Kiss Goodbye

Monday, December 31, 2007

Instead of listing out resolutions that I most probably won't be able to keep due to my carefree and non-regimental nature, (or some call it frivolity) I decided to do a top 10 list of things that made 2007 an interesting year.

10. Forgetting some things from the past that have been haunting me.

9. Found a passion for apples, running, anime and manga.

8. Becoming reclusive and introverted.. while enjoying the company of close friends.

7. Donated at least 10%-20% of my pay to Starb*cks, Coffee B*an, Ya K*n Kaya, Wang Ji*o and the other coffee houses... And breaking record on my caffeine intake.

6. Broadened my music scope and started listening to English Oldies, Korean soundtracks and Jap songs.

5. A closure to a chapter in life. In very simple terms, I bade goodbye to the greens and welcomed the civilian form of life. Memories will be kept. It was after all, two years of our youth.

4. The concerts


- SHE's Moving Castle concert

- Ukelele's farewell concert

- Jacky Cheung's "Year of Jacky Cheung"

- Cheer Chen's A Piece of Summer


I just regretted missing Eason's concert.

3. The many gatherings (and these are the ones that I have pictures as evidence, so there are a few more)


- CNY Outing

Lala's Bday
- 1 June bday celebrations

- National Day Celebrations at Lala's



-Old A12 Outing

- Farewell For ZQ - Huang Cheng Actors BBQ at Lide's



- MANY MANY K box sessions
-NS outing


- MAF

-ORD BMT Sect 4 mates lunch gathering



- P6 Class Gathering (After 8 years..)

Probably will do a very belated entry on this special gathering that made the end of 2007 exceptionally memorable. It's been like 8 years... And oh my I almost became non-recognisable since I er changed quite a bit... Haha.

- Year end "Five of us" Gathering

Oops Zehan was photographer so he was left out.. But yea we really call ourselves five of us.. Quite an artistic picture. We were in some sort of deep conversation when in actual fact, we are talking crap.. (and lobsters..)

2. Travelling. Been to 3 places this year.

Taipei with my bunk mates. Dudes whom I have lived with for 1 year plus.. 5 days a week.

Bangkok with Engkeat and Daniel. Quite an interesting and weird combination since we don't go out often.

Of course not forgetting our exciting Turkey Adventure to round up our O*D.... Had fun digging out dark secrets of each other, talking crap, checking out the sights and sounds and simply enjoying each other's company... Dream team we must come together some time again..

1. Knowing there's plenty to look forward to in 2008. What with my new job and new life..

2007 is moving into history. So for 2oo8 we shall make things better the way we want it to be. Friends and all who happened to read this, let's just make the best out of 2008.

Envoy of the Stars @ 7:13 PM
-------------------------------

For One More Day

Sunday, December 30, 2007

There's always something magically inspiring about Mitch Albom's books, although in reality, I have only read "Tuesdays with Morrie" before my latest readup of his "For One More Day". Somehow it makes the major cynic in me fade into the shadows of my mind, for the period I am reading that, at the very least. All I know is I spent the entire night in chalet finishing this book and getting a small dose of familiar nostalgia and a feeling of contentment.

The book is thin and the words are simple but beautifully pieced. The synopsis goes something like: If you ever get another day to spend with and talk to someone you loved who has passed away, what would you do? And if you get another chance to change something that has happened in the past, what would you change? The protagonist got to meet his mother who had departed and got to spend one day with her again, in the process learning more about his past and the problems in his own family.

But I guess I can sort of relate to the many stuff mentioned in the book, especially the ones talking about the relationship between the guy and his mother.

"I can say I adored my mother in the way that boys adore their mums while taking them for granted at the same time."

Makes me feel kind of guilty.

Envoy of the Stars @ 6:47 PM
-------------------------------

Meaning?

Tuesday, December 25, 2007

As Denise said, Christmas has no special meaning, except to Christians. Everyone else is just riding on the name of "Xmas".

To me at least, you can still give people gifts on any other day. And if Christmas is a reunion for the family and gift giving is a reminder to care and share, I can only say I personally don't see much of it in my case. But life goes on.

Thank you to the few who were kind enough to share their love and care by sending xmas cards, these gestures are what I immensely appreciate.

Lionel and I were shopping for gifts for my nieces and nephew the other day and I was having a bit of a hard time deciding what to buy for them, although I know what cartoon characters they like individually. Lionel said something like "At least as kids they are really happy when you give them presents and in that sense, for now, their happiness can be bought, and can be given by you."

I believe in that, from those happy expressions I saw when I passed them their gifts earlier on. That sure is some bit of comfort.

Envoy of the Stars @ 12:20 AM
-------------------------------

Bluish Turkey (Third episode)

Monday, December 24, 2007

No introductions this time. For those who have no idea what this is talking about, I will suggest you scroll down and read from Bluish Turkey (First episode) first. As to the Yimeng special we have talked about, it will be included in between so do look out for this exclusive coverage. Maybe should throw in a Zhehan Special too since there are many pictures of him too.

Picking up from where we left, we shall start from Goreme Open Air Museum.


Love the engraving on the walls..

