Wicked :)

I have actually seen this ad when i was taking bus 16 home and i was thinking to myself at that time, wow, what an insurgence of "friendly chatlines" and well the ad was actually made quite tastefully but lack of information which normal chat ads have. Interesting....

And when this came out on the papers on Sunday, man i have to say...this is wicked.....wait till i upload the photo of this ad, my flickr photo upload limit is up this month.

This hotline is really HOT

400,000 people have called sultry Nikki - and got more than what they bargained for
By Jeremy Au Yong
May 29, 2005
The Straits Times

NIKKI, a voluptuous brunette with a sexy voice, receives about three calls to her hotline every minute.'You like my voice?' she asks her callers, 'Do you think it's...sexy?'

Many men apparently do. Since the hotline was started in February, there have been nearly 400,000 calls. Is she the world's busiest phone sex worker?

No, Nikki is a character created for the latest Aids awareness campaign from Action For Aids (AFA).

Read On:

Perfect ending

cert
Originally uploaded by ying22.

Delivered my 13th mth traineeship experience at AIESEC's prep sem today, you could say its a perfect ending, a full circle of the exchange process maybe. I have done it all. :)

Special thanks to those pple who made an effort in coming down,be it late, or catching the presentation halfway, Shahrin, June, Chinyong, Dongwei, Ceci, Alan.. I appreciate your presence.

Imha

I concurrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr

I totally identified with the female lead, Celine, when she said the following and vowed to dig it out one way or another, by listening to the dialogue over and over again :)

Quote from Before Sunset, where Celine, recounts her time living in Warsaw during its communist days:

“After a while, my brain seems clearer, I was writing a lot in my journal, ideas that I have never thought of before. It took me a while to figure out why it was so different. I realised I spent the last 2 weeks away from my usual habits, TV was in a language I didn’t understand, there was nothing to buy, no advertisements anywhere, so all I have done was walk around, think and write..

My brain was at a rest, free from the consuming frenzy and I must say its like a natural high. I feel so peaceful inside, no strange urge to be at somewhere else, to shop, maybe it seemed like boredom at first, it quickly became very soulful, its interesting huh.”

The cook, the thief, his wife and her lover

Have not watched disturbing yet intrigueing movies in a long while, so when i watched this dvd last nite,, i was like "............"Reminds me of the movie The Swiming Pool where there are many scenes that there seems to be a deeper meaning behind, but well I just dont get it...and i had to search on the internet to go ..ohhh ahh..

For example there are 3 main colour themes in this movie, in the dinning room of the restaurant, everything is in red, depicting brutality, in the toilets, everything is white depicting sterility and green in the kitchen of the restaurant depicts fertility. It was quite a violent movie too with the " thief" constantly smacking his wife around in the public....and there is this scene where this innocent kitchen boy had to swallow the buttons on his shirt and in the end was "force-fed" his navel...i know i know....ewww but thats not the worst part, trust me, and i dont want to spoil the surprise for you. A hint for the pple who were at AIESEC's SRB this year on the issue of a certain disturbing topic.:)

Excerpt of the storyline:
"The film takes place in two locations: a sophisticated French restaurant and a book depository. The restaurant, ran by "the cook" is being "protected" by "the thief" who dines there every night with "his wife" and his cronies. His wife is tired of her husband's constant abuse, both verbal and physical, of everyone, especially her. One night, she catches eyes with another diner at the restaurant, and it's love at first sight. They start a passionate affair right under Spica's nose, making love in the toilets and other parts of the restaurant while the staff look on tolerating it all. Spica, off course, soon finds out and extracts horrific revenge, which leads to even worse counter revenge..."

Click for more info

A sign of settling down

Is when you sign up for a one year gym memembership with California fitness...:P

Oh well drinking my nescafe instant coffee now with my stereo blasting, working on my prep sem ppt on my traineeship experience in Sweden, reminds me of the old gd times of studying into the night or working on aiesec stuffie....

