Round-the-Island Cycling Trip 23/08/2006
Gerald was telling me that he couldn't find this Round-the-Island Cycling post... and I thought I really should transfer it out of my Europe blog. So here it comes...
Round-the-Island Cycling Trip: 23/08/2006This is something that I have thought of doing but I have never had the determination to do. When Gerald told me that he would be organising a round-the-island trip before we leave, I told him that I will be joining him without much thought: since he has done it quite a few times before, and he already had the route planned out, all I have to do is just follow! :)
There were only 3 of us: Gerald, Ching Hua and me (after the experience in Changi East this is expected..! And with Shireen keep telling me that we are 'crazy' or 'insane' I don't think others would have any different opinion...). Originally Gerald wanted to start at 1530 but, as he assembled a new bike (which cost like ~7k in total?!!), Ching Hua could use his old one so he pushed it forward to ~10am. He tried calling me when I was still looking for textbooks in HK and I eventually got the information when I was waiting for my baggage at 12am in Changi Airport.
Gerald and Ching Hua started off from Gerald's place, which is in Tampines. They were supposed to set off at around 10, cycle up to Changi Village, down Changi Coast Road and meet me at East Coast at around 11. When I called them at 10 they were already at TPJC heading towards Changi Village, so I decided to go up Changi Coast Road to meet them as they come down. On the way, I took 1 picture of Changi Airport and 1 picture of a plane taking off (taking any more will make me look like a terrorist, and I don't want to run into trouble now..).
I met both of them at Changi Ferry Terminal (nope, not the sad SAF FT but the happy one bringing people to Desaru) after Ching Hua had his second breakfast at Changi Village and we went down the way I came. Gerald led us to this slip road that connects Tanah Merah Flyover to East Coast Park Service Road which I never knew existed. New knowledge indeed...
We went through East Coast on the Service Road instead of the cycling track; it seems shorter on the road. We stopped twice: once at Bayshore to take photos, once just before Fort Road to use the washroom. And Gerald requested me to take photos of him cycling, so I did...
We went past Dunman High :) (did not take photos this time though) and stopped at the very nice bridge connecting Tanjong Rhu and National Stadium. And as Gerald requested for more photos of him cycling, so there it is again...
By this time I was already starting to trail behind (I can always blame it on my really ancient bike but well, I know fully that I am not that fit actually...). We went past Nicoll Highway, Esplanade Bridge, Lau Pa Sat (we did not stop anywhere in town as Shireen was waiting for us at Biopolis, and we have already postponed the meeting time once when we were at East Coast, so it was not exactly nice for us to keep delaying...), and then Ching Hua's bike's chain came off the gear! Gerald was already so far ahead that he can't hear me at all, so Ching Hua and I were fixing the bike together by the shophouses just opposite Chinatown Point, with streams of people walking past us in their search for food (ours would be waiting for us at Ghim Moh..?). And when we finally finished, I went into a shop selling curry puff to ask for tissues and the auntie was staring at me as though I was an alien who just fell from a spaceship.
We then carried on through Havelock Road, Ganges Ave, Alexandra Road, Queenstown, Commonwealth and we finally reached Biopolis! Gerald and Ching Hua were like rushing up the steep Biopolis slope as Gerald said 'he has always wanted to cycle up that slope' but I simply did not have enough energy to do that. So after 2 metres up that thing, I got off and pushed my bike up rather unglamorously...
We met up with Shireen and continued with our photo taking spree. There is one with Gerald and Nanos and the Biopolis bus, one with the 4 of us and the Nanos directory signboard (courtesy of Choon Kiat, a guy from IBN whom Shireen knows), one with the 3 of us and the Biopolis directory, and of course, one with Gerald cycling in front of Centros...
