Friday, July 29, 2011

I have graduated! :D

The day I have been awaiting has finally arrived! My Convocation! :)
我终于毕业了!*tears roll down my face*
Yeahs! Life is great without exams!

My eyes were full of big dark rings and smaller that day of the convocation but no one pointed it out! Thanks for not doing so! I haven't got enough sleep because of the funeral and that I teared many times the day before convocation. I teared whenever i saw my mum sob on the last day of the funeral.

Thanks to those who attended my grandma's funeral (Ling, Ying, Joe, Shi Xing, Jun Wen, Si Ting and Daniel)! Friends are just a message away whenever u need them.

And thanks to those who travelled all the way to NTU to attend my Convocation (Ling, Ying, Miao,Joanne and Song Hua), other than my cousin, bro and dad! Thanks for all the gifts! I love them and I feel so blessed! :) Thanks to Si Ting and Daniel who chipped in my gifts!

I'm excited about taking studio photos with my family! ;)
I think my elder brother will be wearing his graduation gown too while younger brother wears his army uniform (He is going to ORD soon). Lol.


And have decided on my graduation night gown, accessories and high heels! I bought almost all of them from new look and finally decided to join it's membership! Yeahs! Hearts New Look!

Well.. Due to the overflowing photos that are needed to be uploaded, I will blog about my Vietnam grad trip and Convocation after I come back from Hong Kong! I'm going to Hong Kong in 31 hours! So thrilled about it!

If u need to contact me, u can whatsapp me and I will try to reply as soon as I get to connect to any wifi there. I will be in Hong Kong from 31st July to 5th August!

Till then guys!

Much loves,
Jin

:)

P.S: I am taken aback by something: the desire to hold onto something.
It is so strong that it can make someone become very scary. :(
Is winning everything?
Why is humbling oneself, to admit that losing is alright, so difficult?
I don't understand. :(

Tuesday, July 26, 2011

My mum rocks

Remember the song we used to love singing when we were young?

世上只有妈妈好,
有妈的孩子像个宝,
投进妈妈的怀抱,
幸福享不了。

世上只有妈妈好,
没妈的孩子像根草,
离开妈妈的怀抱,
幸福哪里找。

It didn't used to invoke any feeling in me when I sang it in primary school.
Today, I realized how powerful this song can be in making me and the people around me be overwhelmed with emotions when it was played in grandma's funeral.

I hope that mum would not keep losing sleep.
There is this part of the ritual whereby my mum and her siblings have to shout 'mum' and their blessings to her. The way they did it brought tears to my eyes instantly. I can never erase that few moments from my memory.

Monday, July 25, 2011

RIP Grandma

Grandma passed away while I was in Vietnam last Friday. Dad decided not to tell me until I got home. Bathed and headed to the funeral after I got back on Sunday.

She died peacefully in her sleep as her organs have deteriorated. She was 95 years old.

Mum cannot attend my convocation as she needs to attend to grandma's funeral. Brother will go in her place. It's ironic how both the convocation and the funeral have to take place together.

Monday, July 18, 2011

Soft rebonding & Hainan Day 3 Part 3

A few updates before I go Vietnam on the 20th!
Will be back on the 24th!

1. Convocation is coming! I decided not to let my friends take leave because of me or I will feel bad. Yeahs guys, meet u all next time for a celebration or something ya! I still have my parents, Simba and all my graduating friends around during my convocation! :D Yeahs!

2. Going to take my graduation gown (NTU call it a academic dress, lol) tmr! Jun Wen suggested today that we should take our graduation gowns to Vietnam and Hong Kong and made it different from the other fellow coursemates. :D

3. Simba was having the post reservist celebration with his friends for lunch at Old Airport Rd and bought me the very famous beancurd from there. Simba always loves to share his findings with me LOL.

From Misc
Nice packaging right!

4. I went for soft rebonding just now in a home salon! :D (Influence from Isetan friends!)
The hairdresser's name is Karen and she is really nice and friendly. I found her through Google search!
What's great about it that it is really cheap. Only costs $68 with free treatment! I'm so happy with the outcome!

The salons I used to go for rebonding charged me $200+! There was this one time that i went to REDS and they kept putting on alot of different kinds of hair masks for me. The cost turned out to be $400+. The quality of my hair wasn't very good. There were so many split and dry ends after all the so called treatments. The staff there was not friendly by the way. They worked unwillingly. (It is a Taka outlet somemore!)

