London Trip

this is my 1st major trip which i planned and researched thoroughly for. though i didn't get to go to all the places that i wanted to go, but i must still admit that it was a success! london is such a lovely place and i'm really glad everything fell into place when we were there. actually through my whole life, even with my acceptance into the NOC programme (which i am currently on right now), it has been so blessed by God. i can only attribute all the wonderful blessings & so-called "luck" to God. my life has been one awesome journey!

ok so back to my london trip. it was a 4 day trip starting with our flight on wed night (19 march) to our flight back on mon morning dawn. as our flight was on wed night, we brought everything with us to work and left from there after work. we had to take a bus from central stockholm to this ulu budget airport which was abt 1.5 hrs away, and then catch a 2hr plus flight to another ulu airport in london and then catch another 1.5hr bus ride from that airport to london central. that's the trouble we have to go through to get a budget flight. from there we could walk to juliet's place. she's one of our seniors in NOC who kindly opened up her aparptment to house us for our holiday. and she was really nice to make supper for us. ginseng soup, some chicken with gravy and long beans. thanx juliet! but we weren't free loaders, we bought her a nice bright pink jacket from h&m as a gift for her. ;) that was day 0.

(we're in london baby...)

the next morning we went to visit the places nearest to her place like westminster abbey, house of parliament and london eye. but we didn't go for the london eye as it was super ex, £17. but in the end we also spent quite alot on lunch by having a £9.45 fish and chips. we didn't know what the market rate was and i guess it was more expensive as we had it near all the tourist attraction places... oh well...

(westminster bridge)

after that we headed to leicester sq to get tix for our musical. we were thinking of either les miserables or wicked. but there weren't cheap ones for that nite so we bought les miserables for tmr nite instead. on the way there, we passed by covent garden and stopped to catch some buskers...

then we headed to oxford street for shopping and then we had turkish food for dinner. yummy... on the way back, we met some ppl having a party in the subway...

and that was day 1.

(big ben..)

on friday morning, we visited st paul's cathedral which had a good friday service going on. and thus we unable to take any photos of the beautiful interior. so we moved on to the tower of london, which was a castle fortress, extremely awesome. though it was rather costly @ £14, but it was worth it. then again, what's not ex in london? after that we headed for the tower bridge, which was so much more impressive than the "famous" london bridge which we often sing about.

(london bridge)

(tower bridge)

then we moved on to the highlight of the night, to catch les miserables. it's an awesome musical! and i'm currently addicted to the soundtrack, listening to it every other day! although the ending didn't really climax as i wished it could have, it was still a fantastic musical with many laughs and touching moments. that was day 2.

(les miserables)

the next morning, we had traditional english breakfast and a pub. and then terence, another NOC alumni, joined us for that day. our 1st stop was buckingham palace, to check out the change of guards. and boy the whole place was packed! it's like 100 times more packed than what you would see at the istana on a sunday for the change of guards.

then we headed to trafagular square and then to the national art gallery. but while we were that we caught an interesting sight..

in the gallery, the paintings were very intricately painted and i was totally captivated by them while listening to it's commentry via the headset. if i had the time, i could almost spend the whole morning there, going through all the paintings. unfortunately, that's something we don't really have, so we moved on and had english high tea. after which we headed to another museum. nothing much there. then we had chinese dinner in chinatown. after which we headed for a salsa club. that was another interesting stop. and the ppl there were good at salsa! it was like in the movie dirty dancing: havana nights. a nice show btw, gota catch it. i think we were the only ppl on the dance floor who couldn't dance salsa, except for terence, but had had fun nonetheless. that was day 3.

it's easter sunday. and how could we not be in church on easter sunday? and we made our way down to hillsong london. it was in a theatre, which was really awesome, but it was like a normal service. and i kinda missed watching our dramas during easter. it's just different.

(hillsong london)

after that, we headed for The Comedy Pub to catch the big match, man u vs liverpool! it was an extremely exciting match. and seng wee's entire day was ruined by that match. but it totally made mine.. hah... after that clash, we headed down to camden lock market. it was the bugis village of london. and there was an aldo factory-outlet / old-season outlet and everything was 50% off! we, or maybe just me, went crazy!! i bought 2 pair of white shoes, of which my mum would always tell me, DON'T BUY WHITE SHOES! heh.. then we had dinner there and had a great time talking about everything under the sun. really learnt alot about work, passion and life in general from juliet and terence, extremely insightful. at night, juliet's neighbour invited us over to his place for some mini party. and from there, we headed to the airport to catch our flight back to stockholm.

so that was my london trip in 1 blog. ;)

more pics & vids here...

