summer of my life

it's been almost 4 weeks since darling left for singapore, but it felt like it has been 4 months already. sigh...

ok. it's been quite a long while since i did a post on my blog. and the excuse i give to my friends is that i'm more into microbloging & photo blogging recently. as you can obviously tell from my frequent updates on my facebooks. oh well, guess i should come back and do some traditional blogging. ;)

alright, so what has been up? summer is over and fall is here. but based on the weather, it seems like winter might be coming early. man, now i know why the swedes treasure their summer so much. the amount of heat and sun that they have is so rare. i'm already missing summer. let's talk abit about summer...

the 5 weeks of my summer has been the best 5 weeks ever! it was totally amazing. mainly it was the traveling around europe which was so fun, but ultimately it was having my darling together with me! if you haven't checked out my photos, please do! they are really fantastic. not that i'm a professional photographer, but the subject itself portrays its beauty. you would be more mesmerized if you were there at the places itself.

we started our journey on 15 july where we rendezvoused in rome. darling fly over to rome transiting @ bangkok & london from singapore, while i flew over from stockholm. when her mum knew about that, she kinda freaked out that the 1st trip she's ever done to europe is gng to be alone. :P but all went well. rome was a place where history came to life. the huge statues and architecture, like the colosseum and the roman forum, expounded its grandiose history. and people always say that the pizza and the pasta in italy is different, that they are much nicer. it's true! the charge their pizza by the weight and i LOVE their potato pizza. simple as it may sound, but it tastes great! and not forgetting their gelato, italian ice-cream. yummy... we spent 3.5 days and 3 nights in rome. sufficient time to cover most of the stuff in rome, then we headed to florence.

florence is a small and beautiful city. i was told by my friends that 1 day is enough to cover florence and pisa. and that's how long we stayed there. and really, that's enough. it's a simple, but bustilng place. and like rome, there were statues all over the city and buildings with elaborate designs from the renaissance era. lovely.

next, we headed to venice by train. going through terrains, mountains and tunnel. it was a rather serene, reflective and peaceful journey. upon reaching venice, it was love at first sight in that beautiful place. it's the only pedestrian city in the world with no vehicles on the island expect for boats. really amazing. we spent 3 days there exploring the place and visiting the neighbouring islands. it was a good time spent there, sufficient to cover all that we wanted to. we even managed to be part of a festival which had a massive firework display that lasted 45mins! those kind you would see during chinese new year, but MORE elaborate and fanciful. extremely impressive. we couldn't have been there at a better time.

after which, we flew to london to meet up with my family and we spent 5 days there. having gone there before, i was their official tour guide and brought them around. then we took an train which ran under the english channel to paris. i was actually hoping to have a nice view underwater. but it was just pitch black. :(

paris is beautiful place. my only gripe is the people. they have such bad attitude towards people who aren't well-versed in french. there were 2 incidents at 2 different restaurants where they were irritated and served so unwillingly just because we couldn't converse with them in french, so snobbish! apart from that, the rest of the trip was really pleasant.

after that, we flew back to stockholm and i brought my family around town.

the next day after my family left for singapore, darling and i flew off to berlin. we spent a night there and then we flew to athens. athens is really over-rated. i'm glad that i heeded ginnelle's advice and stayed only a day there and spent more time at the islands instead. the only thing that's impressive is the acropolis. and i really love the greek language, they just look so cool! ;)

and finally we reached our finally destination of our summer trip. somehow our entire itinerary seem to fit in so well. the places we went slowly built up, with each new place bringing greater fascination and insights. and to top it all, we ended with SANTORINI. if i had to describe santorini in a sentence, it would be "a heaven on earth." just these four words would do. my friends told me it was beautiful and i saw the photos, but all those still couldn't prepare me for what i was about to expect. it is really beautiful beyond description. the place was amazing, the people were down to earth and friendly, the food is good and i was there with my darling. WHAT MORE COULD I HAVE ASKED FOR? oh man... i literally left my heart there as i took the ferry back. that was my first trip to greece but that would definitely not by my last!

if you haven't seen my photos yet, my brethren i beseech you to go take a look. santorini is such a beautiful place. i'm missing it as i type. i had such a time of my life with my dearest darling there. sigh. i WILL definitely visit the other islands in greece with my darling again. i sompa!

