Euro Trip Day 3: Paris

It was the third day and another day when emotions ran high. We took a TGV train from Rotterdam Central to Paris Gare du Nord station. Rotterdam Central is in the midst of renovation (almost completed) and it looks much more modern than Amsterdam Central. There are a lot of shops in between the platforms. Too bad, I still needed to pay for the use of toilet -_-

Since it was my virgin experience, I was absolutely clueless about the storage space in the train. I did not bother to "fight" for entry and as a result, there was limited storage area by the time I boarded. Actually the problem was with the size of the luggage that I brought. I expected my sister to know about the limited storage space and she should have advised not to bring the damn big luggage in the first place. She didn't. What's worse was the fact that she immediately chionged to our seat instead of helping me to get a storage space for the luggage. Pfft... While in general 2nd class passanger train in Europe does not have reserved seating, we had our seats reserved so I absolutely saw no reason for the rush to the seat. Thank God that we were seated at the end of the carrier and the neighbouring carrier was sort of a VIP-one: a small carrier with a capacity of 8 people. Only business people and little children so there was an empty space on the overhead storage. I was surprised that the super big luggage fit in.

I did not really enjoy the trip with this Venezuelan guy flirting with a Dutch girl sitting next to her. Bleah.. their voices just disrupted my sleep. The toilet was bigger than airplane's but it was dirtier. So rubbish when my sister kept telling me that trains have nice and clean toilets. Bah!

Upon reaching Paris, it was chaos to another level. By the time we reached the ticket office, it was their shift changing time. They took their sweet time in changing and took no regards with the long queue in front of them. Bah.. talk about customer service here. Having to navigate through the subway with endless staircases and changing lines a few times simply pissed me off. Jeez.. our luggage was actually not heavy. It is the super long size that makes everything bad. I had to lift the luggage "higher" and that was tiring. My sister with smaller and lighter luggage had more difficulties carrying hers and that was another thing that made me angry. If she knew that carring bulky luggages through Paris metro system was that challenging, she should say so earlier instead of making me carry the super big luggage. Rrrrah...

My reliance to my sister and her reliance to her poor memory did not do good. We had to spend quite a bit of time observing the train map to find direction and where to change etc. Things would be much simpler if we planned earlier. At our exit in Berault station, I asked her which exit to take. When I saw a map, I was trying to get her to see the map to orientate ourselves. She said "let's go up and I can remember". We went up and she could not remember -_-. Well done for the overconfidence. I was literally screaming at her: Do you know or do you not know where we are going? If you do not know, let's ask for help or look at the map!

Our hotel is quite away from Paris downtown area. At most, local tourists but not international tourists will stay there. We had lunch in the nearby Italian Restaurant (thank God they were able to speak English) and we saw a castle just opposite the road.

Chateau de Vincennes
The castle is huge but there was almost no visitor which made me wonder whether it was actually a place which is open to public. The name of the castle is Chateau de Vincennes. I never heard about it before but looking at wikipedia, it seems that there is a lot of history behind it. And from the wikipedia article, I learn a new word: MOAT. It actually means ditch/river/whatever you want to call it which surrounds a castle or a town. Hehe.. Unfortunately, as it was already past 3pm, I did not go in and only took a few pictures on the outside. Kinda wasted not to go in because I think this kind of place is a hidden gem: beautiful yet unknown to most people.

This picture does not do justice! The front side of the castle is much grander than this :)

The main objectives of the day were Sacre Coeur (or Basilica of the Sacred Heart) and Chapel of Our Lady of Miraculous Medal. My aunt suggested that we alight at Abesses stop to reach Sacre Coeur. It was a different exit from where my sister alighted 2 years back and she kept saying "it was not like this last time". The basilica is located on the highest point of Paris and she remembered there was a mini tram to go up. I tried to see basilica from the map in the train station to no avail but there were signages pointing towards the basilica so I wanted to follow that. After a few uphill walk, my sister got tired and wanted to go back. My question was: with so many train stops, could she remember which stop she was looking for? I only knew "Abesses" from my aunt and I saw signages so I rather took the chance and follow these signages instead of relying on her memory which proved to be a failure earlier in the day.

There was a tall staircase which I wanted to climb because I saw tourists going up and down. My sister insisted that it was the museum so we followed the road ahead until we saw the sign towards the museum. She finally took out her GPS and indeed, the staircase brought us to the back of the church. Previously, my sister went from the front side. Honestly, I am not to keen with visiting churches because 1) I think church is a place of worship and 2) There will be crowd which will dampen my mood to take photots.

Sacre Coeur (Basilica of the Sacred Heart)

The building itself was gorgeous but what impressed me more is the strict decorum to enter the church. There was a security at the entrance to remind people not to take photos inside and to disallow people with inappropriate clothing. I am very glad that despite having it as a tourist attraction, there is still some respect shown to the house of God. Even as I walked around, I could still feel the prayerful atmosphere rather than the touristy chaos.