I have been to many salons that give very disappointing customer service. :(
But I think this time I am so lucky!
I have researched about some home salons in Singapore that gives superb customer service and excellent results. And I ended in the webpage of Hairaffairs.

The hairdresser, Karen, has 10 years of experience in rebonding services in a local branded salon but has to quit her job to look after her boy few years back. She then decided to open her own home salon so that she can watch her kid and work at the same time.

Throughout the 4 hours, she made me feel so welcomed! I wasn't bored at all, as she will let me watch her TV which has many channels. My hair has no split ends at the end of it. :D You can access her feedback page from here. She has many pages of very constructive feedback. You can call 91098848 to book an appointment with her (You have to do it fast since her appointments are fully booked very quickly). She attends only to me and I think this is the nicest thing cos i went to salons who asked me to wait and wait halfway through since they have to attend to many customers! The awesome thing is that she stays in Serangoon North Ave 4! It's near my house. :D

I bought a hair serum from her (cos the feedbacks from the customers were really good!) and it only costs $12. I will go back there around for more next time. :D
By the way, she only does rebonding (soft/normal) services (no haircut)~


5.  And the 2nd last update on Hainan!


Hainan uncle drove us from the village to the area up the hill where they rear animals!

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It is a very big and beautiful bird that they caught. Wow I'm so impressed! How do people catch birds? Omg.


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And they caught a baby alligator too! Saw the tail?
I could see it from outside the cage but my iphone camera couldn't get a brighter image out of it. :(
(My camera's battery charger was spoilt!)


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There were more dogs on the hill. They were really friendly dogs. I became braver in Hainan! :D I touched the dogs' fur without feeling scared!


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The baby fox. I thought it looks really like a cat.


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A closer look at it.


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The toads in the pond. Different ponds group toads of different stages. These are the baby toads.

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Adult toads.


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Hainan cousin wanted to show us the female fox from behind the cage.
We couldn't go into the cage to see it since it has just given birth. From what I understand, a fox which has just given birth will be fierce and will attack humans.
We sneakily looked through the tiny hole from the back of the cage. Saw the fox's fur through the darkness.


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The female fox lying there in darkness, not wanting to be disturbed.


:D


Going vietnam in 27 hours! Yeahs!

Friday, July 15, 2011

Friday today! Yeah met up with the Isetan friends again!
Supposedly going for cycling but due to the bad weather, we have to go window shopping at Parkway Parade. (We are a bunch of poor kids! Lol!)

Helped Valerie in choosing art & craft materials for making her Guest Book for her 21st birthday! Parkway has so many Art & Crafts shops. :D


3 of us, Emmaline, Valerie and I met up first.
The thing I really like about them is they are FOREVER taking pictures. Just like me! So cool! It's amazing how people who can click with u can really click with u! We chat in Whatsapp every night and it's crazy how we can organize outings real fast. Everyone is so spontaneous and random, everyone is organizing and contributing ideas. I love Whatsapp! It keeps my phone msg tone ringing non-stop and if I am busy, the rest will carry on chatting. I can get back to the conversation when I am free again! Hearts iphone once again! :D (Okie I know Blackberry also has Whatsapp!)

And yeah.. the happy photos.. :D


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Me, Emma and Val.

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After seeing this photo, i asked them if they watched Final Destination. They said yes and I told them to look at the 3 blue lines across my neck LOL.


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I really like this comic strip feel~

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Failed attempt of doing counting.
Lol! It is always my fault! Made them retake again and again!


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Hearts this photo! That's when Jacqueline and Yu Ping reached.
Yu Ping always know how to take nice photos! :D
Simba said I've been really happy recently. Thanks to all these HAPPY people! I love them!
Maybe meeting them again the coming Monday for singing! ;)


Remember I wanted to finish blogging about Hainan before I go to Vietnam! Here to keep my promise! :D I know I have high perservence! Thank you. :)

Here is just one small part of Day 3.


Hainan cousin led us to the fields where the villagers grow their crops.

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And this is the first time I saw eggplants attached to the stem of plants. So thrilled about it! :D
It is like a Science excursion, back to the primary school times. :D Look at the unique shaped leaves!


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The leaves are shaped like spades :P So nice!




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Chili plants.

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Close up of the chilies. Omg, the feeling of seeing them was overwhelming with joy.
Now I feel so suaku. Pardon me!


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Aunt. Only Aunt and I stayed in the fields for photographs.
The rest has gone back. It was very sad that we didn't get to see the buffalo. It was normally there but that day it went missing. Lol. So disappointed. I was actually looking forward to take a photo with it.