Trevlig Sommar!

Ok. it's been awhile since i blogged and give an update on what's been going on. And i guess now is a good time as i'll be leaving for my europe summer trip tomorrow morning. and i'll be meeting my princess in rome! woohoo! ;)

so what's been up the last few months? well, for one, i turned a year older. argh.. yes i'm getting old. sigh... well some things are just inevitable in life. i really thank God for the love showered from my friends, family and of course my darling! and on that day, i was busy responding to all the emails, msn, wall post... etc. as you can see below...

really appreciate those who remembered, but for those who supposed to, but didn't... MAY YOU REPENT!!!

but i specially wana thank my zone leaders and Pastor for your love! and of course to the don and again my darling for helping with the vid! loved it totally! ;)

on top of it all, i got a prezzie and a card from my darling that's flown all the way from sg which i really wasn't expecting!! got this uber cool ring, which came with an uber cool stylo box from this brand BLiNG. as far as i know they have a shop in vivocity and they've got really nice rings there. and getting me big nice and heavy stylo rings can hardly go wrong. thanx dear! love u! *muacks* ;)

ok what else has been up? recently, the last trip i made was not around europe, but in sweden itself. it was a camping trip to the archipelegos! faz, seng and me went to utö over one of the weekends. it's really a nice place to camp, chill and even make new friends while camping. during the nite, it was really cold and quite uncomfortable to sleep, so i was sitting by the sea enjoying the scenery when a couple came to join me and offered me some cider while we chatted. swedish are really nice and friendly people. and thanx to the cider, it kinda helped me to go back to sleep. now i know why my dad drinks a can of tiger every night before he sleeps. ;)

check out my page for the pics...

apart from work and catching almost every other euro cup match, that's about what's been happening. but one of the main highlights of this year would be my summer vacation! how much better can it get to have a summer vacation every year! if only it was like this in singapore! i'm not just talking about school holidays, but summer vacation for the working adults as well. it's totally amazing.

ok so what's going to happen this summer? i'm basically going to 5 countries, Italy, UK, France, Germany and Greece. Greece baby! honestly, i really never imagined myself going on such a lengthy europe tour. at least not so soon in my life. to start of, it's never really been a culture among the people i associate it to travel so extensively. so i really thank God for such an opportunity! ;)

and the best part of it, i'll be traveling together with my princess!! my parents, sister and my cousin will be flying over to visit me and travel around europe as well. they'll be joining us from London - Stockholm. so my darling will be coming earlier and leaving later than them. actually as i type right now, my darling is on her flight over already! so i'll be seeing her real soon. ;)

Here's my itinerary for the next few weeks:

July
15 - 17: Rome
18: Florence & Pisa
19-20: Venice
21-24: London
25-30: Paris

Aug:
31-3: Stockholm
5: Berlin
6: Athens
7-10: Santorini
11: Athens
12: Berlin

i'll be posting updates on plurk, twitter, jaiku and facebook every now and then when i do get internet access. and when i link up with my parents in London, i'll try to upload the pictures if there's internet and if it's fast enough. my flight is at 7am and i'll have to take the 4am bus to the airport which is abt a 90min ride away.

so have a great summer! Trevlig Sommar as they would say in swedish.

Singtel to sell unlocked iPhone 3G in Singapore?

So far, all iPhones sold have been tied to a telecom network. As such, all buyers of the iPhones theoretically have to use the sim card of a specific telecom network in order to utilize the phone.

But with the release of the new iPhone 3G all over the world, this form of sales will possibly not take place in all the countries being sold in. And one of the exception is Singapore. Thanks to Infocomm Development Authority of Singapore (IDA), sales of sim locked phones are not allowed so as to allow consumers to freely switch between any operator. This has been further enforced recently by the review of the Mobile Number Portability policy. On 13 June 2008, Singapore has implemented the Full Mobile Number Portability policy that allows consumers to switch between different telecom networks and yet retain their mobile numbers, rather than just forwarding the calls from their old number.

