It’s a rainy, gloomy day as we bid farewell to Mr. Lee Kuan Yew.
It’s… disappointing and at the same time hilarious to see how the number of Western media reports on chewing gum. It’s a long bygone issue here. It’s not as if all candies are banned anyway. Chewing gum is a novelty for us when we go overseas… but one that I’m more than happy to do without. Clean drinking water? Great economy? Clean and green garden city? Safe and secure nation? Those are much, much more important to me. Who cares about gum in the light of all these greater things? Will you die without gum? You can die from armed robberies though, or shootings. Or get sick from drinking unclean water. Or get injured in street riots and protest… and have your daily life inconvenienced by strikes. They pick on all the nitty gritty little things because they are ignorant, jealous even, of all the things that we do have, that we enjoy and they don’t.
It’s… a sad occasion indeed. May you rest in peace Mr. Lee.
Dry laksa from Curry Times. 
And curry chicken from the same shop. 
And this was from yesterday. We ate at Grandma’s kitchen. 
Almond soya bean glass jelly VS normal glass jelly drink. Syrup given separately for the glass jelly so you can make is as sweet or unsweet as you want. 
Cantonese hor fun. This one is really worth it. All the main dishes we had were 5.80… but I think this was the nicest. 
The Char Kway Teow is nice too. Love those two. 
Some duck this… it’s nice but kinda pricy. It’s sour and sweet… and tastes like the nonya dumplings (ok, this IS a nonya food restaurant)
Darn blurred photos. Another expensive one… it’s tasty but look at how small the portion is! Both this and the duck dishes at around 10 bucks? More expensive than the main dishes! (ok they have pricey main dishes too, but a few which are cheaper to attract the lunch crowds I guess) Anyway… there’s petai beans, long beans, lady fingers and brinjal. You can’t even see the brinjal in the photo right? Because there’s only a freaking four small pieces! 
The last main dish we ordered. Hokkien noodles… using udon noodles sheesh! It just sucked. The taste was ok but the noodles was bad. WRONG noodles. It’s not even that they shouldn’t be using udon noodles anymore…. it’s that the noodles are just hard and yucky. It was a torture eating this one. 
Durian chendol. This was nice. The chendol was thick and fragrant. A nice desert to end off the meal. 
MY NEW BAG PACK! Apart from the HD I think this would be the loot that i’m most happy with. It’ll also be my most used loot I guess. How much was this? Like 90 bucks or something… it’s really solid so I think it’ll be able to stand up to years of abuse. It’s a little sad that I couldn’t really find an absolute perfect one… There was another (and cheaper) bag pack also by Targus that I really liked… but the material isn’t as solid… and the zippers aren’t double zippers. Which I hate… this one has double zippers BUT it’s the their compartment type. The main compartment is divided into two. Great for putting documents, but for things like jackets… it’s not as good because the compartments are smaller. At least the laptop compartment is removable so if I’m not bringing my lappy out I can free up some space by taking out the laptop compartment (Targus is a brand specialising in laptop bags). Just started transferring some stuff from my old bag to this one today. I’ll be using the new bag pack next week yay! The old one was sorta dying… the side pocket for water bottle had broken, and the strap was broken too… you know these bag pack the straps isn’t just a single layer? The top layer of the right strap was broken. Cos I’ve been carrying too much stuff in my bag pack I guess… and esp when I carry it on a single strap at times… (always the right strap that’s why only the right side was broken). Already got my mum to help me sew it back last time but it broke again so… The compartments inside broke too :(
Hard disk covers! In bright neon colors! Well I hardly carry my HD out these days… but this size pouches are great. I can put other stuff in them, not just hard disks. It’s pretty and the neoprene material is nice too. (And it’s cheap)
HOHOHO! The single most expensive purchase we made on the first day. Mum’s tab won the honour later on. 
They charge what? A ridiculous 40 bucks more for the metal versions. Nah. This will do. $159…. Pretty eh? They call the color Titanium. I call it SPACE GREY. LOLOLOL.
The same pouches. With the laptop chill pad (aka cooling fan) from Targus. A free gift for buying that bag pack. 
Oh? What’s that? 
