NVM 2007.

After 2 months of "training", the day we were all anxiously waiting for finally arrived. Eeks.

At 9:30am, the team met at Raffles Place MRT. Changed into out "team jersey", and proceeded out of the train station. I never really knew how the building I was going to climb that day looked like.. and never really did bother to find out..

It was not hard to figure which one it was when we got there.. haha.. it was the one that seemed like it was touching the clouds.. EEEKS.


Replubic Plaza. 66 Storeys. Said to be the tallest building in Singapore. (really? i dunno.. haha).. look at it.. it's all nice, polished and shimmery under the morning sun.. it would have been nicer if i din have to climb it. haha! by this time.. i'm already feeling the adrenaline.. and also regretting.. "why? why? why did i ever think of doing this?"

While doing our warm-up run rond the Singapore River, I asked Eleanor "why did i do this to myself?" and she's like "we always say that but we still join.. year after year.."..haha.. i tot it was funny.. but it's so true too.. let's see if i join again next year! haha.. (lionel!! lover's challenge? da jie, daddy, aaron... family team???)


Took a couple of photos while doing our stretches since the river seemed like a nice place to chill.. esp sunday mornings cuz there's hardly anyone..
10:56. after reporting, we were escorted to the start line.... i need new shorts.. haha!
nearing the flag off line.. YIKES... oh.. we manage to take these photos only because Lek decided to bring his cam all the way up..

the clock that is there every year. between each team, there's a 2-min interval.. so that teams will not clash.. 11:12 was our flag off time.

ahhhh! finally at the top.. it seems so easy when u are looking at these photos.. one photo ago we were at level 1. the next photo and we are at the 60th storey. haha.. if u notice me, i am damn shagged.. haha.
more photos taken at the top. had to make use of the camera cuz lek took pains bringing it up there!!

the team and i with republic plaza at the background. (from left to right) ze bin, lek, meng heng, eleanor and me! we were all wearing the NVM 2007 shirt.. nicer compared to last year's.. meng is in yellow cuz he's extra! haha. no la. cuz he's in the sub-com. heh.
Kenneth is in black cuz he's extra too! never climb also take photo with us?!?! tsk! haha.. actually he did climb.. recce climb.. and he was pretty fast.. even without training.
When collecting our goodie bag, we manage to get a sneak peek at the prizes. and they were not too great.. if u can see, there's a hamper labeled men's open 1st i think.. and it has tomato ketchup, condensed milk, maggi mee, etc.. yikes.. first prize and that's what u get? no thanx. haha.. we were thinking if we really get something like that hamper, we would donate it to some old folk's home.
and so we left, not really anticipating a win.. went down to city hall for mos burger and then to smu to study.

one little joke that i wanna share. at mos burger, ze bin ordered for eleanor..
and halfway through the meal, eleanor asked zebin: what are u eating?
ze bin: mos burger
eleanor: i know mos burger.. what burger is that?
ze bin: mos burger!
(and this went on for quite some time)
then me: the burger he's eating is called mos burger. like what i'm eating, it's a plain hotdog.. but it's also called a mos dog.

heh. ok. so after mos, we went smu and was settling down before starting to study when meng called ze bin..

shouting through the hp loudspeaker, we heard him say "we got 4th!!!!! ok wait wait. i confirm then i call u back" and hung up.. anyway, it was confirmed and we had to rush back to claim our prizes.. haha.
this shows the times for the top 9 teams for team open category.. our team is "the fifth element"..
YAY!! medals.. haha..
Last year, we had medals, vouchers and 3 hampers of food and drinks.. and sigg bottles for each of us. this year. we had medals, vouchers and one plastic bottle. hmmm.

last year, we got 5th climbing 43 storeys. this year we got 4th climbing 60 storeys. and the prizes........ hmmm..


left: last year's medal. right: this year's medal..