As such, we should be expecting to buy the iPhone unlocked in Singapore. But the question is at what price? Although we know from Steve Job's WWDC 08 Keynote that the iPhone 3G will be sold at a max price of USD $199 (8 GB) all over the world, that does not stop Singtel from only selling the iPhone with a mobile plan. In other words, regardless of whether you use the Singtel mobile plan on the phone or not, you would still have to buy the phone and the mobile plan as a package. Since they are the current exclusive carrier of the iPhone, and they is no way to sim lock the phone to their network, selling the phone together with their mobile plan seems like the logical way for them to benefit from the exclusivity.

So the new iPhone 3G may be cheap, relatively speaking, but be prepared to fork out for the biggest mobile plan Singtel has to offer. Hopefully that's not case, but since you can't get it from Starhub or M1 at the moment, the ball is all in Singtel's court right now.

I've already made a reservation for the iPhone on the Singtel website, so let's wait and see what Singtel has to offer.

Related links:

• Apple WWDC 2008 Keynote Address
• Singtel iPhone 3G reservation
  
• IDA: Singapore To Enjoy Full Mobile Number Portability From 13 June
  
• IDA: TAS Fines M1 For Unauthorised Frequency Transmission And Issues Warning Over Sale Of SIM-Locked Cellular Phones
  

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Berlin Trip

right now, berlin is in the top of my favourite list of cities i've visited in Europe! it's an amazing place! it totally exceeded my expectation of the place. so why do i like it so much? firstly, i was expecting berlin to be quite a "run-down" place with old buildings and architecture. a place filled with historical buildings and landmark. with they do have, AND MORE! it was a place rich with history, and yet being modern at the same time. i guess it was also because i thought it wouldn't be as fun anymore as my 2 friends couldn't come at the last minute, leaving me to go on my own. but then i managed to make some friends there on the 1st day and had a great time traveling around with them! it's really exciting to travel alone, the feeling of being alone in a foreign land and the possibility of getting lost kinda gives me kick! heh.. sound a bit weird rite? or rather, the feeling of being able to navigate, find your way around, get things going, meeting new cultures and new people makes me excited! ya.. that sounds more right.. ;) and that's exactly what happened in berlin! and to add that berlin is such an awesome place, made it a fantastic trip for me!

the exciting journey started in stockholm when i had to find my way to the bus to bring me to the airport. the bus journey was 1.5 hours long and if i missed it, i would miss my flight unless i took a cab which i predict would set me back about 700 sek? (abt 166 sgd) and i was catching the 4.30am bus that was in this huge bus depot that was closed. and so i was frantically trying to find the way directly to the bus. of which i made it JUST in time before the bus left...

so i caught my flight to frankfurt, took a 2hr bus ride to the city, spent 1.5 hrs there and then take another 2hr bus ride back to the airport to catch my flight to berlin. i could have stayed at the airport and sleep as i didn't sleep the night before, but i'm the kind of person who would rather pay 14 euros for the 1.5hrs in the city to explore, than spend 7 hours in the small budget airport. and for my bus back to the airport, i almost missed it... another close shave there...

and so i made it safely to berlin in time and found my way to the generator hostel. though i had booked for the cheapest, the 14 person dorm, they were full and i was transfered to the 8 person one with no extra charge. sweet!

the next day, i had breakfast with my hong kong bunk mate. after that he went to postdam, but i was more interested in checking out berlin 1st, so we went our separate ways. i went on the sandemans free walking tour. it was an awesome tour! the guide was really good, giving us lots of history and details about the places he brought us too. he did the whole walking tour in the form of a story and it was really captivating. during the tour, i got to know quite a few people but obviously you can't be good friends with everyone right? and there was this nice korean girl who was travelling alone as well and we clicked quite well as the rest of the people had their own cliques. so we went to check out more places when the tour ended as she arrived on the same day as i did, she was as noob as me in berlin too. ;)

