bank deposits and cheap deals (update)

Did I mention I had quite a few deposits in the bank this month? Not as much as somebody's 5K but I really don't mind that extra in my bank account.

I have been eyeing that Ralph Lauren shorts that I saw in Canada and spotted on taobao, and Msia airlines has $342 flights to Shanghai and I have one extra day of leave from National Day and I have free accommodation at somebody's house.... hm.......

I'm an overseas addict. While I'm in office my mind persona is shivering in a corner and craving for that smell of the boarding gate in the airport. I think I'm just too bored with life now that I'm out of school.

Update: ok cancel that part. I don't think it's overseas that I'm craving. I think it's a break that I need. Every university semester there's always a one month mid term and 3 months summer break so during exams I will list down all the things I'm gonna do in that long holiday. I can wake up whenever I want, go wherever I want, do whatever I want. (hm... sounds like a Miley Cyrus song). And I didn't really go overseas a lot during my student years, except my final semester and grad trip.

So yeah. I will take a break before starting my next job.

like a usb and magnet

In my job scope, I have this file which I have to update once or twice every week. So whenever I update, this scene of me sitting on a car on the street of Shanghai towards Xujiahui will always pop up in my mind. I have no idea how it started but it always makes me feel like going back there because the scene is so fresh in my mind. This is so weird.

It's just like whenever I hear the song "Rolling in the deep" I get reminded of driving in the golden summer fields in California towards Yosemite National Park. More recently, I hear the song "Magic" the scene of driving towards Niagara falls will appear in my mind. 

It's like a reflex of my mind, it just clicks like two opposite magnets and links like a usb to a port.

Reminiscing the past is ok, but excessive or living in the past is really unhealthy. Luckily I don't like to live in the past. All that matters is actually today, the present and the future - the things you are going to do, not you have already done. 

Perception of time and weather

I finally understood why I didn't feel the change in weather in Toronto and Shanghai.
I am used to the blasting aircon in my office and I am feeling cold all the time.

So yesterday I went jogging and my body was really resisting. I keep wondering am I just being old or am I just plain lazy? or a bit of both? I used to run the whole 5km route without stopping, then I started to walk a bit at the slope, then now I have started to walk at the slope and at the traffic junction.

I have decided to join an adult gymnastics class to increase my flexibility and body strength so that my body will not be frail and old.

It has been the second weekend after my holiday but why does it feel like it had been a year??? Last night I dreamt that I was going Shanghai tomorrow. UGH.

Amazing Spider-man 2

When it opened in the theatre, I was at Toronto and I wanted to watch there but we didn't have extra cash left. When I came back to Singapore most of my friends have already watched it so I wanted to watch it alone but with a dip of luck, Lynn n Kw said ok after dinner on Saturday

Spoiler alert!

Honestly I was a little bit upset and disappointed. Although the effects and the acting were good, some dialogues were just too cliche and most chatting parts were too boring. I almost fell asleep when they kept talking on and on (a lil bit because of my jet-lag).. and they twisted the storylines so much I had a hard time convincing myself it's believable.

Some parts like the almost-plane-crash was completely irrelevant. The Roosevelt thing was also unnecessary. Norman Osborn was supposed to be the first green goblin. Green goblin was supposed to have the goblin serum. Gwen was supposed to fall from the Brooklyn bridge. The web was supposed to catch her at her legs. These are very classic Spider-man turning points!! Urgh. And green goblin just transformed for a few seconds and already doing a major scene? Urgh.

I thought Gwen's fall came too fast! When she was falling with her green coat, it suddenly dawned on me that it was "the scene" and my whole body tensed up, my eyes opened wide, legs pushing against the ground and my hands were on my face and my mind was screaming NO NO NO NO NO NO. It was a great scene, just that I expected it to be in the next movie or something because green goblin just turned.

Other than that, there were no classic Marvel-end-credit scene, just a mid credit x-men scene that's totally unrelated. (Because Sony agreed to advertise for free).

Well it actually didn't make me look forward to the Sinister Six movie or Venom spinoff.

No more holidays/leave?

I'm doomed.

In Jan, after Hong Kong I had Msia to look forward to. After Msia I had Japan to look forward to. After Japan I had Shanghai and Canada to look forward to. After Canada I HAVE NO MORE HOLIDAY PLANS!! HELP!!!

I only left half a year's leave now so I can only use my annual leave in the second half of the year.

This is so devastating. 5 days were left for my Australia trip, pending in Sept, most likely not happening, and 3.5 days left for my Japan boarding trip, and I have no more biz trips to Shanghai and the next public holiday is in end July. WHYYYYYY.

What do I have to do to get more days of leave??

Toronto and Montreal

I had actually planned to visit Canada during the long May holidays by taking 7 days of leave and having 14 days of holiday and stay at Zhihui's apartment. So I asked Evan to see if he's interested then he suggested Amsterdam, because one of our friend just moved there and the flights are much cheaper. But her apartment wasn't ready so we dropped that idea and went ahead to Canada!