We walked (yes, walked) to Ghim Moh to have our lunch. We met Gerald Goh at the bus stop (he is still working!) and the 2 Geralds took photos together. When we reached the hawker centre, the three of us were so thristy that the first thing we thought of was Ice Kachang! Of course we continued with our photo taking; our food/ice kachang/food + Gerald etc. And there is also one with Shireen holding onto 3 big glasses of drinks with her keep telling me 'it is heavy!'... (ok I'm sorry... ;))
We left Ghim Moh slightly before 1430 (Hmm Shireen is supposed to have a lot of work to do after that, and we still have a long way to go, and there is only 5 more hours of daylight?). We continued west, going past Clementi (the traffic there is INSANE, especially near the MRT), Jurong East, and stopped at Chinese Garden to grab a drink. That was where Ching Hua and I bought our first Gatorade, and I started my stretching exercises as I was beginning to feel cramps coming...
We went past Lakeside, Jurong Fire Station, and turned into Jalan Boon Lay where we continued up onto Jalan Bahar and Lim Chu Kang Road. Ching Hua said he wanted to revisit his old camp (4SIR) so we detoured into Old Lim Chu Kang Road just before the reserve runway. I have never been to 4SIR camp (it was just simply so rural and out of the way!) and it is good that just before I leave I get to taste a little the agony of my 4SIR friends when they were booking out :) Ching Hua tried to smoke the RP by telling the guy that he was doing some recce. Apparently he had just given the bored guy some stuff to talk about for the rest of the afternoon...
After that we went past Ama Keng, Sungei Gedong, and finally Neo Tiew! Lots of memories in these places... Ama Keng was an exercise area deep in with REALLY a lot of durian trees and rambutan trees and of course their fruits (I don't eat durians though) during summer, and it was where I had my first outfield exercise (and hole digging) with 3SIR. I have been to Sungei Gedong for both my battalion missions, and by the drain between Gedong and Neo Tiew I was almost struck by lightning... :P and Neo Tiew? Haha have been there to set up casualty stations, learnt heli-evac signals from this Brigade guy, learnt how to use a new stretcher which is able to transport casualties down buildings via ropes, as a safety medic, etc, etc...
Neo Tiew Road was long and winding. Luckily for us (esp me), it was mostly downslope along the way. We stopped by the BBC Far Eastern Relay Station to take a picture (haha one of the places which my dad's company takes care of) and their antennae really looked like those climbing towers in OBS. We went past this place called Bollywood (?!?!) and there is a restaurant inside! It is a mystery who will come and have lunch/dinner at this kind of place. Nevertheless, we took photos in front of it :)
Well, another great mystery was this big group of Chinese High boys (I refuse to acknowledge that they are from Hwa Chong) WALKING along the road towards Kranji. I have absolutely no idea why they were walking; probably their excursion bus got stuck in the deep mud in Sungei Buloh or something...
We stopped by Kranji Dam and took photos, of course! It is the one place where you can see the Causeway side-on: Malaysia on your left and Singapore on your right! It was another discovery for me. We did not stay there for long, but we stopped again soon after, in order to get a 1.5L bottle of 100-plus and some chocolate bars (hmm that was mostly for myself..) at a small grocery inside Kranji Industrial Estate. When we were about to set off, we got so freaked out by this really massive and long lorry that we kept retreating further and further onto the pavement as it reversed into the factory...
Our next stop was Causeway Point, after we passed by Kranji MRT and Woodlands Checkpoint. Gerald decided to skip Admirty Road altogether as we were running out of time. We bought more drinks at Causeway Point, with me forgetting to bring my wallet down to the supermarket so I have to go up again to get it...
As we left Woodlands, Ching Hua suggested that we take an alternative route to Gerald's as it ought to be faster. He led the way from then on, and I continued to follow behind, with at least a distance of 200m between them and me. They had to keep waiting for me at junctions where we had to turn.
So there we go (hmm when we first set off from Woodlands Gerald was forced between a lorry and 3 buses, it was, scary...), passing Admirty (where I was testing the patience of 2 bus drivers), Sembawang, Yishun Ring Road, Yishun Ave 1, and finally, Lower Seletar Dam. We witnessed the finest sunset over there: the sun, with its orange glow, hanging just above the greeneries and the reservoir, with the water shimmering in its light... it was beautiful. It was just sad that my camera did not capture the scene properly.