Sri Lanka- Reunions, Wedding and more

Suren and Thisanthi Wedding
Originally uploaded by ying22.

Regrettably, my close to 2 weeks of travelling has come to an end when my travel buddy Gokce Alacadagli left for stlm last nite. We covered Sri Lanka, Kuala Lumpur(Msia) and Singapore together :)... His first trip to Asia, and his tagline as "CHEAP"..everything is cheap i know compared to stockholm ha..boy you are going to have withdrawal symptons back in Stlm.:)

Anyways we spent 5 days in Mount Lavinia, 15mins out of Colombo, Sri Lanka where we stayed in a hotel facing the beach AND its just a wall away from the RAILWAY TRAINS!So yes every few hrs, we hear a roaring train zoom past plus the tempting sea cant be swam coz the current is too strong.Yeah...see no touch....But its ok, lazing by the pool, gave me my tan which left me peeling like a snake...

AND the focus of our trip is for Suren's wedding and meeting up with Ruki, our dear friends that we met from our traineeship time in Stockholm. What can i say? We went to Suren's house, had the pre-wedding feast with the rest of his 40 plus close relatives and friends, sat in his new 2nd hand car imported from Singapore ( apparently its as ex in Sri Lanka to get a brand new car as in Sipo, its crazy!!), witnessed the traditional ceremony of his wedding with Thisanthi at Mount Lavinia Hotel, this british colonial styled hotel (apparently most couples get married here, ruki's wedding in aug will be held here as well), very nice.



4 of Us again
Originally uploaded by ying22.

Suren and Thisanthi make a beautiful couple, its so cool that i finally meet her, Suren's "My Girl" as he so affectionally calls her when we were in Stockholm...sighhhh..just gets u to such a lovey dovey mode and thinking, "when would my turn come? " when u see 2 happy pple so in love and finally coming together and with the committement for life, putting up with ALL the little annoyances of that person that would drive you crazy...(on that note,think i will take a few more years before getting used to this idea)..

It was a pretty chill trip actually,as i had no expectations before i touched down at the airport, other than knowing simple trivia that SL boasts the production of Ceylon Tea under the internationally known Dilmah brand,has 70 different breeds of bananas, majority of the population are Buddhist and they are nice friendly smiley pple. Hot humid weather greeted us, along with very gd english speaking sri lankans, ( 80% literacy rate in this cty, and most are proficient in english), what surprised me that the radio stations are in english, kinda see the uncanny resemblence with Singapore, where english, not the mother tongue, is spouted widely too mainly for economic reasons. Throughout Colombo, you will find interesting old architectures of fine churches, schs,colonial buildings,in the midst of shophouses,as SL was colonised by the Dutch, Portuguese and British each for 150 yrs separately.

One major shocker for me is the "interesting" driving styles in this country, its simply terrifying that i cant keep my eyes on the road for long else i get too stressed up...and i thought i have seen worst in some parts of greece..in short, as described by gokce this is called jungle driving...there are no rules and laws, motorcycles, 3 wheelers (more popularly known as tuk-tuk in Thailand), cars invade the roads. An example I give you: When Ruki was driving us to another city,Kandy, these 2 tuk tuk hog the main road (which happens to be 1 lane) and ruki just swerved to the another lane with traffic coming in the opp direction just to cut them, its normal. No horning, as it just doesnt work on the fellow motorists. But what amazes me is also the drivers instinct that each motorist possess in them, however dangerous and unpredictable the moves each makes,there is no accident though its so easy to make one, its like an unwritten mutual understanding of each other.



Kelaniya Temple
Originally uploaded by ying22.

And everyone SMILES here, its reminds me of Thailand too which brands itself as the Land of Smiles, got us thinking maybe its the strong influence of Buddhism in these 2 ctys, that brings in a kind of peace and calm that allows you to project a smile all the time???? And yah, another interesting thing for me is to see many non chinese aka Sri Lankans in this case to be at the buddhist temples, yes i know that Buddha was an Indian Prince orginally, but all my life i only saw Chinese looking pple at temples, so this was another new experience for me :) N interestingly enough in different ctys there are different versions of the Buddha statues, accordingly to June (who is thai) if you look closely at the expressions, the eyes of the buddha statues seem to be bigger at temples in the india sub continent.