I bought flight for Shanghai first then to Toronto because star alliance doesn't fly direct, and it's actually the same price. Then my company wanted to send me to Shanghai for training 3 days before my actual Shanghai flight. Argh buggers. So I had to forfeit the flight that I actually bought myself and get on the other flight that they put me on.

No monetary loss for me, but it's just the feeling of not using the things that you bought yourself. Luckily, I could make a refund of the flight taxes so that saved me a little cash.

I flew on 26th April, attended 2 days of boring training, and then off to Toronto!



First day we were nursing out jetlag because it was 12 hours behind. Eaton Center, St Lawrence market and packing for our Montreal trip the next day. Sunset was at 8.30pm everyday so the day felt so long.

ZH had helped us booked the 2 hour flight to Montreal at the domestic airport, which you had to take a shuttle bus, change to ferry that will take you to the terminal. Porter airlines was really really amazing. The lounge had two full fridges complete with juices and coke etc, and free coffee and tea, cookies and nuts and a room of Mac computers. It's the first time I was on board a small propeller plane! So cool.





Here's Montreal, the French speaking city of Canada. Even the trains announcements are in French

Back to Toronto after 3 days in Montreal, here's the CN tower, Rogers center, Steam Whistle brewery

Niagara falls day was probably the highlight of the trip. We rented a car, drove to the falls and then went for some wine tasting at some good local wineries, bought some icewines and went outlet shopping, where we spent most of our cash.

Museums

and more shopping at Eaton Center.

We had a transit flight at Vancouver airport before returning to Shanghai. The airport was filled with icewines and stuff that tempted me to buy. The flight itself felt so fast because I kept sleeping.

The shopping experience was better than I thought. It was a little bit more expensive version of US but overall I didn't expect myself to be on a such a shopping spree. These are what I bought back:

2 Abercrombie Tee
1 Abercrombie Shirt
1 CK Tee
1 American Eagle Shirt
1 Spiderman Junkfood Tee
5 CK underwear
4 Bath and body works body wash
3 Dove men body wash
1 Dove men shampoo
3 Chocolate bars
1 Kate spade bag
3 Pilliteri icewines
3 Assorted ice wines
1 Banana granola peanut butter
1 Cranberry coconut granola
1 Champagne vinegar pearls
2 Reese pieces
1 Reese pack of 4

Sounds little, but my 2 luggages back to Singapore were 35kg in total. 0_0 Luckily the flight was quite empty so I wasn't charged extra. That ends my 2 week holiday!

Toronto and Montreal is not as crowded as Shanghai or Singapore, so it might feel a little boring or lack of crowd. We wanted to visit one of the National parks but it wasn't the season yet.
I'm quite sure I will not return to travel leisure in the city again, maybe to skii or snowboard if I'm sick of Japan. It's also my last trip to Shanghai as my training has ended officially. So long, Shanghai!

Having major withdrawals now.

intense jet lag dreams

Because of the jet-lag, I have been taking short naps here and there and result in very intense dreams.

In a post apocalyptic world, everyone had sort of a magic power and called themselves witches. I was some sort of a power magician, so they had people spying on me to prevent me from using my powers or preventing me to become too powerful. But my family and friends sneaked me to this temple/church/building where there's this small stone with some carving hanging from the ceiling and when I reached my hand to try to touch it, it glowed and I feel my magical powers getting greater. So I extended my hand out of the window, concentrated on the building opposite and opened up my palm. The building was set on fire immediately and a lot of people were screaming. I closed my palm again and the fire was extinguished. WOW.

I was at the swimming pool but fully clothed with my shopping clothes, then i started taking out my clothes one by one to put in the locker and preparing for some swimming competition.

 I was shopping for some junk food tees with KW then I was asking him about his ex ex gf. I think he was buying a spiderman tshirt. Then the next day at a park, I saw him with his ex ex gf together so I asked him, "So? how did it go?" He said "yeah we got back together. Don't ask."
Then I replied, "No, I was referring to the spiderman tee shirt yesterday" LOL

After 2 weeks holiday

I'm back from a 2 week holiday! Not exactly a complete holiday but it felt like a holiday still.

While my body is still adjusting to the lack of exercise/fitness activities and the jetlag, I came back to work for a day before the holiday tomorrow to get myself geared up and updated on recent activities.

So many presents for myself and my iherb delivery also came, it's like Xmas! I didn't expect myself to spend so much on clothes and stuff but yeah it was a mid year shopping spree. Heehee.

Being 2 weeks apart from my laptop I suddenly realised I have been spending too much time on visiting some useless websites that I don't need to visit and doing useless stuff on the internet. After 2 weeks I almost forgot about those websites that I go regularly, so I can actually survive with only my iphone.

Just a quick update today before the holiday updates.

Ok time to catch up on my shows and begin my baking spree and useless regular websites.