We walked one round at the periphery of the church. There are several work of arts and prayer stops. Small candles are sold for 2 Euros while big ones for 10 Euros for anyone who would like to say a prayer and dedicate the candle to Mother Mary, Jesus, or any of the Saints. At the centre, I bumped into another medallion machine for my 2nd bit of souvenirs. Unfortunately, I only had enough coins to afford 2 medallions so I purchased one with the Basilica picture from the outside and one with the image of the main stained glass inside the church.

As the church is located at the highest point of Paris, we can see Paris' skyline from there. Not a fan of skyline.. plus the crowd which makes my photos of the skyline as the photos of the headline instead (i.e all the tourist heads). And my sister finally found the travellator which she talked about. We took them down to "Anvers" station. Lol.. The journey was not that long and climbing down the steps would save us money. The travellator is more for the journey up. Haha..

Next stop was Rue de Bac. I don't like when people say Rue de Bac church because the name of the church is Chapel of Our Lady of Miraculous Medal. The nearest train stop is Rue de Bac and it is located at 140 Rue de Bac but these are not reasons to change the church name to Rue de Bac.

Chapel of Our Lady of Miraculous Medal
As the name suggests, it is a chapel and it is not a church and thus the typical grand ancient church building is absent. It is really a humble yet holy place with more people going there to pray (and surprise: there were queues for the the confessionals). It is surprising (and good at the same time) that such a holy place has not become popular and ruined as a tourist place of attraction.

It is a site of Marian apparation and 3 remains of Saints are housed there: the incorrupt bodies of St Catherine Laboure (to whom Mother Mary appeared and requested for the creation of what currently known as Miraculous medal) and St Louise de Marillac (the co-founder of Daughters of Charity of St Vincent de Paul) and the heart of St Vincent de Paul. The bodies of St Louise de Marillac and St Catherine Laboure were displayed in glass coffins beneath the altar and at the right side of the altar respectively. No idea whether something was done to the bodies but I found the face to have a waxy appearance which made the bodies look doll-like. Not sure whether it is a good or a bad thing because another part of me feels that it may be freaky if the bodies do look like sleeping humans. I don't know what I prefer.

The side altar with the incorrupt body of St Catherine Laboure in the glass coffin

I called it a day to save energy for Disneyland on Day 4!! Yeah..

Euro Trip Day 2: Brussels

On the second day, we went to Brussels which is about 2-hour drive from where my Aunt lives. But before that, we had to make a trip to the Aliens Police to report that I had stepped into the Netherlands. It was quite curious why I had to report when I already had a visa. Visa turns out to be a valid entry to the country while reporting the Aliens Police is for a valid stay in the country. There is a difference there. Apparently, if my stay is less than 72 hours in the country, I do not need to report to the Aliens Police. So yup, I was an alien.

I was too tired that I spent most of the time sleeping during the journey to Brussels. Near the parking area, it was a shopping district. Another different thing from Asia: I had to pay before using toilets, even if the toilets were in a shopping mall! Bleah.. And I expected a clean toilet which I did not get. But too bad, when nature calls, humans have to heed the call no matter what. Haha.. Our destination was actually Grote Markt. It is not a market :p The translation is Grand Palace. Lol..

Tiredness and cloudy sky just made things in a bad state and this is where the conflict with my sister began. From the shopping mall, we had to walk 10-15 minutes to reach Grote Markt. As rain was plausible, I suggested that we walked back to the car to get umbrellas before we were too far off from the parking lot. She was unhappy as walking back made her tired and cut off her precious shopping time. It was a mistake to go with someone who has entirely different purpose of travelling. I want to see things and enjoy the trip while she just wants to shop and shop. 

In fact, initially the purpose of the trip to Brussels was to see Tintin murals at various buildings. Due to unfavourable weather condition and timing (we were all hungry), the plan was cancelled. We only saw 2 murals (1 of Tintin and 1 of a comic which I don't know) on our way to Grote Markt and Manneken Pis.

A Tintin mural painting that we encountered

Grote Markt
Grote Markt is like a town square with magnificent buildings surrounding it. The buildings are tall and complete with gothic carvings and statues. With the unfriendly weather, it was rather an eerie sight. Unfortunately, the unfriendly weather and the crowd made it impossible for me to get nice pictures here or the buildings.

Tintin Shop
It was unexpected to see a Tintin Shop. I am not a fan of Tintin and I was glad. If I were a fan, I think I would be broke on the second day of my trip. The shop sells a lot of Tintin goodies, including resin collectibles which are damn good and expensive! Haha.. There is a nice coloured Tintin statue inside the shop but photography is not allowed inside. Lame shit. I could only take photos outside the shop with the statue of this Chinese boy. Never knew that Tintin had a Chinese boy friend (from the Blue Lotus story). But as I mentioned, I am not a Tintin fan.