the next day, the both of us decided to go for the sachsenhausen concentration camp memorial tour. of which, my hongkong friend came along as well. and at the start of the camp, we got to know this other korean guy who was alone on the tour too as his canadian friend was sick and stayed back in the hostel. so here we are, four individual asian. we came all came alone, but we were definitely not lonely. we had quite a fun time hanging out together. the concentration camp tour was a mind-blowing experience. it was extremely thought provoking and even disturbing at some instances. all thanx again to the guide's great knowledge and depiction of the happenings in the camp. but one of the other kind of disturbing situation i encountered was when i approached this singaporean looking girl that i have been observing for a while (not in that sense, but rather, observing to confirm my speculation), and she was kinda hostile towards me. she only gave short answers, mostly one word, and had the "ok you're singaporean too.. and so..?" attitude. she didn't do her junior college or university in singapore. so i guess she didn't like and probably not even proud of singapore. judging from her attitude, i guess she's not too excited about being associated to singapore or even a singaporean. so i drifted away from her and went back to join my friendly friends instead. after the tour, we headed back to the city and checked out our last stop, the topography of terror at the berlin wall before parting.

though the time all of us spent together was a mere 2 days, but somehow we all clicked really well and there was some form bond formed. we all felt kinda sad that we had to part, it was a funny feeling. it was interesting that a 2 day friendship could invoke such an emotion in a person. what more a married couple of decades of years. no wonder they say that when the spouse of a long time married couple dies, the other party would depart shortly. i can imagine how much pain that would be.

and so that was my berlin trip. it was a historically filled city with a modern touch to it. a fantastic city with fantastic friendships made, a recipe for a memorable getaway!

i'm so looking forward to travel together with my beloved princess in july, visiting all the lovely places in europe. that would top it all! ;)

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Beautiful Europe

currently it's spring time in stockholm and it's absolutely lovely! the sun's out more, the flowers are blossoming, tons of people sun bathing in every park at every square feet of it and the weather is almost perfect, warm enough to ditch your jackets and yet cool enough to not need aircon.

europe is an extremely lovely place to be in. it's very different from asia in almost every aspect. for example, the cost of living here is much higher than singapore. with the price of 1 big mac meal here, i could buy 2 in singapore. a normal lunch meal out on the streets would cost me about $17, and that's considered cheap. the culture and pace of life here is much slower and more flexible. people are not so rigid and uptight about things and people tend things slow and easy. like work for example, it's not a big deal if you're late for work or if you have to leave early to pick up your child or if you just have something on. at the end of the day, when work gets done, then all is well. over here, the relationships between people are more flat rather than hierarchical. the swedish dislike the use of titles and everyone would address each other by their firstname. whether you're the boss or employee, professor or student, everyone would be calling each other like how most of us in singapore would call our friends, just by their names. and one of the most amazing thing about europe is it's history and architecture. the intricate designs of the historical buildings, medieval castles, beautiful sceneries and the variety of it all over europe is absolutely breathtaking. every country, state and city is so distinct, almost like moving from one era to another era, and yet so accessible with such affordable cost. you can actually get flight tickets from stockholm to london for $25 SGD (including taxes). it's amazing! i'm gng to germany next weekend and my flight from stockholm to frankfurt only costs me $27 SGD (including taxes and credit card payment charges). so if any of you guys are coming to europe anytime this year, do let me know and maybe we can meet up in some nice city and have some real coffee with a postcard perfect backdrop. ;)

right now, i'm kinda busy with work, school reports to write, living the swedish life and traveling around europe, thus my infrequent blog entries. but i'm more disciplined and enthusiastic in capturing photos and uploading them as often as i take them. and i'm currently more into microblogging, as it's more convenient, more updated and less time consuming. microblogging is an alternative form of blogging, where it's shorter, as the name explicitly suggests. one example which most could identify with is the status update feed on facebook. but i actually do my microblogging on jaiku & twitter via my gtalk (aka google talk aka the chat function in gmail), which then automatically updates my facebook status update. and if you're wondering, yes i'm a computer science student... ;) you can also find my microblogs on my site.