From there we carried on through Seletar Airport onto Jalan Kayu. I had some serious leg cramp after negotiating an upslope stretch and Gerald and Ching Hua was waiting for me to recover in front, not knowing what happened... It was so paiseh. Anyway, we stopped at Jalan Kayu Roti Prata Stall (hmm one of them) where Ching Hua had Bundung, with Gerald and I just sitting around, and of course I was massaging my legs. Though surprisingly, my legs did not give me problems anymore after that, even though Yio Chu Kang Road was crazily hilly...
We went onto Yio Chu Kang Road and it was getting dark. So I told Gerald I would be cycling on the pavement instead because it is really dangerous for me to be on the road (my bike did not have lights, and I was wearing a dark shirt! To an inexperienced driver, it is equivalent to sticking 'please knock me down' on my back and compelling him to follow the instruction). So they zoomed ahead, and when I reached Boundary Road I knew I overshot as I knew that they were supposed to get on Tampines Road. And that was where I saw Gerald's message saying that they had decided to go ahead, and I, not having to follow them, chose my own (safer?) route back.
My route was as follows (to anyone interested): from Yio Chu Kang Link to Boundary Road, Upper Paya Lebar Road, Lorong Ah Soo, Hougang Ave 3, Eunos Link, Kaki Bukit Ave 1, Bedok Reservior Road, Bedok North Ave 3, Bedok North Road, New Upper Changi Road and then back home! It took me roughly 45 minutes to get back from there. I was rushing all the way as it was rather late (~1945? and I was hungry!), and the pictures taken were all bad because I could not hold the camera still. However, one thing I realised was how nice Bedok Reservoir was at night! And there were really really lots of burning everywhere as it was the last day of the seventh month (though the month started again one day later...).
It was really an achievement for me! Though at the expense of my bike... The gear handle dropped off and I don't think I would attempt to fix it. After today, my old faithful would retire...
My estimation using the Street Directory of the total distance covered is ~118km for me, including the stretch along Changi Coast Road which I repeated. Gerald and Ching Hua's was ~116.5km (Gerald's figure), as they did not repeat any stretch. However that did not matter: we were so tired that I slept at 11pm yesterday, and Gerald woke up at ~12pm today, when I was at NUS Coop... And without sunblock, I am going to Baltimore with a peeling forehead. As I told Shireen, what a negative illustration of Singapore's weather... :)
Holiday Log #5: Chicago
Day 6: 26/11/2006 Chicago
Last day of the holidays... was supposed to meet Ghee Chuan at 11:00am for brunch, then go to the airport, but GCS's car broke down. It couldn't even start. So got Alex to help us jump-start it, to no avail. After 3 attempts, the car can finally start, so we hopped on, and drove to the petrol station to replenish fuel. On the way, the engine started to stall again... and GCS, trying to pick up speed, changed to 2nd gear (don't, ask, me, why), which caused the whole car to feel like it's going to die anytime. Luckily we managed to get to the petrol station on 1st gear (meaning, 10mph?) before GCS stalled the car by stopping without stepping on the clutch. He refuelled it, left it at the gas station for the mechanic, and we walked to the dining hall.
Us and GCS's broken car...Latest news is that he is going to scrape it... The alternator's gone, and the gas tank is leaking, so...We met Ghee Chuan, Gerald Goh, Terence (CMC Pl. 2, though I can't recall on the spot; apparently Tk knows him too), Grace (junior from DHS), and some others. The food there was pretty good, something like our Fresh Food Cafe, though the atmosphere in FFC is better; and their's is much more expensive than ours. I thought FFC's $8.95 lunch was bad enough; their's was apparently (according to Ghee Chuan) $12/$13!! Though none of us paid; we were supposed to be swiped in but well, I guess somebody did :PThen Cheng Hua sent us to the airport (cos GCS's car was gone), and my holiday was over. Time to get back to work... Finals starting next Monday! And I am still blogging...