Manneken Pis
Manneken Pis is a statue of naked boy urinating to a basin. It is a definite place of attraction of Brussels and tourists jostle to take turns to take photo with the statue. I managed to snap a picture of my sister and there was no crowd around her! I personally hate to have photos with other tourists in the background so to get a photo of a famous tourist place with no crowd is an amazing feat and I am proud of it! My sister, on the other hand, was too slow in taking pictures. Everytime there was a moment when there was no crowd, she would just miss it by the time she clicked the shutter. That pissed me off! Grr.. No pic of me with the pissing boy!

From Manneken Pis, we walked back to the first shopping mall for our lunch. I bumped into a machine which dispensed medallion souvenirs. It costs 2 euros per medallion. Thus my first souvenirs for this trip are 2 medallions with the image of the peeing boy statue and the Town Hall of the Grote Markt respectively. Lunch was not a happy affair either. The people generally speak French and next to none English. I had trouble evne to pronounce the food names! Bah!!

After lunch, I was expecting that we would be travelling back to pack our stuff for our trip to Paris on the following day. My sister wanted to walk back to the shopping district. I could not hide my anger of course. We passed by the various shops twice already (on the way to and back from Grote Markt), if she wanted to shop, why didn't she do so earlier? Why did we have to make a third trip to the shops??!! Jeez..

On the journey back, I fell asleep in the car (as always). I woke up a few times. At one of the stops, I heard her complaining to my aunt about me, and of course I pretended to be asleep. Yes you were tired about walking back to take the damn umbrellas but you were not tired to walk again to the shopping areas for another time? And was it your problem if I chose to open the umbrella when it started to drizzle? I did not want to fall sick and had the rest of my holidays ruined. You were the one having runny and blocked nose and it would be your problem if you chose not to take a good care of your health. Pui..

In the evening, it was another quarrel when we were packing for our trip with Paris. I personally hate to share luggage but if we were bringining our own luggages, we would be bringing 2 half-empty luggages. My aunt commented that my sister's luggage was too big and it would be cumbersome to transfer between trains. You know, she was the one with experience with travelling in Europe, she should know which size is convenient for travelling as well as which size will be enough to accomodate her shopping. She should be the one making decision! Aaargh!! I felt like pulling my hairs out because honestly, I prefered carrying my own luggage! In the end, she borrowed a small cabin-sized luggage from my aunt which would be full before the trip. I kindly asked her to combine our things and bring her super duper big luggage. This was a poor decision which led to another bout of quarreling in Paris. That will be the next story.

Euro Trip Day 1: Amsterdam, Volendam, Marken, Zaanse Schans, Delft

Before talking about the trip itself, I shall just write a bit about my flight from Jakarta to Amsterdam. I wonder what is the big hoo hah about Singapore Airlines nowadays. The cabin crew and service for JKT-SGP were so so (borderline terrible, in fact) while the food for SGP-AMS was so so. Basically, I found nothing special with SQ, unlike my experience with them 5 years ago when I went to Sydney. Anyway, let's move on to the trip itself :)

My first impression of Schiphol upon arrival was not so good. It was nothing like Changi Airport. However, it is clean, sleek, and efficient as it only has what are the essentials for an airport. I found the toilet too small and the immigration area was definitely insufficient.

Outside the arrival hall, there is large area for people to simply enjoy the view. There is a huge photo taking opportunity outside the airport: I amsterdam. I think that is their tourism catchline.  Weather-wise, Amsterdam is windy and that makes the summer more bearable there

As my aunt was only able to pick us up after her work, we had to store our luggage in locker. Again it was something new. I was a bit worried about using credit card as cash was not accepted. The rate was 9.5 Euro for 24hrs. And aah btw, in case you are wondering the "us" and "we", I'm actually travelling wih my sister.

We proceeded to Amsterdam Central to book a tour to Volendam, Marken (both being traditional fishing villages), and Zaanse Schans (the windmill village). These are in North Holland so I suppose they are "outside city areas". There is public transport to these places but I don't like to travel to somewhere with no maps etc. Even wih maps, finding the tour agencies to book the tour was challenging. We found one after 9am so we were lucky that the bus had not left when we reached there at 910am.

Volendam
At Volendam, we went too see traditional Holland houses with large windows allowing people to "peep" inside. It was intriguing to guess whether the houses were inhabited. There are signs of life but the spiderwebs outside the houses suggest otherwise. We also went to a cheese store. The cheese making demonstration was not really a demonstration as cheese making process takes many days and there was no cheese made during the 10-min demo. At the end of it, we were allowed to taste various types of cheese in the store.

Beautiful houses.. The green thing at the corner is a river, not grass, by the way.

Marken
We continued with a boat journey to Marken where houses were built on stilts due to flooding history in the past. With no wind and no wave, my guess was we were crossing a lake. It turns out to be a sea which is "enclosed" to prevent flooding. The sky was darkening so I did not quite enjoy the boat trip due to the fear of storm or rain when I was still in "open" water.