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I plucked off a chilli from the crops, risking the chance of getting caught. (The chilli plants don't belong to my relatvies by the way. They belong to their neighbours.)

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Long beans!

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And what my aunt was holding was many long BLACK beans. I have never seen long BLACK beans before. SO SUPER COOL RIGHT!
The photo seems to make us appear as though we are in some cold country. But we were perspiring so much. All mosquitoes' fault!



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I took a photo of our surroundings and it is scary how we are surrounded by tall grasses and trees. We walked through many tall bushes before we finally got to these fields.

Thursday, July 14, 2011

Takashimaya Food Fair

Simba has been away for reservist and I am bored. Lol. No one to speak to for few hours. And when I'm bored, I blog. (This rhymes!)
You may have missed some of my entries since I'm blogging much often now. Just click on 'older posts' at the end of the page if u think u might have missed some entries.

Today I had tuition with Joanna. And I taught her that a mule is an offspring of a male donkey and a female horse.

And here is her reply,
"A donkey and a horse can marry?"

This is so funny. A picture of the wedding dinner held by a donkey and a horse came into my mind instanteously. Omg. She is so cute! She may have thought that animals hold wedding ceremonies and other animal species came as their guests. :D

She continued, "But the donkey is smaller in size than the horse right?"
Omg. This I really dunno how to answer, so I told her that maybe the horse is a young female horse and the male donkey is slightly bigger in size than her.

"Oh.. Or maybe they have the same size?"

I nodded my head. Lol. Teachers must learn how to act like they know when they don't! LOL.
One fun fact: A mule is more intelligent than its parents.

And she asked, "Then can the female donkey and a male horse marry?"
Lol. I told her I wasn't sure and will find out for her.
Oh.. And I found out that they can mate too. Their offspring is known as a hinny.
But it is much easier to obtain a mule than a hinny.




Here to blog about time spent at the Taka Food Fair.

First we passed by this interesting stall that has people cutting up long rods of candy into small pieces for us to try.


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Yes, these are the candies. We tried some and they are great.
I am sure u have tried them before. (See below.)


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I think what's so unique this time is that they come in many different flavours. There are also graphics at the end of the rod-like candy. One of such graphics is the peace sign. I think the rainbow flavour should taste the nicest.



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Ginger tea! Something that I will refuse to drink.
I told Simba it's suicide.


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Japanese chocolates! I love them.
In the noon, I went with my colleagues during lunch hour, and the chocolates were buy 5 get 1 free.
When I came again in the evening with Simba, it became buy 3 get 1 free. We thought that the candies and chocolates were too expensive and in the end, we didn't buy them.



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These are rice cakes. Never seen anything of such before.
The name rice cakes gave me the feeling of something that can make me VERY full. Decided to be safe and not buy it.



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Putu bamboo? What's that?



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Then u must be thinking what the cheapskate me bought! Hahahaha!
I bought the Oneh Oneh that costs only $2! That's what Simba is holding.


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They have different flavours as well, not just the normal coconut flavour.
I couldn't finish all 4 of them as they have gotten too sweet by the time I finished the second one!


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My favourite stall.
They have my favourite mee sua, sour and spicy soup, and Taiwan milk tea.
But mee sua was sold out! And I couldn't drink the milk tea since I will stay awake the whole night after drinking it. So I bought only the sour and spicy soup.

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Some Japanese beer.

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We sat at the sitting area of the fair to enjoy our Sour and Spicy soup. Simba influenced me not to drink any Shark's fin soup anymore. Lol. Save the sharks! They are facing extinction!



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Simba bought this for me too!
So cute right the chocolates with animal faces!
The original price was $15 per box but we got it for only $5! It was because we went on the last day of the fair and everything was discounted! :D
The promoter let us try the chocolate samples and they were really good. There is a taste of alcohol in them and I love it. It is so similar to the tiramisu taste!
But once we ate what we bought, they don't taste the same as the samples. Lol. They do not have alcohol taste inside. The promoter introduced the wrong chocolates! So sad!


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This is Simba with the box brand. Lols.



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Simba chose the pig to eat.
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And I chose the bear.

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And we went to the Hokkaido Fair.
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The puff costs $5 each. It comes in many flavours as well! Was so tempted to buy one but thinking of the extra weight i may gain, I let go the whole idea. I was so clear about what I want for the first time!



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And Hokkaido ice cream! I didn't get a good picture since Simba kept trying to appear in the photo! Sad!



