 10 mins or so? I was thinking if it rains the next day too, it's really just my horrible luck.


Back to hotel to meet whoever's there for dinner. Headed for the old favourite crew joint Oceania Chinese Restaurant.
The display of mini planes at the entrance. Looks like the boss's a airline fanatic, afterall lots of aircrew from different airlines patronize there.



Amsterdam's famous Red Light District is next on our list after dinner.
It was an eye opener =) as i discover how the girls do 'business' there. Safer to go there with people, don't do it alone!

The Royal Palace @ Dam Square: the real one.



Plans for the next day actualised as the weather turned out to be lovely, as opposed to the rainy season forecast from yahoo weather. The sun provide warmth in the chill: perfect weather! Now i understand why the caucasians love the sun....

Thus we share the cost, rented a car and drove southwest for an hr + to another town, Den Haag, to visit Amsterdam's famous Madurodam aka "Xiao Ren Guo".

Everything is miniature and automated!



Windmills!





The reason y the tech crews didn't mind going to Madurodam again: the new airbus 380 model added to this museum.

Amsterdam's Schiphol airport. I think it's the second busiest airport after London's Heathrow. I think.

A miniature funfair. You can drop 10 cents euro to make all the roller-coaster and merry-go-round start moving...

Rijksmuseum. The real one is near our hotel. Haven been in there yet, am saving it for the next time when noone wants to go sight seeing. =/

Cool...



The Royal Palace @ Dam Square: the model.

A cheese factory.



The plane was moving around the track. Everything's magnetised.



Decided to drop by Rotterdam next, another city 20 mins away from Den Haag, where we noticed alot of the architecture are from.

On the Highway to Rotterdam.

And we found the original Insurance company ING building where we saw in Madurodam.

The model in Madurodam.

"Group pic" from the reflection of the model.





The Bridge 'Erasmusbrug' in Madurodam.

And the real one in Rotterdam.



By now, i was already feeling really happy (i'll just use a simple word, becos happy's the word). Enough for me to take away from this trip. Amsterdam, Den Haag and Rotterdam, plus seeing all the models in Madurodam and then getting a chance to visit some of the real ones in Amsterdam and Rotterdam.


But that's not the end, cos Windmills @ Zaandijk was next. Drove all the way back up north of Amsterdam.
The clogs 'factory' is there too! Yet another item conquered.

These clogs originated from Holland. This brief history i know is that Holland's mainly reclaimed land and they make clogs like these with big base to walk on the soft grounds in the past?

Now it has become more of an art.

Ice-skating and roller-blading clogs....... Diao*

The demo area for making the clogs in the house. And we were lucky to have caught a desmostration with the Italian tourists.

Clogs and more clogs!

And the few old windmills left around?






Back in Amsterdam city for Ribs dinner @ Cafe de kos or something? Holland potatoes ! Yummy!!!


City canal tour was last. The architecture of the houses in Netherlands is indeed very interesting. As we tour along the river, we managed to catch glimpse of the interior of many of the houses; most have very high ceilings, some with spiral staircase, and we noticed they love to showcase shelves of books by their window. We were wondering if they really read sooo much or just to make them look wise? LOL

The stuff i bought. Will be collecting fridge magnets =9
The baby clogs for Baby Kirsten.
Hoegaarden Beer for Batch 863's house gathering @ David's
Peanut butter and Jam for myself.



Just like Cindy has said, 'Lucky' was the word to describe me. Cos
1) She brought her mum along for touring;
2) 2 out of 4 tech crew are nice peeps;
3) the weather was lovely the clear day we had in AMS when it was forecast to be stormy (the next day when i left it was raining, Phewz!);
4) Nice Capt who volunteer to drive out for sight seeing;
5) We are the non-drinker, non-smoker and sight-seeing enthusiasts, thus they make great company to be with.

This is more than i can ask for =)
Learnt alot from these pple who have flown for sometime. I know such company are hard to come by, in fact quite rare. But i'll learn to be strong, even if i have to tour by myself. First, let me get my work right b4 i can enjoy with a peaceful mind.

This is exactly why i plunged into the airline.

To really see the world.