Other needs getting used to was the daily spicy diet: for bfast, some spicy buns, lunch: spicy veg and meat, and so on..i now understood what my friend meant that even instant noodles became a delicacy for her when she was backpacking in India for a few weeks.



Elephants taking a shower at the Elephant Orphange
Originally uploaded by ying22.

To have a glimpse of the lifestyle that my friends lead in Sri Lanka, gets me one step closer in fully understanding the comments that they made in Sweden back then, now reflecting, and how "interesting" and in a different way that their reintegration went(as they were back in SL 6 mths ago). Suren and Ruki...all the best with your lives and your loved ones, may our paths cross again soon:))

Blogging Community in Singapore

Unknown to my knowledge, there is a large following of local singaporean bloggers, that they were even featured on the main newspaper today and have set up a blog about random ramblings of Singapore. Heard that they are planning this Bloggers Convention for the 1st time ever in July :) Would be interesting to pop by.

See Tomorrow- Bulletin of Singapore Bloggers

Back from Sri Lanka- The Land of Smiles too

By Kelaniya temple
Originally uploaded by ying22.

Off to KL tmw, will blog about meeting friends, attending a friend's wedding, sacred tooth relic, meeting eleplants, daily curry diet and the manic driving in Colombo...Oh yah having a hellva tan too, that i am peeling..:)

It has to be Japan

Pushing granny aside

Joining an international chorus, elderly Japanese often grouse that public-etiquette standards have fallen precipitously. They now have a martyr for their cause. After a 65-year-old woman admonished Akimi Odajima, aged 22, for putting on her makeup on a train platform in Hiroo station, Ms Odajima allegedly pushed her critic against a subway train moving at 35km per hour. The older woman suffered several broken bones in her chest. Traditionally in Japan, it is considered rude to eat or apply makeup in public.

Chau is back in town :)

Chau and Clyde at Stlm
Originally uploaded by ying22.

Yes the good looking , dashing, vietnamese- finnish dude on the right, not the one in the middle, ( clyde, u are "married", so...i can afford to insult you hehe)

Yes the one on the right, is finally coming to Singapore to work for his favourite pulp company for a period of 2 years, after a hiatus since his last stint in Singapore in 01, gosh times does fly! Looking forward to see you tmw, little bambo :D

Phuket after tsunami

Phuket after tsunami
Originally uploaded by ying22.



Hot bod
Originally uploaded by ying22.



Parachuting near the umbrella
Originally uploaded by ying22.


Allright, not to put my instant Nescafe coffee drinking to waste...Went to Phuket last weekend taking advantage of the May Day weekend,took my 1st budget airlines in Singapore, Tiger Airways ( really, they can do better with a nicer logo on the body of the plane), Yeay! And in a flash was in Phuket! The funny thing was I only intended to go there with my junior college friend, Ruoxia, but in turns out that we find more and more like-minded pple going there on the SAME FLIGHT and staying in the SAME HOTEL! Well for starters,there is my swedish colleague Joel and his group of 6 diving friends( all local Singaporeans, we joke about him hanging out with more locals than me :)) , and Tony and Wendy ( Ruoxia's teacher friends), and on the queue of the airplane counter, yes Joel spotted more of his diving friends.In short, you want to make friends, the newest trend is...JOIN DIVING! :)


This was my 1st time in Phuket, thus I have no comparision before or after the tsunami impact, but some of my friends ( yes, met them for the 1st time and now they are MY friends) commented that Phuket looks wayyy less crowded and it does look pretty vacant. This island's main source of income is tourism, followed by tin mining, of which tourism is definately more profitable. Tourist shops, bars, clubs, foodstalls, rental of beach chairs definately need a little more "overcrowding". In all fairness, its true in the news reports that you can hardly see any construction,on the road facing Patong beach, there are only 2-3 buildings/hotel under renovation, but other than that, the back streets with happening shops all seems business as usual. My tour guide said that the pple from Phuket have been working very hard for the past 3 mths to get their lives and businesses back up again, and you can really see the fruits of their labour, new pavements line the way. So not to worry, to be vistors, you still get to see beautiful Phuket!