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A roll cake costs $18. Wows it's crazy. My mum bought a roll cake at Serangoon Central and it only costs $2. But I tried and it was really good! The fair was really for people who don't mind spending more just for good food! I have friends who are this way. They felt that good food can make every bad thing turn better. :)

I didn't manage to take more photos cos the security came and stopped me from taking photos. :(
Simba kept stopping me before the security caught me and I would assure him it was alright. I would keep when anyone came and asked me to stop. Such disobedient customer I am!

:D

Love is in the air

Love is in the air~
Recently people around me are getting attached or engaged. :D
I find that it is always the mid year that such happy events happen. Is it because of school holidays when people are less stressed about school? I dunno. It's a wild guess! Anyway, congrats to all the newly attached and engaged couples! :)

Well.. Some people like to stay single. I respect that. But in my opinion, it always feels good to be constantly reminded that you always have your partner's support. There is always something to look forward to. During a boring day at work, you will still feel excited about what is going to happen next, like maybe a dinner at a place you longed wanted to go to. :D Or when you feel terrible about something, somehow when he says 'it's okie', you feel a 1000x better. Or when you have to ask for some advice regarding your Singtel bill like I did, you know you have to ask him on what to say before you dial 1688. And you know for every single night there will be someone who msgs u good night.

Yeahs, I believe in happy marriages.
So girls, if he is a nice guy and he's after you, why not give him a chance! You never know, he may be just perfect for u! :D

Wednesday, July 13, 2011

Yu Ping and Valerie

It is Wednesday today. Met Emmaline, Yu Ping and Valerie to return our aprons and name tags, then went with Yu Ping and Valerie for the movie Monte Carlo.

Although the movie was kind of funny and I liked it, I think both of them liked it better than me since it is a more to teens movie. Lol. Both of them were praising the movie so much! Yes, the movie wasn't suggested by me. Have to admit that I'm more of an adult now :D

Poor Yu Ping wanted to watch Hangover Part II but couldn't since she is afraid that she will get caught before entering the theatre. (She is not yet 18!) So being young has its own disadvantage too!

Then we went for dinner at Manhatten Fish Market. Our fish & chips only costs $10.50 each cos Valerie has this $6 discount voucher. Cool!

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Pretty and me!
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They love the iphone special effects apps.

Valerie stays in Kovan and so we took the same train back. :)

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They wanna go cycling on Friday. This week i will be packed with activities and next week I am flying to Vietnam. Lol. This gives me a perfect excuse for not being able to apply for jobs.


:D

Tuesday, July 12, 2011

Isetan & Hainan Day 3 Part 1

Yeahs! I have finished the 2 fun weeks I had in Isetan!
Today I am back to doing nothing at home. Simba is back for reservist for a week! It is his fourth reservist! Wows, it's scary that we are getting older!

He has to report to the Seletar camp and I can meet him at Jalan Kayu for some nice prata. :D

I bought a big packet of marshmallows at the Value dollar shop for $1.05 only! So happy to get it although health conscious Simba wasn't. I always buy it at more than 2 bucks.

I got many comments that I look scary when I wear colour contact lens! Do I?

I think I'm going to get my hair straight. Lol. Mostly becos my Isetan colleagues have straight hair. Lol. Looking at them everyday reminds me to get my hair straight. And another big reason is that there are going to be so many photos taken in the upcoming events like grad trips, convocation and convocation ball.

I'm feeling more excited everyday since all these events are in July and it is July now!


I didn't blog about Hainan the last 2 weeks as I was so tired after everyday at work. I hope I can finish blogging about it before I go to Vietnam!

Simba didn't blog about the 2nd part of the Shark exhibition cos he needs me to help him open the page and I wasn't free. :D

Went out with the Isetan colleagues on our last day of work. Yu Ping suggested Aston at the Cathay and we headed straight there. The queue was long even on a Monday and we waited for very long for our food to arrive. It was 8 45pm when we started eating. I was dead hungry.
From Isetan
The two people i am closer to are the ones standing just right beside me.
They are the 2 pretty girls, Yu Ping (18 years old) and Valerie (21 years old). They are even younger than my younger brother.
Yu Ping and I are always talking about some online shoppings, and looking at customers' branded bags and really nice outfits. Valerie and I are always teasing each other, especially about who has the higher EQ or a nicer voice, and making stupid jokes.
They make working really fun! I hope we can still keep in touch.

(We are all wearing black cos we have to for our work! Only the girl in white, Zhenlin, changed their top after work.)


So here is Hainan Day 3 Part 1.

I woke up early and waited for my relatives to get ready. And so, it was photo taking time while granny was in the toilet!