Holiday Log #4: Chicago
Day 5: 25/11/2006 Chicago
Chicago's Skyline
Chinatown
Me at North Michigan Ave
Some random stuff: I realised everyone, after staying in the US for a while, will become a fan of Pepperidge Farm. Even GCS bought 2 packets of Milano from the supermarket (when it was NOT having discount) and asked me to try it; of course, as I have already known, it is very nice. Haha I get very excited when Giant starts to sell Pepperidge Farm cookies for $2.00 (usual $2.99, and it happened before Thanksgiving), and needless to say, Walmart forever sells it at $1.97...And it's true that even Pepperidge Farm bread is more tasty than other brands. Just that they are too expensive for day to day consumption.Back to my holiday log.Jess and Deb left in the morning; I think GCS sent them to O'Hare to take a bus back to Wisconsin. When GCS returned, the rest of us went to Chinatown to eat dim sum. This was when I knew how big Chicago's Chinatown is... It is one whole area, which includes one pedestrian street that takes you 5 minutes to walk from one end to another. We wanted to go to Phoenix (which has dim sum buffet apparently), but the queue was too long so we went to another one. Again, it serves completely HK style food (complete with beef trifes! beat that), has a completely neighbourhood HK style atmosphere, people (both waiters and patrons) speak completely HK style language (in which I was summoned by GCS for my expertise in that language), and hence the food was also completely HK neighbourhood standard. Excellent experience :)How I wish they can reproduce the Singapore experience there also... Though I know I am asking for a bit too much :P and this also gets to show how widespread Hongkongers are and how diligently the emigrants try to reproduce their own community while overseas. The dim sum, the milk tea, the yuan yang, are all exactly IDENTICAL to what I can get in HK, even the atmosphere and setting! Now I understand why my mum's relatives can come to the US and survive for 20 years not knowing how to speak English at all. They don't have to essentially...(There are shopkeepers in Chinatown who cannot even speak English properly! That is actually quite terrible isn't it? Yes the US is diverse, but also divided in this sense? How different would it be when compared to Colonial Singapore, where the British, for convenience and simplicity, separated the different races in different regions which in the end built up to the racial riots in the 1960s? Luckily, at least from what I observed, this is not happening to my friends in university...)Enough of that. In the afternoon we took a bus downtown, toured Millenium Park (with the cool structure in the middle of it), saw Sears Towers from far, passed by Navy Pier without knowing it, walked through North Michigan Ave (a.k.a. The Magnificant Mile), admired the tall buildings and some of the architecture, bought some stuff, and then went to eat again :) This time it was spicy food, Heaven on Seven (600 N. Michigan Ave). Good stuff: Gumbo soup, Shrimp Voodoo Linguini (really A LOT of shrimps; though the nice part is not the shrimp but the sauce). If you are into hot food, try their Shrimp Angry; I didn't eat that but even Wei Hong the chilli king find it a bit difficult to take :P and they have ALL SORTS of hot sauce, the bottles fills up half the table and there is one big wall-shelf all filled with hot sauce bottles. We tried to ask where they all came from, but to no avail, as usual...Then we went movie-hopping (no one cares, everyone does it, so we did). Watched The Prestige and Stranger than Fiction. Both are very good shows, though I find The Prestige better. I have not entered a movie theatre since ORD I think (which shows that, indeed, people in the army are more free...), and hence was too lazy to think about the movie, what it means, what it is supposed to tell me, etc. They are just good. Go and watch them.
Holiday Log #3: Chicago
Day 4: 24/11/2006 Chicago
Tk and GCS cooking: look at GCS's disgusted look. He's complaining about the amount of oil the bacon generated...