It’s a blue tooth keyboard! Full sized too. More for fun than anything else because I don’t have an iPad? If I want to do some serious typing I’ll be using my lappy…. but well I’ll definitely try playing around with this. The cover doubles up as a tablet/handphone stand too. And there’s actually this little tab that you can pull out from the bottom so you can erm… put in a tablet AND a mobile at the same time? Lol. That’s my Xiaomi by the way! XD (Oh got a cover and screen protector for the Xiaomi too, now it's not so slippery ha!)
USB hubs. A USB 3.0 hub and a 2.0 hub with 7 slots and a direct AC adapter… for us in charging phones, or running USB powered stuff (Like USB fan…) I’ve yet to set this up >< 
Multi card reader… well I only need it for the microSD card slot, since my lappy has an SD card slot built in already. Because my lappy can’t read my xiaomi phone… but on hindsight… it’s really troublesome to open the back cover and take out the microSD card… I’ll probably just do whatever that needs doing at work with the PC. Oh wells. This was really cheap anyways. 
My table lamp! Which I still have not set up! See it’s still nicely boxed up! I got the grey color one. So no blue stripes… just grey. Identical to the one my sis is using hahaha. It’s pretty cool. The on off button is touch sensor! And you can adjust the dimness XD 
USB desk fan! Which I’ve not set up. There’s a really cool USD powered humidifier on sale too which we got for my sis. I wanted one too but on second thoughts… I was already having trouble with all my stuff going moody cos it’s so humid here! In any case… my mum wanted one to use around the house so we got another for her on the second day… I can just ‘steal’ that if I really want it… (she hasn’t even started using it yet). Like if I feel like having a mint scent room or something and I can use that and add essential oils to the water… but well… looking at my table now. I don’t even have space for it. LOLOLOL.
This was using the wifi from router 1 (aka the router in the corridor). Very normal internet speeds… which should NOT be the case because we are paying for a fibre broadband plan! Also, the wifi signal from router 1 is weak. 
Router 2 wifi. Aka the router in my room. I was using this to download stuff from mega… because the signal from this wifi is much better. BUT GOSH IT’S SO SLOW! No wonder my downloads were taking FOREVER to finish! 
Now, the internet speed when using the ethernet cable from router 2. That’s much better. 
I ran a test with the ethernet cable from router 1 too just to see if there’s any difference. Not much it seems. In fact what the upload speed is slower?
I ran the test with cable from router 2 again… the ping is much higher this time, but the download and upload speeds are still as decent. Yay! I guess there’s not much deterioration with the addition of a second router when using ethernet cable. The wifi though performs a lot worst. Wifi 2 is more for the printer though… but my mobile phones will be on wifi 2 too. It’s been alright so fast though. My game (Heroes of Order and Chaos) runs just fine, and much better on wifi 2 than wifi 1. With wifi 1 the signal often gets cut off halfway. My sis’s room though… it’s quite bad… the signal is bad too, and the speed is really slow. And her room is further and not as convenient to cable too… since the cable either has to go across the main corridor - bad bad bad! or go past the master bedroom door - also bad! Unless you go from the top/ceiling of course, in which case is really troublesome too, and you need even longer length of cable. At least in my case the cables just stick to the side of the walls and stuff, and didn’t have to go across any corridors (except when I was using it for my lappy, and I totally destroy the cable casing… recently just taped it up >< ). But at least that was the corridor in my room, not the house! (and already the damage to the cable was that bad… it’ll be worst if it’s the outside corridor… and people might trip!) 
Cycling! Gosh! It’s been so long since I last got to cycle. I bought this for my dad actually. He loves cycling… not sure what he can possibly use this sticker for though? ><
Most people are just normal. Then there are those blazing successes. And incredulous failures. Sometimes, it’s just a small line between success and failure. Other times… the difference is so great I can’t even comprehend. 
Try me… 
Really. It’s not being egoistic as much as it is just striving to be the best. Because that’s what we have to do. To give it our all, put in all the best efforts. 
Breakfast was noodles from a roadside shop. It was delicious. 
Walking… 
Walking… it took us like, over an hour to reach. 
Some weird deco in the middle of the road. 
Nicely decorated bridge. 
Railway tracks. 
Clean, white snow. 
Like I said, ice is their fav building block. A wall of ice right beside the road. 
We reached this crowded street after walking for a long time. At first we thought we had reached… 
Stuff made of ice are EVERYWHERE. 