At Marken we went to a traditional clog (wooden shoes) factory. This time the demonstration was a real one as a pair of clog was made out of a chunk of wood. Traditionally the clogs were purely handmade but now they have smart machines to aid the process. You put the template on one side and a block of wood on the other side. When the gears rotate in same direction, an exact copy of the template is made. When the gears spin in opposite direction, you get the mirror image of the template i.e left and right shoes. Cool eh?

Zaanse Schans
Zaanse Schans is the last stop of the tour. The difficult to pronounce and spell name will be referred to as Windmill Village from now on. Lol. It is a nice place to camwhore with windmills and greenery. Only 1 mill is free for admission but we are not allowed to climb to the roof :( Gotta pay to camwhore at the other mills but I did not. The whole place also has a "funny smell" which I could not guess what. I thought I smelt cocoa, spices, and animal dung at the same time haha,,

That concluded our 6 hour tour and we were back in Amsterdam. We had lunch and the sun was really hot. I wanted to go for a river tour but ended up going to Dam Square and visiting various shops around it because I don't think my sister would be willing to be under the sun for anoher hour around the canal. Sigh.. I think it was stupid to visit Amsterdam without visiting the canals. Sad..

In the evening, our aunt picked us up from the airport and we travelled to Delft. It was 730pm but the sun was still up and it felt like 3 pm. It was a new experience for me to have the sun still up this late. Suddenly geography knowledge about long daytime in the summer in the northern hemisphere makes sense haha.. Anyway shops were already closed so we just went for dinner. Unfortunately, the restaurant which served traditional Holland dishes was closed on Mondays! Darn.. We decided to go to a random Western restaurant. I could not recall anything special with the food. My aunt ordered bitterballen which are Dutch traditional food. Basically they are deep fried balls of minced meat. From the name, I was expecting a bitter taste but they were not bitter. By the time we finished, it was 930pm but the sky still looked like my usual 730pm in Asia and we took a bit of photos of the city square. It was a great photo taking timing: no people, bright sky, and great surroundings.

So that is how my first day in Europe goes :) If I have to choose something as the most interesting, it will be witnessing 2 gay couples holding arms in public! I would not remember that Europeans are more open towards homosexuality if I did not see them.. No lesbians sighted though.. It will be at another time and another place where I witnessed lesbian couples. Lol.

Btw I am currently still on the last bit of my trip and I am in Vienna :) No time to attach pictures for now haha. I will do so when I am back to Singapore.

Rules of travelling

Bonjour... Danke.. Bon apetit.. Dames and Heren.. Au Revoir..

Whee.. I'm currently in Europe for my holiday. A bit difficult to set aside time for blogging but I will do so when it's possible. It has been quite an eye-opener so far. Previously, I always went overseas with a group of friends and I will just follow blindly. This time I am mostly traveling with my sister but I still consider this as more independent than my previous trips. More importantly, this is my first time stepping to Europe. Honestly, it feels kinda scary to be a minority. Not sure if I will stand out, get weird looks, or invite criminals. Lol.

Unfortunately, right from the beginning, I'm not too excited to travel with sister or any family members. with only 3 days on the go, I have decided that this will be my first and only time to travel with them. Call it different personality, different preferences, or simply me being selfish, I don't care! As the days gone by, I develop my own "rules"for travelling.

Rule #1: I do not want to travel with someone with poor photography skill

I am not a pro but I consider myself to be pretty good in taking photos. And because of my narcisstic and perfectionist nature, I expect others can take good pictures of me too. My sister sucks. My previous complaints were slanted tower, chopped legs, unclear  focus of the image. Now the list just got longer. I hate it when she took so long to take a picture and then the result is disappointing. I hate having strangers in my photos and this is almost impossible when I am visiting touristy areas. However, opportunities do come and the time window when the crowd clears is very limited. Thanks to her, these opportunities were always missed and that made me very angry. Worse, I had to stand there and smile like an idiot while waiting for her to get the right angle etc.. Bah!! 

Not to boast but I managed to get her picture alone with the Peeing Boy statue in Brussels. For such a place of interest, it is almost impossible to get a picture with no other tourist inside. The rare chance came and I grabbed it. It was not reciprocated for my own pics and that drove me mad. Grrr...

Rule #2: I do not want to travel with someone whose purpose is shopping

My interest is always going to nice touristy landmarks. I prefer natural sceneries (higher chance of able to have no crowd in my pics) but I am fine with cities. What I don't like is when people will walk here and there to look for items to shop. Worse: to specially come back to a place repeatedly to finally buy the item. That is simply waiting my time. Yesterday, she made me return to the same place for the third time. I was already upset over shitty photos, rain, and the additional walking trip simply burst my anger meter.

Tomorrow will be another challenging day as she wants to play in Disneyland while I prefer taking photos and watching shows. You can ride the damn roller coaster at any theme parks but you can only take photos with Mickey and friends in Disneyland. That's my reasoning!