GCS, Wei Hong, Tk, Me, Deb, Jess: DHS4K01*US - (Songyu + Shi Mei)
(Courtesy Tk, who uploaded the photo and I stole the code :P)
Haha :) Shotglasses provided by Wei Hong, from Disneyworld
(Code stolen from Tk)
Our sleep and work station, where I did my Bichemistry Lab Report #10
(Code stolen from Tk again)
Spent the whole day making Thanksgiving dinner! Haha the making process was not exactly spectacular though. Jess went out with her friend who happened to be staying in GCS's place too (supposed to be Alex's 'distant' friend's friend, i.e. minimal relationship to Alex and no relationship to GCS, though there is some 'relationship' with Jess) so she was not around most of the day. So in the morning we went to eat pancake without her, while GCS went to fetch Wei Hong from Midway (hmms he flew from ORLANDO, i.e. DISNEYWORLD). The pancakes and waffles were good, and the portions were large! We were really full in the end, and skipped lunch (one of the reasons is because of the Thanksgiving dinner :) )
We really literally spent the whole day preparing food. Our turkey started roasting in CS's friend's apartment since 9am, and was scheduled to complete at 5pm. Meanwhile, when some of us took periodic naps, Potato Lagsane, Chocolate Mousse, Shepard's Pie, Caesar Salad, Chocolate Brownies, Angel Hair Pasta with Sour Cream and Spinach, Cauliflower with Mushroom Sauce and Brown Gravy started to churn out from the kitchen, while tiramisu was already resting in the fridge. It was amazing fun seeing the table starting to fill with our food... Our recipes basically either come from the Internet or from memory from home! And everything was created from first principle, except the brownies :)
And our food turned out to be really good! Except the potato lagsane which we suspected that we didn't bake the potatoes enough (i.e. too hard). GCS invited some of his juniors over, so there were 11 of us: GCS, Tk, Wei Hong, Jess, Deb, Me (DHS4K01*US minus Songyu and Shi Mei), Alex (GCS's roommate), Jerlene (who is also Shireen's friend), Guan Min (who GCS rendered quite a lot of help regarding essays, as far as I know; I should also get him to look through my essays :P), Shaun (GCS's PSC junior), and Cheng Hua (GCS's friend who lend us his kitchen and sent us to the airport on the last day). Our chocolate mousse was indeed worth mentioning: we took the formula entirely out of the Internet and it turned out to be extremely nice! Our turkey also; very very juicy and delicious... though the brown gravy was a little too thick. Jess's shepard's pie was really good too! And I received some very positive comments about my tiramisu. Haha well, I officially have at least 3 more types of dessert/food entered into my arsenal :)
And everyone was really surprised to know that the 6 of us all come from the same secondary school class :D Haha as long as you want, anyone can have a gathering anytime anywhere in the world...
Of course this kind of occasion must have wine... Mosel River, Riesling; easy, good enough, suitable for the occasion, but not perfect. I guess I prefer slightly drier and less fruity wine; should go and try some more Merlot and find the year/location I like. Wait till I go to Europe again where wine sells for 90 eurocents per bottle :)
So when everyone left, the 6 of us left behind started talking crap :) that was the best time of the day man. I paid $249.10 to fly there for that.
And Alex was very happy when I told him that I was leaving my Tia Maria behind :D
Holiday Log #2: Chicago
Day 3: 23/11/2006 Chicago
Southwest Airlines :)
View from GCS's house: nice right. I made it my new wallpaper.
Smoke-filled kitchen... (photo stolen from Deb)
Separating egg white from egg yolk... (photo stolen from Deb again)
Hor Fun, Char Kway Teow, Kang Kong, etc...
Spent the whole morning packing; you know, when you reached home at 10:30pm after being killed by the rain and the wind, there is nothing you would want to do...
Left home at 12:00, missed the bus to Penn Station, so walked all the way down, and missed the light rail shuttle again. So in the end, I waited another 30 minutes at Mt Royal, getting bashed by the wind and rain again before the stupid light rail came to bring me to the airport. Sense and Sensibility did help distract me a bit from the cold though...
Southwest Airlines was free sitting. The whole flight was full, so was not expecting a good seat at all, until the air stewardess told me that there was an empty emergency exit seat... Hahahaha I cannot believe my luck man. Southwest Airlines was much better than expected; they served free flow complimentary drinks (soft drinks to juice to coffee and tea), peanuts, and crackers. And the seats are pretty comfortable. No complaint :)
Though GCS's car is a big problem. He kept nagging at me (and Tk, to a lesser extent) as soon as I arrived (about how gu niang I was and how troublesome it was for him to get there...), and being xiaoyang, I was civil enough not to care (and I know I can take revenge when he comes to Baltimore hahaha). Though that amused Jess and Deb very much :D
We had free dinner that night, all thanks to Jess :), and before that we went to get our stuff for the Thanksgiving dinner we were going to make. We bought a lot a lot a lot of stuff, and realised how lucky I was to have brought all my tiramisu ingredients from Baltimore as that supermarket ran out of cream. And stuff in Chicago is definitely more expensive than Baltimore... Cereal there costs $3.00 a box while on discount; Baltimore only $2.50...