So. NVM 2007 came to an end.. it'll be next year (if we join) that we meet and train again. This year, the climb was really really tiring. And i want to apologize to my team. Let me explain myself. at the start, i was chasing behind lek.. and by the 5th storey or so, i was really damn tired but still continued.. by the 11th storey.. i dramatically slowed down. i realized that i started out too fast.. totally not my pace and it was a big mistake. after that, i cant even walk fast enough.. the 3rd team's timing was a mere 1 min ahead of us. and i think i'm the cause of us losing that place. i could have done below 15 mins but i did 15:24.. i knew i could have done better. my legs did not ache. i was just out of breath.. i'm really sorry!! i'll train harder next year and learn form my mistake! i promise!!! sorry sorry...

CNY 2007

The lunar new year has always been one of my favorite festivities. For my family, it is one of the biggest thing we celebrate because we hardly celebrate X'mas.

Usually, for our preparation for CNY, my dad would go places to get all the nicest new year goodies.. and the nicer bak kwa.. after reunion dinner, we would go to the nursery to get flowers for the house and then head to chinatown to squeeze with a million other people just for the fun of it.. and also to get stickers and more decorations..

every year, we would eat sashimi with wine.. (i rem uploading pictures of that last year).. because my dad knows this wholesaler guy.. so he gets it cheap..

this year.. my dad came back from overseas just 2-3 days before CNY.. so everything was rushed.. luckily his friend sent us orange plants and some flowers.. and we had decorative stuff from last year.. otherwise the house will look so sad..

we did not go to the nursery this year.. did not go to chinatown this year.. shopped for groceries the night before reunion dinner.. and we did not have sashimi.. argh.. but fortunately, things did not turn out as bad as it seemed.


thanks to me.. the statue had a very auspicious head band this year. haha..

i am actually very proud of this.. it's supposed to bring wealth or something.. last year my sister was the one hanging it.. this year it's me!! and i think i did a pretty good job.. i cleaned it, wiped it, trimmed the end and tied red ribbon to it.. haha!!
had a chance to open my new deak of cards.. tinkerbell!!! haha.. but cuz on the number side, there were picture of tinkerbell too.. my dad banned me from using it after one round cuz it's hard for my grandma to use.. haha
this evil piggy bank belongs to my sister.. it's where all my money went.. argh! stupid pig..
this light belongs to my home.. hee.. i think it looks pretty..
my dad trying to play nicholas's drums.. haha..
my dad and brother playing puzzle bubble while waiting for people to visit us at home..

i seldom put up pictures of relatives from my mom's side.. so here's a peek.. at first, we were sitting on the floor playing black jack but decided that it was too uncomfortable.. so they carried a table into the room.. but it was too small so my brilliant uncle put a mattress on the table.. and as i was taking the photo, my aunts tot it seemed like the room was like an illegal gambling den, which is why they are covering their faces.. so silly.
me and my sister.. we tried taking photos for ourselves but none came out very nice.. this is one of the better ones. haha..

family photo.. this shall replace last year's..

auntie ros's new place.. the field is huge right?!?!? the photo shows lionel and sam playing texas hodem (dunno how it's spelt).. using pistachio nuts as chips..

that's my brother and little jet.. they look like dr evil and mini me.. haha..

the guys of the family playing some soccer.. i was supposed to play.. but i really cant play soccer.. so i volunteered lionel.. haha.. he's quite good.. just that the rest of the family were much better. haha.

notice what lionel is doing.. haha.. who kicks a soccer ball like that?!?!! ok.. i can predict what lionel is going to say when he sees this.. he will say he's lousy at foot ball but i'm losuy with "hand ball" like i cant catch properly.. but in my defense. it's only cuz we were playing with those oval-shaped football kinda ball..

my dad tore his ligament while playing and is now wearing a leg guard.. it will take 4 weeks to heal.. sigh.. the other guy is my old uncle who tried to fit in with the young too. after 15 mins, both dudes sat out.

oh.. if any of u caught the chinese countdown program, my cousin was on tv!! haha.. he's the one who got married last october.. i din manage to catch it but i heard that they kept showing him cuz he was in the vip seats and cuz he's good looking.. haha.. i dunno how much of that is true. ahah!! oh well..

tmr is my NVM already.. 1380 steps = 86.25 HDB storeys. wish me luck!!