Turns out this place was their railway station. No wonder there were so many people hurrying past with luggages and all. 
Still someways to go! 
After finding out the directions… it’s back to walking. 
After lots more walking, we finally got to the start of Guogeli street. 
A magnificent looking building. But it’s a hospital and not our destination. 
We passed by a starbucks. My mum loves starbucks, so we made a mandatary coffee stop. 
A cute chart explaining the types of coffee. 
Pretty paintings on the walls. 
Finally! Our target! 
And it started snowing, more heavily this time. It snowed the day before too, but really tiny flakes.
More snow. I took a video too… 
Another slightly more successful attempt at taking a photo of the snowflake. We stood there like idiots trying to take photos of snowflakes. And with my furry coat… 
See? It was trapping loads of snowflakes. So I ended up having to stand still while my sis and mum snapped away. And then apparently a big snowflake landed on my pony tail too… 
We visited a shopping mall. Dad tried on some clothes… but I think he didn’t buy any in the end. Mum/sis managed to get… I can’t remember… 1 or 2 cashmere sweaters. They can share their clothes so… It was on offer and really cheap. 
We passed by a bbq place after that and decided to have lunch there. It was really cheap, newly opened so there was a special offer. 
Buffet style. 
The selection available was huge. 
Was too busy eating to take much photos, but there were loads of meat and the meat was good. There was seafood too! And loads of cakes and dessert. 
That’s outside the shop. A really pretty sofa. 
Original price 68 yuan. Special offer of 48 yuan. There’s a time limit of 2 hours though. 
Another banner showing their selection of food. 
Another deco. 
Here we are, back at Zhongyang street… that’s some advertisement of a shop, and that is made of plastic. 
As with this. 
A plague introducing the various buildings along Zhongyang street. 
Holiday Inn spotted in the distance XD
We went back to the underground street that we had gone… the day before. Spotted a bread talk shop there. It’s a Singapore bread shop that started expanding in China several years ago… and it certainly is doing well there! We saw shops in Shanghai, before last time…. I saw one in Chongqing… and now Harbin too. 
Some random ice flooring area in Zhongyang street. No idea what it’s for. 
Coca cola again. 
A stick of dates in rock sugar, and a HUGE stick of hawthorn. Like really mega sized. The stick was so long, huge and heavy. 
We walked along that same street again, and did some shopping. 
Here’s a mirror that I bought as souvenir. Photo taken back in sg of course. It’s a nice motif of the Sophia church. 
Mum wanted to have coffee before heading back to the hotel… so we went to this café. 
Some expresso shot thing… idk. I don’t know much about coffee… 
Another coffee drink. This one’s called spiderman. 
Cute hello kitty wine bottle decors at the side of the table. This place was like… a bar? With people singing live on a small stage… and screens and projectors beside every table showing snippets of random movies. Yes the whole place was pretty dark. 
We ordered a steak to share for dinner… It wasn’t very good… pretty tough. 
They have nice decors though. 
Ah here you can see the stage at the top left of the photo, the screen beside each table, and the row of wines in the centre of the walkway. Got no idea why they have a bunch of hello kitty plushies in the middle. Felt pretty out of place. 
We made our way back to the hotel after that. 
Not before passing by this place yet again… well because we have to take this side road to get back to our hotel. 
As I passed by the arch I noticed a curious thing… 
People stuck coins to the side of the arch hahaha! Cos well you know, it’s ice! You just need some body heat to melt it! 
We transited in Chengdu airport. It was a different terminal and a pretty long walk between the terminals. Again, sis and dad were hauling most of the luggage >< While I was worried about literally shitting in my pants. The flight was ok, at least there wasn’t much turbulence to add to my worries… at least not when I was awake. I didn’t manage to eat anything though… and barely ate for a couple of days after that. Thank goodness I applied for more leave! Well granted I could have gotten an MC, but I didn’t really need to go to the doctors. And I had to clear my leave or it’ll get wasted anyway… By the time we reached sg it was already 1am on the 30th. The taxi queue was ridiculous long, and we had so many pieces of luggage we doubt it would fit into a single taxi. We waited in queue for the maxicab instead… which took ridiculously long to arrive. Over an hour wait. And dad had work the next morning. I was just deadbeat.