Rule #3: I do not want to travel with people who don't plan

My sister went to Europe before and I expected her to know things as we are going to places she visited before. I simply trust her memory and experience. It was the biggest mistake I made for the trip. Today we travelled by train from Amsterdam to Paris. We brought a combined luggage which was pretty oversized. She should know that the bloody luggage is too big to fit into the luggage compartment!! She said nothing.. and the best part: she quickly ran to search for her seat -___-"

Carrying the bloody luggage through Paris subway system was really nightmare. The weight was fine but because of the crazily big size, I had to carry the luggage higher and that was zapping extra energy. I simply exploded when we could not find the hotel. Before we exited, I asked whether she knew which exit to take. She could not remember. She saidnjust climb up and see the road. She could not really remember the road. Sigh.. she then admitted that during the previous trip, she just followed my aunt blindly and did not remember things. OMGWTFBBQ!!! If that is so, say it earlier so at least I can check out maps etc for the trip. Bleah..

We went to Sacre Cour and was kinda lost. Again right from the start she kept saying "last time it was not like this". So what's next? My aunt recommended to exit from Abessess station. If outside the station is not the same as my sister's memory, then what? She wants to go around until she find a place that she can remember? I saw road signs pointing to the place so naturally I rather to follow those signs. After a few hundred metres, the place was still unfamiliar to her. She wanted to go back. I wanted to continue because I still saw sign pointing towards the place. We reached the place eventually.. but from the back.. the ladt time my sister came, it was from the front and it was from another train stop -_-" faint liao.. I gotta start planning for Zurich and Vienna.. Simply can't trust her memory and no planning at all.

3 days.. and 3 rules.. I wonder if I will "learn" something new each day..

By the way, for the trip itself, here is the list:

Day 1: Amsterdam (Dam Square), Volendam, Marken, Zaanse Schans, Delft

Day 2: Brussels (Manneken Pis, Grote Markt)

Day 3: Paris (Chateau de Vincennes, Basilica of the Sacre Coure, Rue de Bac Chapel of Our Lady of Miraculous Medal)

Details of each day will be on individual posts and I hope I can avoid the angst haha..

Free and Easy

Excessive planning screws up the travelling mood. My previous trip to Sydney, Seoul, and Bangkok was much more enjoyable because I just went free and easy. All accommodation and travel expenses had been paid for, all activities were already planned for, and no shopping plan was made. I just went with the flow and took care of passport. I did not bring a lot of money or tonnes of gadget so I was not so worried about pickpockets etc. Europe is kinda tricky because there is a lot of traveling between cities and countries, not to mention the vast difference of temperature and the notoriety of pickpockets. All the planning has been very irritating and I got very angsty with the packing. There has been hardly any change to my wardrobe since many years ago. It will be quite embarrassing to wear the same T-shirts from many years back although it will make it seem that I am forever young. I could bring some shirt but they look fugly and that is the reason why I never brought shirt for my previous trip. In the end, I simply can't be bothered anymore with packing: if I bring too many clothes, I will just throw there and if I don't have enough.

I am more excited with the fact that I don't need to work for the next 2 days than with the trip itself. Haha.. Had been sleeping for 5 hours each daily because the packing and the morning shift. Yesterday I concussed and slept throughout the plane journey. I was lucky that the seat next to me was empty. I put my bag at the other seat and I could extend my legs. I woke up feeling very tired and I am glad I managed to convince my parents to take plane and not overnight train in Europe. Can't imagine how tiring it will be.

I did not know what my sister did to my camera but it was not working as what I experienced when I tried it for the first time. Last week I tried using it when my whole room was darkened and the results were shockingly good despite the absence of any light. Yesterday, it only gave black screen sigh.. Tried to fiddle with it until 2AM to no avail. Sigh.. Went to Canon shop today to learn how to manually adjust but it was quite difficult to use. Yes the lighting without flash is okay but the image is always blur. I never get blur photos in auto mode!! I don't know how when my sister will be using it as even in auto mode, she is getting the sign that her hand is shaking. Haiz..

At the trip back home, a motorcycle crashed on to me. I nearly tripped but with God's grace, I did not fall and I did not break any thing. No bruises to my calf which was hit by the motorcycle's wheel too. Sigh.. My sister was scolding the driver although I did not think it made any difference since I was already hit. Bleah.. I just checked my calf to make sure nothing bled or broke and I moved on. Come to think of it, I can just get a police report and claim for my travel insurance actually. Anyway, still glad nothing was hurt.

I will be going to airport soon now :) I hope for a safe and exciting 2 week trip. I leave behind an office assignment but heck it. I only got the email 3 days before my trip, I simply have no time to think and brainstorm ideas. Haha.. Gonna be screwed upside down when I am back but well.. that's in another 2 weeks.

Schneeballen

 

On my way home on Saturday night, I decided to pay a visit to Takashimaya B2 Food Fair. Nothing caught my interest except for one stall near the entrance. There were a lot of people crowding around it, it had an exotic name which I never encountered before, it had colourful food stuff which a range of fanciful flavour, and there was a hammering sound. I found it intriguing as I could not tell whether the food was an ice cream or a cookie.