And after dinner we went back to start making desserts. Tk started making his cheesecake, and when the cheesecake is baking, the oven started to smoke... and initially we though it was because of a bottle of soy sauce GCS left inside the oven (don't, ask, me, why.); however, the smoking continued, and to our horror, there was fire inside the oven! Apparently Tk's cheesecake was leaking oil. And the best thing was, after the cheesecake was finally done, it fell into the sink and was soaked. Though my tiramisu was fine throughout; if I overwhipped the cream it would really be good game :P
We had supper at Penang Chicago (Penang overload :P) but it was so much better than DC's! We had kangkong, hor fun, char kway teow, chicken (from Tk's DSTA friend, Huimin :) ), etc... And then milk tea, yuan yang and some form of bubble tea from this completely HK style cafe. At that time I still didn't know how big their Chinatown was...
Holiday Log #1 Baltimore/Washington DC
I have decided, if I don't do it now, I will never do it. So here are stuff which I have done for the previous week. This is going to be long: so I'm splitting into a few parts. If you are interested, then read on :P
Day 1: 21/11/2006: BaltimoreBasically the whole week I was in holiday mood... There is only 1 class on this day, and most importantly, mid-term and essays are over!! So spent the whole afternoon preparing and making food: took a nap, cut the watermelon into small pieces, made tiramisu, realised I do not have anymore ladyfingers and Irish Cream, rushed downtown to get them, Yiran/Yi Chung/Grace came, thawed and fried beef, brought everything to SSA's thanksgiving dinner, had fun talking crap and eating Zhen Xin's very nice turkey (which I went to buy with him the night before) Jude/Laura's very nice rice noodles and Teck Chuan/Chyan Ying's Char Siew, and receiving comments for my tiramisu. Then went to the travel plaza to pick Wen Yu up, went to Fell's Point, ate/talked some more, walked with him to Inner Habour, took a bus back, wrote my resume, slept at 2:30am.
Day 2: 22/11/2006: Washington DC
National Portrait Gallery
National Archives
Constitution of the United States
Declaration of Independence
Me, Kang Yi, Gerald, Ding Ding, Bilin, Wen Yu @ Penang, Washington, DC
Last day of class: There is only one organic chemistry lecture. Everyone was asking me not to go, but, if I really not go, I won't be called xiaoyang. So after sending Wen Yu to Penn Station, I went to class, and as expected there is only 10% attendance, Yiran and Yi Chung were not there, so only Grace, Ting, Ming Fei and me were there. Greenberg didn't go through a lot of things but he did start a new topic, so it is still a correct decision to not have skipped :)
Immediately after class I rushed down to DC: Gerald, Bilin, Ding Ding and Kang Yi were all there. Reached DC around lunchtime, having made a stupid mistake by eating lunch at Penn Station (I forgot Union Station has a ultra huge and nice foodcourt), and met up with Wen Yu at National Portrait Gallery. The big group had gone for lunch as they were very hungry (they took an overnight bus down from Boston, changed bus at NY, reached DC at 5:30am, got badly treated by the reception guy, hmms, well... I would have taken plane into Reagan or Dulles instead :P), and went ahead into the Spy Museum.
The National Portrait Gallery housed all the portraits of the Presidents of the United States, including the famous George Washington portraits by Gilbert Stuart (including the unfinished one which is used on the dollar bills). There were a few rather interesting historical exhibits as well, including a video recording of JFK's 'Ask not what America can do for you' speech, Time magazine covers, caricatures, Abraham Lincoln's photo with a crack across his forehead, Franklin Roosevelt's speeches, etc. There are a lot of other exhibits as well, but none of which I had a deep impression, except for one which shown a (fictional) scene of Sierra Nevada which(indirectly) served to convince people to 'Go West'. It is really heaven depicted in the picture.