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Vienna & Bratislava Trip

over labour day weekend, i made a trip to Vienna via Bratislava. it was good and i spent about $600 SGD for the 4 days inclusive of flights and lodging. not too bad i guess. ;) for our first night, we were staying at Wombat Hostel Vienna - The Base. it is a very nice and affordable hostel. the staff were very friendly, interior very cozily decorated and they had nice people staying there as well. if we had a choice, we would want to stay there the next night as well, but while we were there, we got to know 2 other friendly girls, one from montreal and the other from australia. we were chating over the champions league game that was showing, liverpool & barcelona, and ended up competiting who knew the world map better by drawing it out. and on the wall, there was this "Hall Of Fame" where all those who forgot to retreive back their ID cards were displayed. and if you click on the picture to view the higher resolution one, you can see a singapore's driving license. well, someone's paying $50 to make a new one... :P

while we were travelling around the city, i was amazed at how they ran their transport system. there weren't any barriers for the entry into the train stations except a few blue punch slot for you to punch your tickets if you just bought your tickets. you could buy daily or seasonal tickets, punch it the first time, and just walk in subsequently without tapping or punching your card. same for buses, of which you could enter or alight at any of the doors. there are conductors who do random checks though, but i didn't meet any while i was there. and as a law-abiding citizen, i faithfully bought my tickets. ;)

the next day we went about the city area, checking out the museums and the architecture. it's a lovely place and everything there seems so old and well preserved. it's like going back to another time frame. but not only are the buildings there old, there people there seem old too and i hardly see any local youths around.
it's the rise of the aging population. and in the evening, fazli suggested that we should catch an orchestra since we're here. and i couldn't agree more! coming from a classical background, orchestras and symphonies have always been one of my favourite activites to attend. and so we bought ourselves a ticket to catch the orchestra at the schonbrunn palace. and they are REALLY good. magnificient! and here's the friendly guy who sold us the tickets which we managed to get 1 euro off each after some bargaining.

during that night, we stayed at Airo Tower Hotel. we had a bad experience staying at that hotel.

although it was located quite far away from the city, having to take the train to the end of the line, then switching to a tram and travel to the end of the line again, it was rather near the tram station (3min walk).

as we arrived there in the night, we were told that 1 of the 2 rooms which we have booked and fully paid for, have been transferred to a nearby hotel instead as they ran out of rooms for the night. despite them making arrangements to call for a cab and paying for the trip to and fro, we found it extremely unprofessional as we have already made the full payments for the rooms. the staff behind the counter wasn't emphatic about our situation and even retorted that we could choose to sleep on the streets if we're still unhappy when all the necessary arrangements have been made. and after fazli & indra went over to the nearby hotel, they only gave them 1 room with 1 bed when there were 2 of them and the reception was closed there. they had to call us and we in turn called up our reception to get another room for them there. though the rude staff apologized for his bad attitude, but it was an unpleasant experience staying there. the staff at the souvenir store wasn't too friendly either. he was unhappy that we touched the display glass infront of his shop that left A (ONE) fingerprint mark on it and told us not to do that. this is one crappy hotel and i had to pay 17 euros more as compared to wombat. i'll take wombat anytime man!

the next day, we went to check out the graves of the famous composers, some sightseeing and then we headed off to bratislava via a ferry down the danube river.

bratislava was a small city, nothing really much to see. but the trip to devin castle was extremely breath taking. it was only in the last 2 hours that we learnt about the castle from the brochures and tourist stall owners that decided to rush there to check it out, despite it required a 30min bus journey there. upon arriving, we literally ran up the castle as we were really tight on time, but the trip there was totally worth it. it is situation out of the city on a hill, overlooking the village below on 1 side and danube & morava river on the other (which seperates slovakia & austria). an absolutely lovely view!

after that, we had to rush to the airport to catch out flight back to stockholm. and that was my vienna & bratislava trip. check more photos on my facebook or multiply.

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Dreamfactory @ Superband

Attention everyone in the world! Dreamfactory's in Superband, so do check us out... and show your love and support @ jaiku or facebook or twitter or join the fan club @ ning...

more details on the official mediacorp site...

ROCK ON GUYS! ;)

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