The name of the food is Schneeballen  which literally means "snowball". It originates from a city in Germany (Deutschland) called Rothenburg. Basically it is a cookie made into a "messy ball shape" with sugar or flavoured icing on the surface. I refer it as flour-ball actually. Each ball is about 8-9 cm in diameter. It is supposedly damn hard to bite and this is where the hammering comes in. You need to put the ball into a paper back and you hammer it till it breaks up to bite-sizes. 

Each ball is quite pricey at $6.90. There were some promotional prices if you buy in larger quantity. I bought 3 for $18 and they were packaged in a long metal tin cum coin bank. This metal tin supposedly worths $5. Unfortunately, there is no way I am going to keep it for long term as the inside has turned rather oily because of the balls. The flavours I bought were banana, cheese, and green tea. Since they did not hammer these balls for me, I "smashed" them against floor before eating. Lol. After smashing, they are not hard to bite. In fact, the hardness is comparable to typical cookies.

I ate the cheese flavoured snowball yesterday. Initially it was quite nice but towards the end, I found it too sweet. I ate the green tea flavoured snowball just now and it was rather disappointing. The coconut taste was too overpowering and I could hardly taste the green tea flavour. Coconut + green tea is a weird combination in the first place, isn't it? Haha.. I am saving my banana as the last for tomorrow. Lets see how it goes.

Anyway, the fact that I am bothered to write about these balls means that they are pretty good although I have to admit that its uniqueness was what drew my attention initially. But if you ask me to buy again with this kind of price: no way! Haha.. I am not a fan of sweet food and I think this is just like a fancy food that tourists eat when they are travelling. It is not something nice to be eaten everyday

On the left is the 30cm-high metal tin container cum coin bank and on the right is the full menu. Just click to see the larger version. They look like ice cream right??

Lucky GSS!!

I am not someone who is usually lucky with lucky dips, lucky draws, etc. It seems that when I aim to win something, I will win nothing. It is my pleasure to share a good news today: I won a lucky draw! The lucky transaction is my purchase of Sailor Moon S.H Figuarts ^^ I am going to skip over the toys as my topic is the lucky draw. That transaction was selected for Great Singapore Sale lucky draw promotion by Standard Chartered. Being selected does not equate to winning so I am glad that I am lucky enough to get a prize. Hehe..

I was aiming for Apple TV or Samsung Galaxy S4 or the stay at Resorts World Sentosa. Even the "smallest" prize of $30 Starbucks voucher is also okay. I got the second lousiest prize: a pair of Golden Village Gold Class ticket. Sigh.. I am not a movie person so I thought this kinda wasted. In addition, I have nobody to watch movie together. Anyway, after I googled about this Gold Class thingy, I changed my mind. I think it is okay to get this prize as I will experience a movie experience that I will never pay with my own money. The cost per ticket is $29 so my prize is worth $58. That is roughly about how much I paid for the Sailor Moon figurine. Hehe..

The ticket will be sent sometime in August. I hope I don't need to use them together because that means I need to find a friend to accompany me. If I can use one by one, I will just be thick skin and watch movie alone for two times. Haha.. The next question is of course: what movie?

Small happy moment in the midst of my stressful packing time. Thank you, God!! I hope I can win more leh!! Haha.. But my subsequent transactions have never been selected for the lucky draw :( Lol..

Bought Galaxy Note 8 ^^

I am abnormal! Normal people get excited when they are going for a long holiday overseas. I feel the reverse. Just to the thought of it already makes me feel very tired. As the departure date looms closer, the reluctance just grows. I am lazy to make a list of what to bring and what to buy if something is still missing. I am lazy to dig out the clothes I want to bring. I am lazy to start packing. I am lazy to clear my work before I go for holiday. And the list of laziness is still long. Sigh.. My ideal holiday is just to relax on my own bed.. I don't mind travelling to a quiet nice resort, just to lie on the beach enjoying the sun, sea, and sand. I get tired with the thoughts of traversing 5 countries in 2 weeks: what to bring, what clothes to bring so that I always look good in pictures, which places of interest to visit, etc. I actually feel kinda excited to go to new places for the first time but at the same time, I am worried about my own safety. Listening to stories of pickpockets, robbery, shooting, etc surely does not help.

After digital camera, the next big thing to get is a tablet. I finally bought Galaxy Note 8 :) Wanted to get it on Thursday but guess what: someone fell down and caused my pharmacy ceiling to collapse! Since I was doing closing shift, I had to stay back for the repair. I did not mind since I can claim the extra hours anyway. Haha.. As Friday was the last day of promotion, I was highly pessimistic that I would still be able to get the Harvey Norman promotion. My luck was still with me and I made a reservation with Millenia Walk branch. Even after making a reservation, I was still thinking whether the promotion was worth it or not. In the end, I bought it as I did not want to think any more about it over the weekend. $788 for the tablet + $112 for 2 year additional insurance + $29 for screen protector. Haiz.. The freebies worth close to $200: Samsung pouch ($48), 9000mAh battery pack ($118), and the memory card (can't remember). I am feeling quite disappointed with the pouch as I actually prefer a book cover. Sigh.. Come to think of it, if I bought it at some unofficial shop, I would be paying about $640 for the tablet + $20 for the screen protector + $20 for third-party book cover + $20 for memory card. 