I was told that we had to spend the whole day at the village and I may get mosquito bites all over my body, and so I had to wear long sleeves.

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My hotel room! Thank God that exams are over and I don't break out as much.



We went back to the same coffeeshop to have our breakfast.

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Cousin with the buns. They look so big and cute.


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These buns are of many shapes.

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Another kind of shape. Anyway, I think they taste the same. They taste great but they taste the same. They are so sweet and I like them sweet.


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I started to like candid shots sometime back since they captured the most natural moment.
That is 6th gong talking non-stop and everyone listening to him, especially dad who always taught us to respect the elders. Everyone was trying to 'siam' his saliva! Hahahahahaha. He kept talking even when his saliva is dripping and spreading.

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Look at the happy expressions of the people. Something that a candid shot does best.
My camera battery died and the charger was spoiled. I had to use my iphone camera and cos the shutter time was very fast, the picture wasn't blur even with movement. Something iphone does best. Hearts iphone. Lol.

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The sweet kopi-O.

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This is the noodles i was talking about in my previous entry.
My cousin thought it is really yummy, so it must be it!


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We went back to Hainan's cousin's room for a rest and she played 康熙來了for us to watch. It was about having some Taiwanese actresses removing their make up and comparing who looks the scariest. In the end, I felt that they all look pretty wihtout make up. Beauty is in their bones. Cousin told me to take note of this hairstyle since she felt that this actress has a face shape like mine, and i should copy her.



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When we were all ready to go to the village, Hainan cousin showed us that she could ride her dad's motorbike. She appears to be the 'Tarzan and Jane's Jane after I saw her climbing up some trees. Omg.


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Her dad looked worried from behind.



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Hainan uncle then drove us to where our ancestors' graves are located.
We had to pay our respects to our ancestors.

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Cousin was paranoid about mosquito bites and kept thinking that she was itchy. Lol.
So we headed out onto the road to avoid the "mosquitoes". I didn't get bitten by the way.


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After Hainan cousin finally warmed up with us, she was willing to take pictures with us.
She is so cute!



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This is how a village looks like. Surrounded by trees. Only some patches not filled with grasses allowed for vehicles to pass. The rocks made the route to the village really bumpy.




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When we reached the village, we were served with eggs.
It is like Chinese New Year!



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There will be also stray dogs who enter the house as and when they like. I am somehow not afraid of them like I usually am after the villagers told us that the dogs are friendly.


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These dogs are HUGE. I think they reach my shoulder when they stand up.
I touched one of them and the hair on its body is so coarse! It is entirely opposite of what I imagined. I thought they would have thin fine hair instead.


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Bro trained dogs during his NS and knows how to check if they are sick.


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And they have these tables like those in our kopitiams under some trees for shade. They invited us to have our coconut juices there.


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My young Hainan cousins.
They are cute and shy. They didn't want to pose when my camera pointed at them. Sad!
The bottles on the table are the famous mineral water sold there.



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It's one of the Hainan uncles working hard in chopping up the coconuts!


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And 6th gong suddenly appeared with a manual, something which I refer to as the Wu Lin Mi Ji (Kungfu notebook). This noble book was written by our ancestors using ink and 毛笔! Omg. I was telling Dad how careful and neat this ancestor was and he said, "Omg! He rewrote the whole paper if a word was wrong la!" Oh ya! So scary, the sentences are constructed in a way that they appear to be so difficult to read and understand.

The manual was about the names of every generation that we have to follow. It would never be my business cos only the sons are named this way.


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Look at how crumpled the manual is!



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We also went to Aunt's husband's relatives' place for a visit.
They served us with this drink. So special that I have to take a picture of it.



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Their living room. Very vintage i know.



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Aunt cooked curry for them. Smelled real good but I wasn't supposed to eat it. :(



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Similarly, they also served us these fruits, the longans and jumbos.


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And it was time for dinner.
They shared the dessert wine that my brother recommended and the Baileys. They love it! We were told that the Hainanese treated beer and wine as water. Lol.
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6th gong then passed Dad the copy of the manual.
Since they do not have a photocopying machine, they rewrote the whole manual to pass it down to individual families. Omg. I wonder how long they spend writing it.


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Aunt told me to try napping in this tree swing. I was so paranoid that i may break it. I have gained weight u see!

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But cousins were happily playing with it.
This is the difference between me and them. I am so suku.



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And lastly (cos i'm so tired now), a photo of the male cousins and bro!
They share the same surname and middle name (庄光), just that they speak in a different accent as us.