Met up with the rest at the Spy Museum after that... It is just opposite the National Portrait Gallery. They were waiting for Kang Yi, whose handphone died and could not be located inside the museum :) Then we went to the National Archives, where the original Magna Carta, Declaration of Independence, Constitution of the United States and the Bill of Rights were kept. As I have been taking classes on the Constitution (and I am going to start writing another essay about due process after I finished this), all these took on a different meaning: I wouldn't say I completely understand everything but at least I am not just a tourist whose sole purpose is to take photos of the documents.
Then it would be the highlight of the day: food! (Singaporeans are, well, food oriented, as always.) I brought everyone to Penang, and we ordered quite a bit of food, nice food :) Expensive though...
Everyone was tired (of course, overnight bus and arrived at 5:30am...) so they decided to go back to the hostel, and I was in time to catch the 8:40 train back to Baltimore. My next destination is Chicago, which I have not even started packing :P
Just to mention: it was raining the whole day, and the temperature hovered around 3 deg. When I was waiting for a bus at Penn Station, I stood in the drizzle for 20 straight minutes, and was nearly frozen to death...
Thanksgiving!
I uploaded some photos on DHS4K01 so might as well duplicate them and the captions here: (Sorry for the wrong photo alignments; some technical problems... will rectify them ASAP. Will also blog about the trip(s) some more when I have more time :))
This is our thanksgiving dinner! And this is not all our food. Clockwise from bottom left: Roasted turkey (Tk/CS), Caesar Salad (CS/me), whole cauliflower in mushroom sauce (Tk), Shepard's Pie (Jess/Deb), Potato Lagsana (Tk), Angel Hair pasta with Sour Cream/Spinach Sauce (Tk)
Desserts: clockwise from bottom right of table: Whipped cream (Supermarket), Chocolate ice-cream (supermarket), chocolate brownies (me/Tk), ginger ale (supermarket), tiramisu (me), chocolate mousse (me/Tk).
Tk tried to replicate a very very nice dessert we had in Hungary using our brownies, whipped cream, chocolate mousse, and chocolate syrup.
We made all these food completely from first principle. Though we have to first endure smoke from the oven, the oven catching fire, cheesecake falling into the sink, etc...
But in the end everything turned out more than fine... It was perfect! All thanks to TK the masterchef, CS who provided the kitchen and even mobilised his friend's kitchen, everyone who contributed to make this event successful, and everyone who came to share the joy :)
On Stuff.
On holiday:
Just came back from DC meeting Gerald, Ding Ding, Kangyi, Bilin and Wen Yu... It was really fun! Will post pictures and blog about it when I have time, either when I am in Chicago or when I am back. (Haha looking forward to meeting them again after my finals...)
On tiramisu:
My tiramisu had its debut yesterday during the SSA's Thanksgiving dinner. I am pretty convinced that I have succeeded from the feedback I've got. However that pan of tiramisu used up all my Irish Cream and ladyfingers, so I got to go downtown and replenish my supply for the Chicago showdown. And the liquor shop ran out of Irish Cream! So bought Tia Maria, and it will serve double purposes. All of us are 21 already anyway.
On safety:
There are 3 attitudes towards personal safety: reckless, prudent and oversensitive.
Reckless: Walking back to Hopkins from Penn Station alone at 10pm, whereby passing through North Ave, 20 - 24th Streets is inevitable.
Prudent: Wait at Penn Station for the bus to arrive even though it might mean 20 minutes of waiting.
Oversensitive: Return to Baltimore even before it gets dark, because Baltimore is well known to be unsafe after dark, even if it means coming back before 5:30pm.
There is no need to take precautions over everything, and there is also no need to worry too much about stuff which might happen but the possibility of happening is extremely low according to ground judgement. Have more faith in your own judgement and humanity, though common sense must still prevail (e.g. the chance of getting mugged at North Ave at 10pm on Thanksgiving eve can be as high as 20-25%, so you need to take precautions against that). In that case, you can enjoy life and the world around you better.