Honestly I would not buy a battery pack so that "free" battery pack is the one that made me reach the decision to just heck it and get from Harvey Norman. My Samsung Galaxy Note battery is already like shit after only about 1 year. I can't get myself to get an additional battery since I will be changing phone in 1 year time. Spending money for battery is always difficult for me. Anyway, lame shit reasoning. Do not want to buy battery but do not mind getting "forced to buy free battery pack". I don't know whether it was a good decision to buy the tablet since I don't know what I am going to use it for. I have not really played with it but I am quite impressed with the S-Pen when I tried it for a while yesterday.

Today I went out with my best friend since junior high school days in Indonesia. She finished her 1 year course in Beijing and is going back to Jakarta. She is on transit here for about 1 month because her sisters are here. It is always great to be able to meet an old friend after a looong time and we can still talk as if we just had a meeting on the day before. With our age, of course the topic of getting married will not be far. Haha..

Seriously, why do people associate a guy staying single as being gay? It is not that I am not interested in girls, I just want to date someone which I am sure that I will be marrying. Sounds very old-fashioned but that's me. I also still enjoy my freedom and I still love my money. These are my reasons for not being interested to be in a relationship yet. On top of that, I am extremely picky! I have a long list of inclusion and exclusion criteria for a girl. Anyway, now if a guy ever wonders if I am gay because I am still single, I will just reply "Oh so are you interested in me?". And if I am being questioned by a girl, I will reply "Can you bear my 4 children: 2 guys and 2 girls?". That's one of my criteria because my vision of an ideal family is to have 2 sons and 2 daughters. Lol.. Anyway, thanks to my friend who believes strongly that I am not gay. Lol.. Yes you have to be close enough to me to know my selfish reasons for staying single. Having said that, I am very open to a relationship. If anyone has a girl who can fits into my criteria, I don't mind getting introduced to her. Hehe.. And by the way, so far, all the girls that I think of "having potential" to be my soulmate are always taller and richer than me, and are always non-Catholics. Haiz.. When will I ever find that special one? T_T

Bipolar

It is another emotionally-charged week for me although sadly, there are more down moments than the up ones. Firstly, I lost the battle against the v(uck)POST. I finally got someone capable to give me an explanation. I really appreciated her effort to explain to me. The company is just too fucked up that further argument is simply wasting my breath.

Below is the summary of the explanation given to me and I do hope if people are reading this (or reading my post in the forum), they will think twice.. or rather they should ban.. vPOST altogether. vPOST has nobody to sort out mails so small items (weighing less than 2kg are dumped together in the same  shipment with items weighing 5kg and more). Not surprising that my items looked like they had been run over by a truck.. Ironically (I would say ridiculously), normal post (be it normal mail, registered mail, and of course EMS) is better than vPOST. Why? Because normal post is sorted based on the size and there is no way that small items will be damaged by large items in the same shipment. I also asked whether it made a difference if I insured my items and the answer was NO. Insurance claims will only be accepted if the package seems to be ripped open. Yes, even if the envelopes arrive torn, if the tears are not due to someone ripping it, insurance claim will be denied. I also asked what is regarded as "sufficient" packaging and for vPOST, a "sufficient" packaging is something which can withstand their lack of sorting. So what did I get in the end? (Useless) apologies, refund of shipping fee (a pathetic $30+ compared to $300 items), and 20% off for next shipment. Yeah, as if I am going to use this v(ucked-up)POST anymore in the future. Hell no!

My credit card bill was due on 15 July. I tried to make payment on Sunday and to my horror, I could not make a full payment because the total amount exceeded my debit card limit!! It was not because I spent a lot but it was because I set my own pathetic limit! Haha.. Kiasu just in case I lose my card ma.. Haha.. Anyway, the expense was a bit more than usual as I helped my family to purchase air tickets and train tickets for our trip to Europe. I paid the remainder on Monday. I was worried that I would be slapped with late payment fee and I sent an email. The reply freaked me out: it took 2 working days for payment via AXS machine to be processed. Die liao!! Not funny if I am fined $60 x 2 even though I paid on time.. I asked for waiver but the bank could not "waive" anything when there was nothing shown in my bills yet. I was asked to wait another 2 days. And hallelujah, my payment was not considered late!! Fiuuh...

I have less than 2 weeks to prepare for my trip and I am absolutely unprepared. I am glad that I did not think twice and immediately bought 1000 Euro and 300 Swiss Francs last week. I heard that Euro is getting more expensive this week. I thought I got the money matter done. Guess what: my dad psycho-ed me that 1000 Euro is not going to be enough -__- Sigh.. Should I change more??

