Break in Batam

Woohoo! After a 2 days break in Batam I'm finally back in Singapore. The trip was awesome. 4 of us went down to meet the Indonesian friend of ours who showed us around. At first I tot Kenneth said we were going office first so I wore my shirt and pants to meet them at Bukit Batok, packing my jeans and t-shirt in my bag. Then when I reach there I saw all of them wearing jeans then I thought to myself Nabeh... Kena tua liao.... In the end we headed straight to Habourfront to get our ferry tickets. After clearing the Singapore customs, we boarded our ride called the Wavemaster.

Ken, Esther and I.

And Again.

In case you are wondering if my maths failed me, the fourth person was Wing who was behind the camera. Not long after the boat set off, I took a little nap as I slept quite late the night b4. 45 mins later, we were at HarbourBay. I thought that it was time to start relaxing, but I was abruptly stopped by the customs officer who said that my passport had lesser than 6 months validity and could not enter Indonesia. I was like wth... It expires in Nov so I still have 6 months. But he wanted to be anal about it saying my passport expires on 9th Nov so technically it's 5 months and a few weeks. So I had to tolong him with a little incentive b4 he chopped my passport...

After that was over, Sudi, our Indonesian friend, picked us up and drove us to the hotel to check in. Since the rooms were not ready yet, we left our bags at the hotel and Sudi brought us for lunch at the LEGENDARY nasi padang. Well, I said LEGENDARY coz they said it's nice.


The food was indeed quite nice, with the ayam pok (dunno how to spell) which is a must try. The fragrance itself is enough to make me salivate. After lunch, we went shopping for some cheap groceries and shampoos. We came across this huge ass slab of cheese which probably can last me like a whole year or more...


We finished up our shopping and went back to the hotel to check out our rooms. It turns out that the hotel rooms were actually not bad and we had windows facing the pool. the rooms each had a double bed, tv with dozens of channels including HBO and sg channels, a mini fridge and other stuff. The room only costed us $50++ per room per night, which was quite cheap given the standards of the room. After we dumped our stuff in the rooms, we headed down to the swimming pool for a swim. The water was freezing cold as it had just rained so we didn't swim much. The jacuzzi pool however was heated and it felt like a hot spring. So we spent quite a lot of time in the jacuzzi.

Right after relaxing, it was time for food again! We were brought to some place called Golden Prawn 555 where they sold fresh seafood. And it was REALLY fresh. We ordered 8 dishes in total including flower crabs, prawns, fried calamari and oyster egg. I ordered a coconut drink which I think is bigger than my head.


Dinner was amazing and delicious. Afterwards, Sudi brought us to check out the nightlife in Batam. We ended up in a local disco and saw a lot of foreigners who were on holiday there too. The most interesting one we ran into was a pair of twins from Philippines. They were performers at the disco where they sang and entertained the guests. Wing and I told them that we were twins too but they didn't really believe us at first. But slowly as we talked they bought the idea and really thought we were twins! Haha! We had a fun time chatting with them and we exchanged addresses so that we could stay in touch as penpals. We took a few photos with them as they were the friends we made overseas.

Twins vs Twins!

The second photo was kinda creepy like in those horror movies coz you can see her sister in the mirror. Kinda like those thai horror flick that scares the bejeezus out of you. But it was damn fun that night coz it was the first time that I made friends abroad and they were twins!

The second day was rather relaxed compared to the first. I woke up at around 12 and went down to the swimming pool for a swim and tan. The Sun was out and the weather was great for a swim. The water however was still chilly. Wing and I suspect that the new machine they placed at the side of the pool was used to cool the pool down. We swam until around 4 plus and Sudi swung by to pick us up for lunch. We went to the nasi padang place again to try for the beef tendon that kenneth didn't get the day b4. Still, he was out of luck. But nevertheless the ayam pok was enough to satisfy our taste buds. After the late lunch, we went to the supermart to buy cheap Mie Sedap at around 18cents a packet. We bought 8 boxes full in preparation for our Pulau Hantu trip. Each of us had to lug 2 boxes back through the customs.

At the end of the trip, Sudi seemed quite sad to see us go home. I think we'll miss him just as much until the next time we see him.

I feel refreshed and rejuvenated after the trip. Now I'm ready to continue charging forward in my career. But first, I'm gonna get some sleep. Haha!

KTV!!!!

Met up with the team on friday at cafe iguana for dinner. Quite a nice place with nice ambiance. The margaritas there are quite nice too, definitely worth the happy hour offer of 40% off. The steak there packs a punch. They actually grill it with tequila and serve it with mash potatoes and sauteed vegetables. The steak is done so well that you don't really taste the tequila. It only hits you after you finish 3/4 of the steak. That's what exactly happened to me coz after I finished 3/4 of the steak I felt quite high haha. Although there were only 5 of us there, it was great catching up with the team again after so many months.

After that dinner was todays KTV session! Haven't Ked in so many months. It was great. Hanging out with the team was something that I missed for a long time since feb's ktv session. I guess everyone was busy with either fyp or work throughout these few months. We definitely should do this more often. But with Andrew going to US for NOC for 1 year we will sorely miss him at these outings. No problem, we'll just sing more songs in his place. I hope that our plans to visit him in San Fran at the end of the year comes true. Will definitely look forward to that.

In the mean time, I'm quite looking forward to batam's trip tmr!

This is life.

I just knew a cool Indonesian guy through my "NEW" brothers. He's quite interesting and seems to know a lot of people. He invited us over to Batam to show us around on the 18th. I hope my brothers dun make me go "prostitution" LOL. Quite looking forward to it actually coz the last time I visited another country other than Malaysia was 1 year ago in Bangkok. So I guess this will be a short break from work.

Other than that life is just great man. Work hard and party harder. I'm gonna clear fastrack faster than you can say, well, "fastrack". This is my time to shine!

The List

I think it's time I did this. Haven't done it before but I think now is as good a time to start as any, so here goes.

List of things which I am grateful for. (In no specific order)

• The bunch of great friends I have that have stood by me through the years and will continue to stand by me in the future
• The family I found at work whom I know I can depend on and who can depend on me.
• The nice home that I am living in right now.
• Having lost 6kg and now maintaining at a healthy 66kg
• Finding work in such tough times.
• Finding work which I love and find meaningful.
• Finding a brother at work whom I can strive together with, knowing we can count on each other.
• Being able to finish my FYP despite not knowing how to do programming.
• All the new friends that I have made.
• Something new I learn everyday.

The list could go on and on forever but right now I'll just stop here. Why make such a list? Because it helps me learn to count my blessings and stay positive no matter what the world throws at me.

Life is tough, but I am tougher.

IT'S OVER!

Finally! It's over!!!! No more exams, no more fyp! This is what I've been waiting for these past few months and I'm really glad that it has finally come. All those months of slogging and hard work finally paid off. It's now for a new phase of my life. Work!

Been looking forward to start work and get my things going. I've got so much planned for the coming months that I just can't wait to jump right in. I'm just so excited when I start thinking about it.

I love my new family. Don't get me wrong, I didn't run off from home and found a new place to live. I still love my mum and dad very much. I'm talking about my family at work. These guys really work hard and play harder. I guess I've always yearned for such a family, like my canoeing team back in JC. I love to surround myself with people who can edge me on and bring out the competitiveness in me. I guess that was what I was missing in my NUS days. But now, I'm just really glad that when I'm starting this new chapter of my life, I really, really, really appreciate having this family at work. I LOVE YOU GUYS!