Beautiful frescoes- some dating back to the 6th century. They are all quite well preserved. This one depicts Jesus' crucifixion, and gathered beside him are the angels.

Jesus. For some reason some of the portrait drawings have their eye portion rubbed off.


Murals

The one and only photo of our tour group. Yes I know everyone looks small. That's because our tour guide who helped us take picture fit more of the GROUND into the camera screen (like 40% of the whole picture is covered by the ground..) but then again, we must thank him too.

Zhehan's the main lead!

Beautiful on all sides..

Doing the "Yimeng" pose... We were very into it.. Note the past tense. We are ok now. Seriously.

Where we were eventually heading.. the city of Cappadocia

A closeup.. I like the intrusion of the brunch.. This is Cappadocia from the tree's perspective.

The valley of Fairy Chimneys..

The only snow we see are actually dried snow caking on the rooftops and slopes.. Well it's snow anyway.. Haha“你的爱飞更远，像候鸟看不见...”

The birds saw that we were here...
记得，这是我们一起开始的旅程，我们留下的脚步与身影。

Yes I know that there's an extra stroke on the word “自”but the light made it very hard to see the thing u are writing.. So there don't be too picky. Anyway, who cares... We were here to celebrate that.

Yimeng's funny expression..

Yimeng doing the Wukong pose

A tree hung full of Nazar's eye- used to ward off evil

A very realistic vendor who immediately pulled the cloth away from his wares when he saw our coach approaching but pulling back over when he saw us leaving, as can be seen from here..

The unique landscape of Cappadocia.. Conical cliffs

愚公移山，哲函推山。

Leon is acting dao.. Lol actually he just didn't looked at the camera in time but I like the overall effect. Gives a feeling as though they just climbed a mountain..

View from the bus windows while the bus is moving..

Looks like Smurf's house don't you think? There is a faint image of a crescent moon at the top right hand corner of the picture. See if you can see that.

Yimeng's trademark 国父脸. And two phonies who were trying to mimick the same expression.

Climbing the ladder.. This picture was taken four times and the poor chap at the end of the line had to run up and down to the lady from our tour group who helped to take this picture for camera adjustments..

Zhehan feels like he's on the top of the world..

Are the stone structures wearing hats?

Two acting stiff again while Yimeng attempts the slope.. You should have seen how he did it.

Zhehan holding his balls. Ok strictly speaking they belong to the hotel. We saw a ping pong table and bats there and wanted to play but the ball was spoilt. In the end we had to search high and low for the ball, including venturing out into the less than 5 degrees celsius night in search of ping pong balls. In the end all the mini marts we visited (4 of them in fact) did not sell them and we returned to the hotel and sought help from the counter and this is the result... Yeah I guessed we just needed to cool our heads..

Doesn't this remind you of 冬季恋歌？ “（逸明）哥... ...” Ok.. sounds weird. But thanks to yimeng for being so cooperative.

Zhehan obviously doesn't like to take pictures with the two of us... Ok fine I know who you want to take pictures with la.. *winks HAHA

Don't know what Leon's up to when he shot this..

They are seriously addicted to weird poses..

The gate to the Palace of the Sultans



A model of the entire palace..

The palace is situated such that it is looking over the seas..


飘飘何所似，天地一沙鸥


Underground water cistern at Istanbul.. With a setting that looks like it's taken from Diablo.

Medusa. The statue's head is upside down by itself, said to be because people still fear looking at her directly.

We had lunch at this very nice cafe overlooking the Bosphorus River at this quiet town in Istanbul

Mutton Kebab. Zhehan's favourite 小绵羊的肉.

Zhehan's apple pie.. Nice.

And is this what you have been waiting for? Introducing...



哲函三连拍

This picture is classic.. Zhehan act cute orh...




A toast to 2008! We had a hard time deciding what to toast to.. Look at Zhehan's face.. Lol.

And him again after white wine.. But then me and Bai think there is something really wrong with the wine too. Very strong aftereffects.. Anyway, this was taken when we had our last dinner in Turkey. It was supposed to be a dinner show and highlight of the tour... But the food sucks and the performance wasn't that appealing either. If you have not noticed, we just ended Zhehan's 写真集。



This place is filled with pigeons...

Photo of the tour... I call it "The Connection"

We went on a cruise along the Bosphorus Straits on a boat like this on the last day..

The "whatever" pose..

Uncle Leon planted the Turkey flag...

In the background is the bridge that connects the european part of Turkey with the asian part.


A palace transformed into the most expensive hotel in Istanbul

We got to feed the birds with bread, courtesy of Yimeng who asked the waiter from the cafe previously for overnight bread. It was alot of fun. Naturally Yimeng had the most fun. As can be seen below..







Yeah the ride was very enjoyable.
Supposedly the biggest shopping mall in Europe but we didn't feel it was big. Maybe it's just because the big brands there make it hard to shop.. Anyway we were given only one hour..

The waffle I bought.. Couldn't resist taking a bite even before taking picture. But it was a delicious.

Cheers to Turkey!


But wait, there's still one last thing to show you all.

Envoy of the Stars @ 4:00 AM
-------------------------------