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Romme Snow Boarding Trip

Right now, snow boarding is my latest coveted sports! it over takes wake boarding.. but personally i would prefer snow boarding over wake boarding, it's so much more exciting! in snow boarding, you are person in total control in terms of speed and direction. after yesterday, i could now comprehend why people would go for annual ski trips, even if they have to fly hours across continents to do it.. it's just so fun!

Romme Alpin is a 2hr 45min drive, north west of stockholm. it was a peaceful ride with wonderful sceneries of huge lakes and large plains of the country side. and i was watching The Godfather which they were showing on the bus. Though we left at 7am and i barely got any rest the past few days, but i was really captivated by that show about the italian mafia family.

When we reached Romme, it was like the feeling of finally achieving it in life! I just stood at the bottom of the snow slope and beheld it in awe and reverence. it's an amazing sight..

after getting my snow board, i got changed up immediately and made my way up to the top. we had another school mate who have been snow boarding since young to give us some crash course lessons, figuratively and literally speaking. it was tough initially, but it's those kind of sports where you have to fall to learn. the question is more of how bad is your fall.. and i injured every joint in my body there was and flipped in all kinds of directions possible. i had alot of falls on my wrist initially, got bruises on my knees and almost felt my shoulder dislocated on one occasion when i had a flip in the air. but my worst one was when i flew and landed on my back, on my tail bone! that one hurt real bad! *ouch*

despite all that, it was all worth it. the thrill and excitement of snow boarding was just exhilarating. by the time i went for my last run, i could make it down the beginner slope with just a record of 3 falls. ;)

the combination of office moving on sat, with the carrying of the all the tables, chairs, equipments and what not, plus all the falls during snow boarding, my entire body is aching today man.. but like what i say, it's all worth it! snow boarding rocks! ;)

more photos and videos

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Life in Sweden

These few days have been kinda busy for me. like what's new right? ;)

Been busy working everyday, doing development work and debugging, extremely fruitful and fulfilling i would say. and i just love my new LCD monitor and Apple Keyboard.. though they didn't have the international keyboard, but the swedish one worked real fine for me.. so now i've got 3 monitor screens, 2 for my Apple MacBook and 1 for the Windows OS. 

And recently during work, i had a great opportunity to meet up with the ceo and developer of our partner company to discuss certain collaboration stuffs. I really thank God for the favor of men. Initially, it was supposed to be my boss and i, but he called me up in the morning saying that he wasn't well. So i was expecting the meeting to be cancelled, but who would have thought that he would ask me to go on my own, an intern! And thank God it went really well.. looking forward to an exciting time ahead! ;)

Ok, so apart from work. What's been happening?

Recently, i started some new stuffs other than pasta. but pasta is still my regular dish... xP But apart from that i made Chicken Ham & Cheese Sandwich with Fries, Meatballs & Potato Salad. Cool right? It was nice.. really. 

And then recently, Seng Seng and I combined forces to make Sweet & Sour Pork aka ku lu yok. POWER right?? We were really impressed with ourselves! Though it took us almost 2 hrs to make it, but it was a success and proved to be worth it... almost... if not for the metallic bitter taste. Still... it was good! ;)

In the upcoming weeks, i'll be doing a bit of travelling. In the coming sun, i'll be gng snow boarding. Then during easter weekend, i'll be in london. Then in one weekend in april, i'll be on a cruise to Tallinn. And in july, i'll be touring a few countries in europe! exciting days ahead! ;)

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Happy Swedish Chinese New Year!

ok. this post is kinda late, but chinese new year celebrations last a month anyway. so here it goes.. ;)

this is my first time celebrating chinese new year away from home. and i sure do miss all the usual chinese new year festivities.

