Naruwa Taiwan!

Touched down onto Singapore on 11 July at 10.40 pm. Started work on 12 July 8.30 am. Watched the soccer matches between Germany and Italy, Portugal and France, Germany and Portugal and the finals France and Italy during the Taiwan trip. I think i slept the least throughout the entire trip as some of my jc friends 'concussed' midway through some of the matches. We were still brimming with energy although some of us were lacking good rest.

Need to recover some sleep although my work is preventing my extra length of snooze. The Taiwan trip is quite fun, a well balanced trip that involves visiting many places as well as lots of shopping. Quite good and cheap food in Taiwan as well. Will be posting the pictures in due time after i organise the photos, upload it online and pass them to my friends.

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Taiwan here i come

Packing my stuff now as i'll be leaving Singapore for Taiwan in 12 hours time. Will be sitting on a Jetstar Asia flight. Hope that it won't be too cramped for me.

Coming back on 11 July nearly midnight. Cya soon.

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New Zealand Day 12

Day 12 Auckland (Saturday)

We woke up rather late as we slept quite late the day before.


Fine day in Auckland

We headed to an open air carpark where Jm went to buy some facial products before the shop closes.

Nice clouds...


Street scenery of Auckland

Jm and Jh then fetched Jr and me to Victoria Park Market. The 2 of us spent quite some time there choosing souvenirs and t-shirts.

--------------Victoria Park Market----------------------------Near Sky Tower--------------------

We then walked over to Queens Street where there were a lot of souvenir shops, boutiques and retail shops there.

----------Mini pasa malam----------------------------------Nice building that we walked past--------

More shopping and buying was next and Jh & Jm picked us up at 5.30 pm. We headed to a japanese restaurant that the both of them recommended and had some good food there.

Headed to a new cinema away from the city centre to watch X-Men: The Last Stand. Quite a good movie with lots of special effects with unexpected twists in the story.

Berkeley Cinema (1 movie costs $15, student price $13)

To wrap up the entire New Zealand trip, it's totally awesome. Everywhere is so beautiful and the country is filled with adventurous activities to do. Be prepared to fork out a lot of money if you want to enjoy your trip in NZ to the fullest.

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Quarter Finals

What a boring England vs Portugal match. There wasn't really much excitement before Rooney's sent off as the goal kicks were far and few. England put up quite a good show even with just 10 men but there still wasn't any goals after 90 mins and into extra time. Was rather disappointed with Portugal's lacklustre performance. Rooney is just an idiot, stomping on other people's groin and shouting at the referee is plain stupid and barbaric. We can also "hear" all the expletives coming out of his mouth when he was sent off. Good riddance. Ricardo then sent the English team packing with 3 penalty kick saves.

The next match between Brazil and France was more entertaining although most of us were tired and feeling very sleepy. Didn't really expect France to beat Brazil 1-0.

Gotta sleep now.

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What an EXCITING match!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

My jc friends and i had dinner at PS Pizza Hut as Jimmy got 4 free pizza hut vouchers. Our original plan was to watch Superman Returns after that as Edwin got 2 free tickets and we are going to accompany him to watch. We suggested that he should sell the tickets as most of us wanna watch the keenly anticipated soccer match between Germany and Argentina. After asking people around the ticketing booth if they want slightly discounted prices of Superman Returns, we found a couple that is willing to pay $16 for 2 tickets (counter price is $19).

We redeemed the free popcorn and drinks and headed to Selegie. There were a lot of people on standby at the projector screens and tv sets waiting for the match to start. Some of us complained about the humid weather and we went to Paradis Centre across the road to check out the prices if we watch world cup in the ktv room. $21+++ per pax. That will be about $28 per pax and the price is just crazily high.

We then suggested going to a hotel room to watch and when we were walking out of Paradis Centre, we saw the Hotel 81 sign along Bencoolen St. We rushed there as the match was about to start in 15 minutes time.

The rate was $40 for 2 hours exactly. We waited until the match was about to start before checking in. The counter staff even showed us the time and said 10.58 pm. There will be extra charges if we check out anytime later than 12.58 am. Anyway the counter staff at Hotel 81 Bencoolen sucks! Sullen faces, bad attitude and non-compromising behaviour. If they gave us survey forms regarding the service, i will no doubt put a tick beside very lousy.

Anyway, we were all pumped to watch the soccer match as all 4 of them had bet money on the match. Jimmy, Gs and Edwin bet $5 each on a win for Argentina and Derrick $50 for total goals 2 and more. I didn't bet as i supported Germany.

Both teams put up a fierce fight and everytime the ball was near the goal, we will be shouting and commenting loudly. Neither teams scored during the 1st half although Argentina had more possession of the ball. Argentina is in fact technically stronger than Germany and they scored the 1st goal 49 minutes into the game in the 2nd half. In the next 15-20 minutes, i thought that Argentina had confirmed their place in the semi finals until the 80 minute stunner by Klose. The Germans have incredible willpower indeed. Every minute of the game was intense as they battled to get rid of each other's team.

Luck was not on Argentina's side as the goalkeeper was substituted due to a hip or stomach injury. Argentina's coach had even substituted some of the strikers for defenders before the 80th minute goal that equalized the game. That was quite a bad move as Argentina's attacking force is made slightly weaker.

The game ended with a draw of 1 all and we checked out and rushed downstairs to the nearby Kopitiam for the extra time match. There were at least a hundred people that were gathered outside the big projector screen.

No goals were conceded in the extra time and it was down to penalty kicks. Germany's hero Lehmann saved 2 penalty kicks from Argentina and it was over. Germany is going to the semi finals. It's quite wasted that such a fine soccer team Argentina has crashed out of the World Cup. Hopefully the World Cup finals will be this EXCITING.

A few pictures that we took in the hotel room.

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Weekday

Replenished my sleep for the past few days by waking up at around 2 pm today. Met up with Ks to go for Zhangyi's mini concert at Esplanade. We had dinner at Alexandria hawker centre before going there.

We arrived just in time and Zy was the next to perform.


Zy on stage at the Concourse in Esplanade

The piece was around 5 mins long and it was composed by Zy as well. A commendable effort as it is quite an original and creative composition.



We chatted for some time before going back to Suntec for some shopping.

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Tired

I'm deprived of sleep coz of the world cup matches. Watched Brazil vs Ghana, Italy vs Australia, Germany vs Sweden matches the past 3 days.

My entertainment hub

After work today, i got a shock when i saw a wheel clamp on my lorry. There was a form stuck onto my wiper stating that i have to pay $50 for illegal parking. The Normanton Park security guards had my wheel clamped and i spoke with them at the entrance. Luckily, i was able to settle the dispute without me paying any money.


The dreaded letter on my windscreen wiper

Anyway, it was my last day at InCall Systems this week as the project some of us are handling have ended. I should be going back to work next monday if everything goes to plan. It is the perfect time to catch movies before the Taiwan trip. Gotta watch The Road to Guantanamo, Superman Begins, maybe 4:30 and U-Carmen.

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Weekend

Went out with Ks, Kr and Ly on sat to kbox in the afternoon for Ks's 22nd birthday celebration. There is a birthday promo at all kbox outlets for the birthday boy/girl that waive the charge of 1 person. In additon, there is a sparkling juice and cake provided.



Kr left a short while after we cut the cake as he was going to play soccer with his friends. The rest of us ate the delicious and thick chocolate cream cake, the tidbits that can be refilled and drank more than 2 glasses of beverages. We sang until 6 pm and went to Borders for a short while before grabbing a bite at Mos burger.

I met up with my jc friends later as Meibin had arranged for us to meet up with her friend, Lz, who will be joining us for the Taiwan trip. The 5 of us spent some time at Mac having dinner and discussing the itinerary for the Taiwan trip on 4 July.

Next, we all headed to my house for the soccer match between Germany and Sweden. Derrick, Terence and Py joined us as well.


On my bed (Meibin's face got covered by Edwin)

There was more discussing of the Taiwan trip after the match as there might be changes to the hotel in Taipei. They then left for home at around 2.30 am.

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