Ruoxia by temple

Originally uploaded by ying22.

We have the nice clear sea and golden sandy beaches, reminded me so much of the times I spent on the Aegean Sea when I was in Greece, just floating upwards on the sea, staring at the mountains and the skies, then coming up the sandy beach to suntan, dry off then back to the sea again..ahhh...relaxation times i miss.:).. Had very interesting thai traditional massages every night too where they literally climb on all fours on your back and using their forearms etc to apply pressure on parts of your body that you never knew exisited. It was good but i kinda regretted telling my masseur that I wanted it hard, that i ended up with ahem...a couple of bruises, and yeah i know i asked for it! Had cheap, YUMMY seafood dinner every night, shopped and bought tops like for SGD$4!




Phuket street
Originally uploaded by ying22.



Funny sign board at the Phuket bar
Originally uploaded by ying22.

Another interesting phenomenom is there are alot of " Ah Gua" or transvestites bars along some streets, so you get to get to catch an eye full of how gorgeous these "girls" look, while clutching on tightly to your male friend.:)..European men ( be it old or young, fat or thin) are also the other thing to see, as they are more often than not,accompanied by a young Thai social escort. Its pretty sad i feel to see such dealings happening on the street so frequently,it normally takes less than 5 mins for the guy to lead this girl away. And apparently the costs of hiring a social escort is only SGD60 a week...sigh...Makes you feel sometimes how lucky you are not to be in such a situation ever.

How many zeros does 1 trillion have?

Just found this so amusing that I had to blog about this...

Question of the day: How many zeros does 1 trillion have?

12 zeros or 18 zeros? How about 1 billion?

1 million we know for sure is 6 zeros yah but according to this website:

Trillion
The word trillion denotes different numbers in American and British usage. In the American system, one trillion equals 1012. In the British, French, and German systems, one trillion equals 1018.

AND

Billion
The word billion denotes different numbers in American and British usage. In the American system, one billion equals 109. In the British, French, and German systems, one billion equals 1012. In recent years, however, the "American" system has become common in both the United States and Britain. This constitutes a fortunate development for standardization of terminology, albeit a somewhat regrettable development from the point of view that the British convention for representing large numbers is simpler and more logical than the American one.

"The system used in the U.S. is not as logical as that used in other countries (like Great Britain, France, and Germany). In these other countries, a billion (bi meaning two) has twice as many zeros as a million, and a trillion (tri meaning three) has three times as many zeros as a million, etc. But the scientific community seems to use the American system."

Pangs of home -sickness

Was showing my friend, photos and photos of my times in stockholm, and also ran the video that Robyn did on Living/Working in Stockholm, where she filmed the beautiful scenary, littered with facts, and also the best of all, interviews with us on living in Stockholm. Seeing my "family" talk, laugh, crack jokes,point,move,play acting, is like them literally jumping out of the screen and giving me a back in time feel that I am back in Stockholm, with them. :) I missed ya all.

Thank god that i have a lineup of visitors coming soon to sunny singapore, to cure my pangs temporarily:
Gokce- this sat!
Suren and Ruki- When i go Sri Lanka for Suren's wedding next week
Ana- End of June when she is on her Asia Tour
James- On my bday 22/7 yeay!
Rajat- When he gets his new passport!!!:P
Ed- When he made up his mind when he is touring other parts of asia, to drop by!

Whose up next?! Drop me an email, and you will have the best itiernary being the XXXperson to experince services from Ying's Sunny Tourist Agency.:D