like all my grandma's home made cny goodies. 9 layered cake, the white biscuit that melts in your mouth, pineapple tarts, popiah, logan fungus soup and my favourite kueh lapis! yummy! thanks to my mum, i brought over a box of pineapple tarts and kueh lapis which she bought from bengawan solo. but more importantly, i missed hanging out with my family and friends over the cny to catch movies, fireworks, chill out, visitation, poker, blackjack & mahjong!! what's cny without blackjack and mahjong man? xP

so how was cny over here in sweden you may ask? as some of you might have checked out my photos and videos, we had our own celebration here too. and it was almost as happening as it should be. i had 3 different cny celebrations here with 3 different groups of people. almost like gng for visitations man.. heh.. not bad ah.. just here for 3 weeks and can do visitations liao.. ;)

well, we had the first celebration with the nus peeps on fri night. the ncst5. ncst6 and the last minute invite of the sep people came together to have a pot luck reunion dinner, abt 20 of us. we had tons of variety of food & i made bak kut teh! power right? and it was well received too! all thanx to my darling for buying it for me. too bad no yu char kueh. 

(Above is just half of what we've got..)

(that's me cooking my bak kut teh!)

(about done..)

after all the food, we bought our own box of fireworks! the last time i played with fireworks was about 15 years ago when it was still legal to play them in singapore. but that was just small sticks of it, this was abt 90 seconds worth if it at one go!

(explosives...)

(preparing the fireworks...)

And here's my video of the fireworks...

after which, we had 3 insane fellas who decided to take a dip in the lake, IN WINTER! And the temperature was a good 1 degree, plus minus 5... i guess it was the chinese new year blues...

(the 3 musketeers..)

(us @ the beach...)

An of course, what is chinese new year without ban luck?!?! 

(huat ah...)

then the next day, some of us were invited over to an ex-singaporean's couple's place for cny brunch. on our 1st weekend, all the christians in our group went for service at Immanuel International and there we met Peter & Joanna, who migrated to Sweden. Joanna made all the pastries specially for us, and it was really lovely. We had a great time there eating and chatting.

(the "family" photo...)

(the noc peeps..)

then on the following day, we were invited over to Tom & Sabrina's place to have dumplings. They were the couple who travelled with us to Uppsala to visit Word of Life. We went for service @ New Life Stockholm earlier in the day, then shopping @ T-Centralen and then headed back to their place to start making dumplings. It was 1st time making it and also 1 of my 1st few times eating it. They were really nice to allow me to make special meat dumplings. So i got to enjoy my dumplings.. yummy. 

So overall, it was an eventful chinese new year here in Sweden. Happy CNY peeps! ;)

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Uppsala Sunday

on sun, we went down to uppsala to visit Word of Life and explore the city. we actually had to meet at the bus stop at 7.25am to catch the 7.29am bus and then catch the 8.11am train to uppsala... it was an early day for a sunday!

at the train station, samuel brought 2 chinese couple that he met at church that had intention to visit uppsala too. and they were taking the same timing train as us. they actually had no idea what time or where is the church, but decided to just head over and ask around. man now that's what i call faith! but they were really glad that they met Samuel and learn that he was gng too. so we all went together, from 4 of us to 6.

the morning sun from our cabin on the train... a 40 min ride..

then when we reach uppsala, we had to catch a bus to the church, so we asked around and met another 3 ppl who were gng there and they were from stockholm. they knew the way, so we made our way to the church together. so now there are 9 of us. hah.. it was just so interesting, that we picked up ppl along the way to church..

that's tom, Samuel's friend, and me before the service started..

service was in swedish but we had the translation headset and service was awesome! the 1st thing the people asked after knowing that we're from singapore was, "Are you from Kong Hee's Church???". i was like yes yes. and they were all so excited. everyone there was really nice, friendly and warm.

but it sure wasn't cheap traveling to and around uppsala. the cost of the bus ride around the city is 30kr, which is abt $7 SGD!! $7 for a 70cents bus ride in sg! so our bus ride cost almost as much as our train ride, 39kr.

after that we met some other asian ppl in the church who eventually brought us around the city. one of which was this guy from chc sarawak by Pst George Ong. he is studying in the bible sch in uppsala sponsored by chc. ;)

that's us having lunch at a kebab eating place..

while visiting, we had a snow war! not just a snow fight, but a war! it was really fun, esp throwing snow balls at people! heh..