I hope I am doing the right thing :P
On schoolwork:
I have decided to bring my Biochem lab stuff to Chicago to do. I will start a bit tonight and try to finish before I come back. This is inspired by Bilin, who brought her lab report to DC to do (when she is staying in a hostel). Hmms as A*Star scholars we should be, yup, more hardworking :P
Holiday Time!
Yayy work is finally behind me! Haha now it is time for a real one week break :D
So this is what I am going to do (projected):
Tuesday:
1. Organic Chemistry Lecture
2. Get Yiran, Yi Chung, Grace to come over
3. Make food :P
4. SSA's Thanksgiving Dinner
5. Meet Wen Yu
6. Go to Fell's Point to eat
Wednesday:
1. Organic Chemistry Lecture
2. Go to DC!
3. Meet Wen Yu, Gerald (and company)
4. Walk, shop, eat
5. Go back to Baltimore
Thursday:
1. Slack + Pack
2. Go to the airport
3. Go to Chicago
4. Whatever that follows depends on GCS
Friday:
1. Prepare food
2. Thanksgiving dinner!
Saturday:
1. Depends on everyone hahaha
Sunday:
1. Depends?
2. Come back to Baltimore
3. Back to work :(
Haha my mum is already asking whether I am in the US studying or holidaying. My answer is, haha, BOTH :D When it is time to study I study, when it is time to go on holiday I go :D
Amazing Grace
I realised when you are too sick of work (and cannot play/watch people play soccer because you have to finish your work) you will tend to blog a lot... That is what is happening to me...
明日恩典容祖兒
(Mandarin)你 不需要等待 趁大伙都在
时间像条河 经过眼前 往前迈开
过去每分钟 因为它存在
无论快乐与悲哀 都变成 记忆里的精彩
也因为存在 才明白 爱人与被爱
让我们学会微笑 对明天 心怀感激期待
**还有美景 就要展开 季节不停循环
柳暗花明 春去又来 生命沿途风景
如盛宴 多奇妙恩典
请忘记了埋怨 敞开了心田 洒下希望的种子
发了芽 迎接着每一天
每一个细节 都感激 苦都会变甜
无论晴天或下雨 请容许 我陪着你面对
**
不要带着悲伤包袱 赶快把心门打开 当黑夜过去 明日好运会来
Amazing Grace! How sweet the sound
That saved a wretch like me
柳暗花明 春去又来 生命沿途精彩
如盛宴 多奇妙恩典
幸福 已经不远 你还在我身边 这一切 多奇妙恩典...
(Cantonese)來 為何還等待 趁大家也在
時間在流動 橫過目前 往下秒開
就趁這分鐘 來一個合照
捱完還識怎麼笑 辛苦極 過活還是精采
沒有小悲哀 想不起 到底多被愛
共你縱是塵埃 渡紅海 再行下去大概
**還有恩典 開遍面前 寒季終必回暖
前面會有 甚麼樂園 靠人沿途發現
只需要 相信它不遠
別怨這一生 如此過下去
明晨仍可於這裡 這小事 有人全力爭取
學會小小的 都感激 亦算得樂趣
願以後盛和衰 亦容許 我陪著你面對
**
難道看別人先看見 風光我們已獨佔 如我們還怨 明日好運會轉
Amazing Grace! How sweet the sound
That saved a wretch like me
前面會有 甚麼樂園 靠人沿途發現
只需要 相信它不遠
幸福 並不很遠 你還在我身邊 心足了 一切都不欠
Hahahahaha :D
Short post.
Received a ultra heavy package from my parents. They transferred one whole stack of Science magazines accumulated in my room (most not read :P) to me!
My dad must be really happy now: one whole stack of junk disappeared from the house. Though that cost him 138 bucks.
And this is really amusing :D
Haha Yan I appreciate that but also don't torture it like that la... :P
6 more days to Chicago! Though still struggling with Biochem; don't even have time to revise my essay...
And Wen Yu will be coming on Tues night! Planning to bring him to Fell's Point to eat mussels, then go with him to DC on Wed. Depends on whether there will be class on Wed morning though... Hope it will be cancelled...
