Happy new year~

Hello guys, in order that the next post not be 1 year later in 2008, I shall post something here, anything.

Well it's new year, so wish everyone who still reads this blog a happy new year~. And belated merry christmas.

How's everyone doing in Singapore? What did you people do for this xmas and what will you people be doing for the coming new year? Do you guys still meet up? I heard from Wenliang that there haven't really been anything gathering... But this is unusual isn't it?

I'm passing my xmas and new year holiday here in France. Some of you might think that a white christmas will be wonderful, but no matter how nice the scenary is(not that nice anyway) it's still too cold, don't really feel like going anywhere other than staying in my room. And anyway it's not white yet.

Actually there is something more I would like to say in this blog.

I had been thinking for quite sometime, and I felt I should say something about it. Sometimes I wondered why are we still together(we are still together!). Is it simply because we pride ourselves for having friends since primary school? Is it because this is something which we can tell others that "hey, i still keep active contacts with primary school friends"? But even if "showing-off" is the reason, I believe that there is something deeper than that. For if we think that having active contacts with primary school friends is something that we can be proud of, then it must be true deep within us that this is something worthy to us all, worthy the effort and worth keeping. I felt that we are still together because we believed since the time when we were young that friends are not just passer-bys in our lives. We stayed together because subconsciously each of us have some form of mutual trust for the rest that we still keep the same belief. Perhaps this is no longer a belief but a core value. At the root of the value lies the trust between each of us...

I think we should change the title of this blog. 12 years and still strong is a mistake, cos it limit the idea to 12 years. We ought to call it Many many years and still strong!

Post some responses!


=)
Ruilong

Salut tout le monde

Hey all, france is so cold! Even the summer is cold. It seems that this year the summer went wrong, it's suppose to be hot and bright sunshine, but this summer was cloudy and rainy. Anyway summer is over now. It's autumn, less rain but it has become colder.

When I first came to the school, we have something like "orientation camp" which is in fact a 4 days getaway to south france. Nice mediterranean sea, sun, beach. I think you can imagine. hehe.

But when school actually started, the work is really tough. One thing is that language still pose a big problem for me. I have to study physics, maths, programming, applied maths and economics. Evidently, economics is where my weakness falls. I practically don't understand a thing during lecture. I have to go back and read the notes to figure out what's going on. Actually other subjects were difficult too. I had an exam in July and managed to do reasonably well, score is around average among the french.

Not much entertainment here. My school network subscribed to tv broadcast via internet, so I watch some french channels when I want to relax a bit, and also to listen to more french. For my cohort, i'm the only singaporean. There is another singaporean senior, but i usually only see him during lunch. So I usually mix with the chinese prcs of my cohort, especially the 3 others who came with me from NUS.

I went to the Disneyland Paris in july. It turns out that there are 2 parks and tickets are sold according to which park we wish to go. Together with 2 other friends who came from singapore, we went to the the Disneyland Park(the other is called the Walt Disney Studio). For me it's kind of a disappointment, cos most of the rides are children rides(ie small seats and slow movement). It looks magnificent from the outside but the inside wasn't as interesting as it seems. I didn't go to the Walt Disney Studio, so maybe the better stuff are there.

Any of you coming to europe? If interested, tell me, visit me! Anyone getting married? Wait for me to come back! I want to attend the wedding!

How's you guys? I'll check this blog regularly from now on. =)

VIP arrives

woohoo...1st post of the yr...damn im honoured...how honoured?...let me hear it frm u....come on everybody....DAMN honoured...yeah...rem tt....

anihow...sumthing to tink abt for a start...take the new 2 dollar note...flip it over...do u see a little boy raising up his hand...i repeat..its a boy...its super crucial....A BOY....yar...like u noe..raising his hand...wanting to ask the teacher a question...weiming diao jin long guo...chou si le
so if u cant find it...feel free to ask me abt it...it wud be betta in person...alternatively..u can approach yuyuan...she will be glad to help...

im pretty amazed how u all kept the blog a secret for so long...u noe like...until now tt i found out!...i must admit u all r damn goot...how goot?...yeah sae it out loud in front of ur computer...i guess someone tot someone wud inform me...and it just happens that everyone tink like tt someone...haha
on a serious note..i hav been the bitch...hahha..im sorry ppl...i lost all of u...looking at the pics u all taken...im sad im not part of it...u noe this pic with all the guys?...the big five?...haha...yeah...cud hav been six...haha...so no worries...im back now...pls ask me along next time when u all hav sumthing planned...dun wait for tt someone...y dun U be that special one to inform me...hahha...

i hope this post will shock all of u....haha...lets hope someone will tell weihiong or shawn abt this blog..hahha

will U be the special one?

pe'ter

Typhoon Rocks!!!