saturday well spent.

after one year of "planning", i met the girls yesterday for our sleepover at swissotel, the stamford. i was really excited abt meeting the girls for dinner then head back to our room to talk the night away.. but then somehow, most of the girls had plans till pretty late at night.. and some of them tot it was a night affair... pretty strange but i kinda understand i guess. cuz we always meet for dinner only.. weird logic but still.. logical... i think.

anyway, we had a room on the 30th floor and had a great ocean and city view..


directly in front of the room was the esplanade and the sheares bridge.. but i like the picture of the buildings more.. and since i have so many more photos to show.. i cant upload all!! so here's one taken from the balcony from our room.


dinner was simple; at MOS burger's. it was just joanne, celine and me..after that, we went junk food shopping.. but bought us some fats.. basically we bought cup noodles for everyone (what's a hotel stay without my fave. cup noodles??? haha..), chips, sweets, drinks, beer, breakfast for the next day..

me, joanne,cheryl (from left to right).. i like cheryl's earrings!!!!!
me and cheryl.. the lighting looks nice and cosy huh..
bought a surprise cake for a couple of the girls.. cuz we din get to celebrate together last year since everyone was all over the world.. haha.. that's shufen, huixian, winnie (top: left to right) , cheryl, celine, me and joanne (bottom: left to right)..
when everyone got there, we had a game of cluedo.. haha.. ancient game right? but i tot it was really interesting.. it's different from how i played it when i was younger.. was pretty fun.. haha..

me and huixian!! it looks like a simple photo.. but actually we had to take a couple more times before this one cuz we screwed the hand crossing thing.haha.. damn stupid.

so after some beer, noodles and cluedo, we talked and talked and talked.. until joanne felt asleep.. (think it was 5am) then winnie.. then slowly cheryl and shufen too....... then it was just me, huixian and celine..

having to be quiet cuz the rest of the girls were sleeping, the 3 of us were busy taking pictures of the sunrise.. was pretty nice.. it's not all the time that u get to see the sunrise from the city.. so it was kinda cool..
after all the serious pictures, we kinda got bored.. so we were taking stupid pictures (which i will not upload.. haha! ) but anyway, this is me and the sun.. haha. i kinda like it.

trying to capture the sun in the wine glass..

doesn't it seem that the candle is being lit by the sun? haha..
sunrise..

celine.. looking like cyclops.. haha.. my bad.. actually was supposed to take her kissing the sun.. but the sun was too bright.. but anyway i like this picture too. haha..

us acting "man-and-blackish" haha.. was so silly cuz we were in pyjamas..

yes.. we were on the floor.. and what's even worse is this was outside of our room... like along the corridor, we just laid on the floor to take pictures.. we were like high on insomnia?

i think this picture makes me look like a giant! haha.. (getting bored of taking pictures at our balcony, we went to the pool side.. with pyjamas and bedroom slippers. was weird cuz there were ang mohs tanning.. and looking good... haha..
me and huixian were the only 2 that lasted the whole night without sleeping!! after getting back from the pool, celine sat down on the couch and fell asleep.. haha.. but she din sleep long.. haha..

morning view..

at ard 9 am.. we decided to wake the piggies up.. huixian rolled up newspapers and was doing the morning bird sound.. was really funny. haha. but they din wake up at all.. so we were playing our hp rings.. trying to irritate them out of their sleep.. but only cheryl got up..

so cheryl and i decided to jump on the bed to wake them up.. haha..
finally everyone woke up.. so we prepared breakfast to eat by the pool.. we had white bread with chilli tuna spread and salmon mayo spread.. heee..
but.. we din get to eat by the pool cuz the ang mohs totally flooded the pool.. and graeme bought mcdonald's breakfast for us all.. bought like 10 sets when there's 7 of us.. way too much food.. so in the end, we ate the mcdonald's...

a final toast.. to the sleepover, to breakfast and to good friends..

and so we parted after breakfast.. till the next sleepover.. or holiday.. sigh..... i will miss this day.. i can't believe we actually did it.. if only layshan could join us.. but i'm pretty sure we will do it again.. :)