I have borrowed some winter clothes from my aunt but I am still undecided with what to bring. Sigh.. Still waiting for that green pants from Uniqlo getting discounted also. I still have not purchased my tablet yet. And digital camera was giving me headache on Sunday. I was absolutely irritated with my sister over the weekend. Everything has its pros and cons. I don't need to hear what are the pros and cons of each camera that I suggested, what I needed was a decision on which model to buy! Jeez.. 

I had no issue with whatever model because I am a pretty good photographer. The issue is I can't take photos of myself. I wanted my sister to choose and try the cameras to find the one which suits her lousy photography skills. I need her skills to take good pictures of mine. Lol.. No point choosing the camera which can't withstand her shakiness and poor angles. Right till the end she could not make the decision so I made it. I bought Canon Powershot S110 from Harvey Norman on Sunday. The main reason was it was put on sale and it also came with lots of bonus. Just tried it yesterday and I am swooning over it. Hehe.. It beats any camera phone hands down!! Even when I switched off all light in my room, the pictures taken are still so bright. I hope it shows equally good results outdoor too.

And today was the mother of all emo-ness. I am absolutely disappointed with my pay rise of 3.6%. I think inflation rate is even higher than that. Sigh.. I think it should be called a pay EXCREMENT instead of increment. In addition, I only received 0.9 months for performance bonus. I expected at least 1 month. Sigh.. I heard issues that the bonus is lower this year bla bla bla but I heard that it was 1.25 months last year. The drop can't be that much so the only explanation is that I suck at work. Call me shameless but I think I am not faring badly as compared to the other first year staff. I was given a lot of shit stuff that someone has to do. Necessary for daily things but not good enough to score brownie points. I am extremely sore, angry, upset now. After doing so much shit, I am given a shit increment and shit bonus too! Sometimes I wish I can just take revenge and quit.. and perhaps commit suicide.

My life sucks.. I suck.. my work sucks.. everything sucks...

vPOST = vomitbloodPOST

I have been using vPOST many times and have always been pleased. My latest experience, however, simply changed everything. Ultimately, vPOST is a subsidiary of SingPost and when problems arise, what I get is simply shitty customer service.

My latest shipment with vPOST contains 3 items. Each item containing 1 book: Young Avengers Present (paperback), Young Avengers Ultimate Collection (hard cover), and Sailormoon Art Book 5 (hard cover). All 3 arrived damaged and I am particularly upset because the last 2 items are rare and out of production. Not to mention that they are expensive too.

Here comes the horror story. Upon receiving the damaged item, I sent a feedback to claim for compensation. I only received reply after 2 weeks and after 2 separate feedbacks requesting an update on my case. My claim was rejected on the ground "insufficient packaging". Of course, I am not satisfied. Prior to this, I purchased several books from overseas be it via registered mail, EMS, Amazon.com, and Book Depository. These books arrived in perfect condition and they were packed in either cardboard envelope or padded envelope (envelope with bubble wrap in the inside). Thus I don't see why this time around vPOST regarded padded envelope and cardboard envelope as "insufficient". In addition, I asked them what, then, they regard as "sufficient packaging" just to ship a book.

I also pointed out about the state of the envelope upon arrival: bent into two in the middle (despite a big warning DO NOT BEND by the sender), gross folding and crumpling on all 4 corners, torn envelopes, and black dirt all over the envelope. To me, these are signs of poor handling and I can't accept that vPOST refused to see these sings of poor handling and simply blaming on "insufficient" packaging.

I explicitly stated twice that I wanted to know what constitutes "sufficient" packaging. The first reply totally ignored my question while the second reply stated "lets not go into details". Great, they are not going to explain their "insufficient" packaging and they are also unable to say what they expect as a "sufficient" packaging.

Initially, vPOST refused to look at the fact that even the envelopes arrived damaged. In the latest reply, they admitted that my items should had been handled more carefully. Great.. finally they admitted their mistake. So if it is their mistake, where the bloody hell is my compensation??

It is getting ridiculous when vPOST always changes their answers with each reply. One thing that remains constant is their avoidance to explain their stupid packaging sufficiency. Initially they offered 15% off for future shipping. Go eat shit! As if I will ever use their stupid service anymore. Then they increased the bar to refunding of the shipping fee (which is only about $32). Lastly, they upped the stake to shipping fee refund + 25% off for future shipping.

I am not gonna give in so quickly when I am not in the wrong. I spent close to $300 for my items and I would get a $30 compensation for their incompetency? No way!! Not sure whether I should go down to a post office to ask for alternative feedback channel as their email and phone service are just bullshit. Not sure if I should involve external party such as CASE. I wonder if that is useful. And the most drastic measure will be the use of media. Sigh.. I hope I can get my $300 peacefully.

Here are the pictures to show how shitty the envelopes look upon arrival: