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Thursday, January 04, 2007

Gearing up for National Duty

Well, there I was this sunny afternoon starting to train (at last) for NS. Took a jog around the river near my place and put some exercise equipment at the fitness station to acceptably good use.

Yup..

I almost died man.

Haha.

Think a muscle near the left hip got a little pulled too.

Haha.

Oh yeah, my superior is going to welcome me with open arms.. :)

Se or debbie please give me some tips. :)

a ranting by Eugene at 6:15 PM




Wednesday, January 03, 2007

Singapore Rocks!

That's the conclusion i've reached upon spending 10 days in Europe. Haha. :)

I am so glad that i'm sitting on Singapore soil once again. After shaking off that jet lag i'm finally concious again albeit having scaly legs, small cracks in the skin of my hand and dried apricot lips. As I soak in the humidity of tropical weather I realise I did not have a runny nose in Europe at all. Guess there's a trade off staying in different climates.

Anyway, yes right up there we see the Swiss Alps and woohoo that is a fantastic place! I met Alison at Changi Airport and took the same flight! We arrived in Zurich, Switzerland at 7 plus in the morning greeted by a dark sky and entered a freezer outside the airport. The days there are short with long nights so tours had to be done quickly in the day before night fell at 4pm. Like hello?! 4pm! Haha. I slept at 9pm on the first night coz there's nothing to do. Switzerland's 7 hours after Singapore so when I awaken it's lunch time in Singapore already.


Wrapped up there in blue, the first half of the trip took me from Zurich to Lucern, Bern, Interlaken and Zermatt all in Switzerland. The immigration policy around Switzerland is super lax.. The coach just cut through Germany to get to another part of Switzerland and the German guys didn't check our passports. That's what happens when you have good neighbours. :)

As expected Switzerland was a very pleasant experience, clean, safe country with friendly people and everything we learnt in social studies. Lots of cheese, ham, sausages and chocolate around. The majestic Swiss Alps was the differentiating factor. When they greet your sight, you realize how small you actually are. Together with the authentic Swiss cottages, horse carriages and skiing I could spend the whole holiday man. This was one of the times in my life I embraced the sun for its warmth, walking in the stone streets while avoiding the chilly shadows. The tour leader rented a few sleds and I want to go wooshing down those slopes again! That thrashed roller blading and ice skating upside down.

Saw some Swiss military outposts in the mountains too. Cool man. To the bottom right we see an unglam me at Bebbie's, a Swiss restaurant. We had a cheese, meat and chocolate fondue dinner prepared for the group one night in the Alps (that's the cheese one). The muscleman boss was a real joker and when he plays the Alphorn the sound is solid man. Plus vibrato. Reagan should go and try. Haha. He'll get one or two people per table to blow it before serving the chocolate fondue. My final stop in the land of neutrality was the Matterhorn, see the family resemblence to Tolberone?

Well all good things have to come to an end and here I landed in Italy after travelling through the Simplon pass in the Alps. Again, there was no passport chop.

Italy's fantastic if you try to render yourself oblivious to the pollution and don't compare the people to the Swiss. :) Let's just say a shopkeeper told my sister, "No pictures. I kill you. China." and a small boy pointed a glove-covered middle finger at my other sister when she waved her teddy bear at him from the bus. That was quite funny actually. Haha.

The coach brought us through Italy to Milan, Florence, Pisa, Sienna and Rome. (Yes Tim, there's a place called Florence) Another surprise was waiting for me in Italy as I went to Da Hua Chinese Restaurant for dinner and there standing at Golden Lion Chinese Restaurant down the dark street was 05S61 classmate Wen Hsin! Haha. I was so happy to see her! At last there was someone familiar around here. What are the chances man. First it was Alison and now her. It turned out that another guy in my group was Wen Hsin's sister's classmate.

The European capital of shopping was in hibernation now as Italians were opening their Christmas presents. And at least Switzerland was an English speaking country, I couldn't understand a word the Italian TV show people were saying. The only thing left was the first half of Tottenham vs Aston Villa where at least I could understand Berbatov, Jermain Defoe and Martin Jol.

Learnt some Italian words there.. Very basic. Good morning's Buongiorno, Hi is Ciao and thank you is grazie. Heard some excusis and excusas here and there. The standard of food there varied. Pizzas in traditional restaurants and Pasta in self-service restaurants was good. There was this seafood mix thing and Spaghetti with Suid in Black Squid ink in Venice. Thumbs up for the seafood mix but I would say the ink is an acquired taste for me. :)

Forgive me for the twisted face I must have been having a spasm aboard that nice gondola in Venice (although some waterways there smelt of faecal matter and garbage). Haha. But Venice rocks! Venetian masks led to the original Masquerades and Venetian glass gave rise to the mirror.

BUT! There's always a but! Venetian toilets are made for the rich. Not their interior but the cost of going in. I paid 1 Euro/S$2 to go to the toilet. That's a packet of chicken rice man! 20 times more than S'pore.

Stuff in Italy is generally double that of Singapore coz of the Euro (not taking into account purchasing parity). :) The no. of Roman Catholic churches there can be likened to the no. of temples in Bangkok, except that the churches are bigger and than football fields and the height of taller HDB flats. The one in the Vatican was like walking a marathon.. One guy joked that he needed a wheelchair. Coming from someone who just scraped through a D in the 2.4km run maybe it'll be better for all my fit, strong friends going to NS out there.

Finally after trudging through the Vatican museum and church, St. Peter's Square greeted our aching feet. You know the place the Pope gives his speeches from a big building and a big round open space. That's St. Peter's Square. Ignorant me didn't realize that. And there were hordes and hordes of people gathered there. Actually in all the major cities of Italy tourists just flock there without the tourism board calling. It's like New Year's eve in Orchard Road everyday.

Babies stick out all over the street over there too. They don't look like they're having a greying population at all with so many tumbling tots wrapped up like dumplings terrorising the pigeons. There was this particular baby we made friends with in St. Peter's Square. Her name's Sophia. 1 year old.


Aww.. So cute. Her cheeks felt like tofu, jelly and marshmallows. Haha.


And here's my two sisters sensing a photo opportunity.

Enough about the babies although they were far more interesting than many of the attractions there. The place really worth visiting was the Colosseum. Woohoo.. That was where the Gladiators fought during the Roman Empire. I watched Gladiator on the plane on the return flight because of the Colosseum. One of the 7 wonders of the world was also a stop-over. It really wasn't a wonder when you se it for youself but there's a lot of jokers doing funny things like you see at the bottom right. That's the real tower.

Basically that was where I disappeared to this Christmas and New Year and was counting down in the plane. Haha. We probably celebrated the New Year somewhere over India. Made a few friends there within the tour group and my sisters made me a little more spastic. That was a result of them waving around at random Swiss and Italian pedestrians from the hotel room and bus respectively. In their hands they cluctched a teddy bear named suhguh and jumped around hysterically. Oh save the world! After the brown and dry environment over there now I treasure the greenery and humidity of Singapore and my next holiday may very well be in Taiwan carrying a rifle.. Till then.

8 more days to army.

a ranting by Eugene at 2:14 PM


 

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