Hello everyone, and happy birthday to yuyuan as well! I just came back from taipei and as expected, great food and cheap things to buy there. But what's most exciting that i wana share with u guys was the experience I had with the typhoon Haitang. Its been 5 yrs since Taiwan got hit by another typhoon, but i got it on my 5th day (which is the day when im about to leave for home) Actually on my last night(4th day) there, my group of friends were planning to go ktv and sing till late night, till 430am and take our planned transport to the airport for our flight. So we headed out to shop in ximending to tie up some shopping loose ends and stopped by to watch 2 stars holding a mini concert street by street in ximending (Ping Guan and Wilber Pan). But then it started to rain on and off as the typhoon approaches.

Rain started to get heavy as in the late afternoon, so we decided to go back to the hotel to get ready to relax and head out again to taipei's 10 lvl ktv party world. However, the damn typhoon was getting nearer by the min and weather was real bad. News channel frightened us more as reports of the Eastern most taiwan were hit. Furthermore, tour agency did not fax us the details of whether our transport will coming to pick us up at 430am anot....Used hotel phone and could not contact the tour agency, and taiwan's SIA was also not responding. So we decided to scrap our plans and stayed in the hotel and bid our time. Made a mad dash braving the storm to the 7/11 near our hotel and stocked up on cup noodles and drinks, and went back wathcing the news show even more discouraging events(floods, trees drop, poles drop, signboard crushed) At hotel lobby, we met 2 SG couples (same age, one whom was an ex colleage of mine) who coincidentaly, in same hotel, same flight as us and also had same ktv plan cancelled at night. But wats diff was they already checked out in the morning and hotel was full now. So we decided to let them have our room (need to pay hotel some money) but in the end they were too paiseh and decided to rush for the airport as they found one lucky taxi willing to drive them there.

Few hours later of mellowing in our room, we finally received a call from the driver picking us up tmrw. It seems like the travel agency already hired them beforehand, but did not confirm with them and left us in the lurch. So tats y the driver was worried and decided to contact us ourselves (good news). Managed to contact SIA too, and found out they were still flying to our rejoice.

Morning 430am....packup and boarded our pickup van. Driver made a mad dash towards the airport, avoiding lanes which were full of tree branches and stuff. Small van also tended to veer to the sides abit if wind got too strong, but driver was skilled ah peh so no prob^^ We were so grateful we even tipped him NT 400 = S$20 equi (we were already hard on taiwan currency so cant tip too much haha) Reached airport and found out SIA was the only flight taking off, so abit skeptical. Flight suppose to be at 710am takeoff, but it seems like something was wierd as the connecting tunnel to the plan was not even attatchd to it at 650am. Next thing we knew, our flight was delayed as the wind so strong that the door to the luggage cabin could not open. But lucky it was SIA, so the next few events turned out to be blessings in disguise.....

Around 8am, SIA gave us refreshments and further confirmed the situation tat flight was delayed and compensated us by relocating us to hotels to stay till able to fly. That was when we hit the jackpot....we were transported to Taiwan's Hyatt Hotel!! Omg, compared to my old 3 room hotel, that 5 room Hyatt Hotel was soooo big and grand!! (It beats most of the 5 star hotels i've stayed elsewhere last time) Furthermore, They even treated us to free lunch buffet and provided free 5 mins overseas call for each person. So happy, my friends and I were all cheering for the typhoon for the 1st time (kinda bad but haha....) Went to have a good soak in the tub and slept thru the whole waiting time (1pm to 6pm). We were told beforehand to assemble at 620pm at lobby, so we did and boarded coach back to airport(Could see some of the destruction caused by typhoon on taipei's streets) Proceeded to take the 810 flight back to Singapore and reached changi at 1230 midnight. Had to say that that was one hell of a trip.....we were even more delighted to find out that we could claim 100 bucks from the travel insurance due to flight delay hehe....
Thanks for reading my long rantingm but to sum it up, Taipei was a very nice place which we will fit in perfectly. Their MRT was easy enough to navigate. Langguage wise was a piece cake as they dnt have any irritating slangs, and we can also understand the Hokkien which they spoke. (Many locals were puzzled and surprised when they heard me speaking a mix of hokkein, chinese as well as english. Many wondering where we came from or mistook us as locals) So if u guys want a place to shop and eat, Taipei will serve u well with its wide range of cheap to exp stuff to eat and buy (To ladies, Wu Fen Pu has thousands of queenstown like shops and 80% of them sells female apparels at a crazily cheap price) .

I forgot to add in my name haha....Kian here....

Birthday AgAIN!!

Hi people, saw Yiying's post and tot I'll follow up on it. Hee... Today is Yuyuan's 21st! Happy birthday!! may You realise your Tai tAi dreams...Pity you're still overseas, perhaps we could meet up to celebrate for the July babies? Happy Belated birthdaY WeijIan! May you realise your singing dreams!! Hmmnn... anybody knows if Pei'an and Weixiong knows about this blog? happy Birthday also!! wow, now then realise so many july babies...

Mr Chan, how was the concert? Sorry, couldnt make it, but your post sounds interesting anyway.. hee.. Do fill us in on the participation , and in the case that there are no participants (unfortunately), do fill us in on what the concert was about!

Wenliang, if u are free, do enable the tagboard please??? I am lazy to log in whenever I feel like posting. hee..

luv,
shuyun