after that we visited one of the cathedral and i made a prayer for darling and my family with this prayer candle thingy.. ;)

they have quite a few castles too.. unfortunately they were closed. i'll be back there again in the summer to check them out..

meanwhile, you can check out more of the photos... ;)

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My Very 1st Self Cooked Dinner!

after having been here for 2 weeks, i kinda felt that i was mentally prepared to start cooking. "you mean you haven't started cooking yet?" yeah i haven't... xP so i decided to make my own meal! ;)

and on monday, i made my very own dinner for the 1st time in my life! not counting the millions of packets of instant noodles i always make.

and what was my dinner? a recipe from my mama to make dry pasta, of which i just improvised and dump whatever i could find in the kitchen. xP

Main course:
Fried Hotdog Pasta in Soy Sauce.

Desert:
Green Apple

Drinks:
Free flow orange juice

Review:
- Pasta was kinda hard, oily and sweet
- Hotdogs weren't really cooked
- Apple was crunchy and sour
- Orange juice was nice

i guess the nicer part of my dinner was the apple and orange juice i bought... heh... well at least my food was edible and it had taste. (read taste of salt and soy sauce)

man i was so lost in the kitchen. didn't know what utensils to use, how much pasta to put and how long to fry the garlic and hot dog for. it was the kind of feeling where you woke up in the middle of the jungle and had no handphone or money on you. ok maybe not that extreme, but somewhere along that line...

my mum just said, fry the garlic with oil. throw in some meat and then fry the pasta with it. put some spices and chicken stock if you have.

but i didn't have meat or spices or chicken stock. so i replaced it with what i had, hotdog, salt and soy sauce. it tasted funny, but it was a good start. xP

the next day, i tried doing that at work for lunch too. but somehow it turned out worse, it tasted kinda bland. =\

so i decided to try again for dinner. but i was kinda lazy to fry the stuffs, so i used a pre-made sauce from the bottle. it looks kinda gross, but it tasted better than my partially cooked hot dog the previous night. ;)

on wed, i didn't cook as i was out with my friends to check out a museum. of which i'll get to that in another entry.

so today i decide to cook again! and guess what i cooked for dinner? PASTA! again... must practice. practice makes perfect. and along the way, i'll just have to endure my not so yummy results..

but today wasn't too bad either, i made carbonara pasta. cool rite? but the sauce was from a pack. heh.. xP eh but still had to mix it with milk and cook it leh.. and i think today's dinner was the best of the 3.

i got an idea for my next meal already. CHEESE PASTA! heh...

tomorrow my corridor's having dinner together. we're kinda like having pot-luck. each person cooking something and we'll all sit down and share our food. i'm still thinking what should i cook tmr. either curry chicken, bak kut teh or lemon chicken.. fierce right? cos i've got the sauce packets. ;) or maybe just my carbonara pasta... i'm still thinking.. we'll see.. ;)

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Snow in Sweden!

This week in stockholm was great. it snowed on tuesday. it was lovely.. and the snow really had the snow flakes shaped that you all always see.. it's really amazing!

i took this on my way to work. i'll have to walk through a mini forest..

yes and that's julia, my school mate in the same company as me. and know wat? on our way to the tunnelbana (mrt), we met some rabbits! cool rite?

and this is the pier leading to our office... btw my office is on a boat.. ;)

there are a few boats here.. and some of them are residential areas...

here's my office.. and on the 1st day, there were swans swimming beside me.. cool rite?

been busy at work, but the environment's really good and relaxing with such and awesome view! apart from work, i'm been doign lotsa shopping and sight seeing during the weekends.. esp to the different isalnds..

on the bridge to a connecting island...

that's one of the museums on the island. it cost abt SGD $15 to enter. but it's free on wed nite, so we're gng there then instead..

then we saw lots of duckies in the water too.. i wonder how they survive the cold water man...

and that's us.. leaving the island..

that's my 1st attempt to cook in my life. and guess what was my 1st dish? thai green curry! hah.. ambitous right? well they say we've gota aim for the stars... at worst kena swedish purple curry only mah.. heh.. ;) and it was a success and loved by many, except for one. all thanx to accurate instructions behind the curry paste. so it was an encouragement for me to start cooking!

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