trains. the visual entry.

trains.

i'm meant to be researching and studying for my design project. but instead i have the strongest urge to put up this post i've been drafting in my head.

trains.

in singapore, train rides are just... almost unavoidable. you dont love it. some dont hate it. most just live with it. i personally do my utmost to avoid it. and almost succeed! the wonders of a tertiary buspass... :)

my point here, though, is that. train rides are long, silent (if in a carriage without a pack of students or children), monotonous (for those without a good read or good music)....

hell. food and drink aren't even ALLOWED. for good reason too. we already have piss-smelling lifts. we don't need rotten-food-smelling trains. :)

well. i've had some encounters on trains in quite a few countries. london underground is.. heat-stroke-causing in summer, (probably) butt-freezing in winter. switzerland trains are marvellous. nothing more i can say. hongkong mtr is efficient, with even blinking light indicators to show the stop you're at. bangkok btr(?) is.. fast? a tad confusing in the station circulation. dont think i ever took the train in australia. nor malaysia.

the korean metro however... has since (since arriving here and my first use of it on the 20th of july this year) become a major topic of discussion for us singaporean students here on exchange.

one can do just about anything one wants on the korean metro. possibly all except smoke?

to list down all the incriminating incidents of how interesting and fascinating the korean metro is would kill me. it far exceeds the number of meals ive had here in korea. :p there are, however, a fair few examples that i think will suffice. :)

CASE STUDY 1:
when i say you can do just about anything on the train here in korea, i MEAN just about anything. and people REALLY DO DO just about anything. this includes selling CDs of classic korean ballads.. whilst blasting one on a portable transistor as advertising for your product.. and shouting above the blasting of your played product to inform potential customers (albeit busy reading the newspapers or sleeping or chatting amongst themselves) of the deal they're missing out on should they choose to forego this wonderful opportunity.

some others come around selling men's socks.. the.. arab sheikh kind silk(?) socks.. in two shades: black and grey..

picnic mats. HUGE. printed straw on one side and silver on the other.

torchlights. small. convenient to carry, with a clip. though.. when clipped to anything, looks like the lights on the top of miners' helmets..

well.. there are tonnes more yet. i just can't seem to summon them to the forefront of my thoughts. :) so yes. you can just about do anything.. like. sell stuff.

* * *

CASE STUDY 2:
then there's the controversial topic of preaching and evangelising.

freedom of speech is something advocated everywhere... in many countries all over the world. most people are, however, still hesitant to speak of political or religious issues. yet... the christian population i've encountered here in korea are all mighty believers and preachers and recruiters.... i've had a woman (previously seated down on a bench under a pavilion in school) jump up and walk over to me saying something in korean before realising i'm foreign and swapping to english and asking if i've heard of God.

this does not escape the jurisdiction of "Things You Can Do on the Korean Metro" mandate.

whilst on the train one time, exhausted from a long day at work (eventful for me, not so for some others) and full of dinner, most of us were fast asleep on scattered seats. even with my earphones plugged into my ears, blasting keane's under the iron sea album, i got awoken by some shouts... that didn't sound friendly.

two guys, GROWN men, were standing (almost confrontationally) at one end of the carriage we were in.. by this time all eyes were either dead shut (asleep) or on them. and one was dressed respectably in a grey jacket suit while the other was.. in brown slacks and a tee.. both were in a disagreement.* and being the kaypo singaporean i am, i was resolved to find out the topic of discussion between the two koreans afterward.

*one does not need to have full understanding of any one language to discern a friendly discussion from a plain disagreement.

so that's just what i did. after the train ride, i rushed over to the side of my korean friend and sought the answer to my question.

it turned out that Grey Suited was preaching about God and Christianity at the end of the carriage, and this is done quite alot. No harm done there. most passengers would just switch on their selective hearing and focus on whatever else they wanted. unfortunately for Grey Suited, he preached at the end of the carriage where Brown Slacked sat. Brown Slacked (obviously NOT a christian) got offended by what Grey Suited had to offer in his judgement on the world.. or rather.. his relaying of God's judgement on the world and what would happen to those who do not answer to His call... and asked him (whether politely or not i haven't a clue) to vacate his present position and to seek some other point of proclamation. this evolved into a heated "discussion" and resulted in two redfaced koreans. Grey Suited, obliging and moving off, and Brown Slacked not budging and chasing him out of the train, with shouts of some Korean adjectives.. probably best left unrevealed.. :)

i bet another factor was involved. Brown Slacked might have been drunk.

* * *

SO. only two case studies and already this post is getting toooo long.. well then. briefly. other examples include having a couple of drunk teenagers exposing fellow peer's newly bought boxers, waving them in the air, then whacking one another hard on the head; a lady throwing up beside me; meeting a singapore PR korean lady seated beside me; having a wacky looking guy (all artisty with the black beret on the head of long grey hair swept up in a ponytail and with a beard) seated next to me take a page from a newspaper and sketching floor plans on the page's empty spaces; having a 1.5hr train ride drag to a 2.25hr train ride, with the additional duration being spent stuck in the middle of an underground tunnel, surrounded by a horde of people itching to get to work, and having your oxygen supply dwindle to the point of your glasses fogging up just from breathing normally.(apparently there was an accident or someone died?)

ooh ooh ooh!!! the MOST important thing. the ONE time i saw the single most DASHINGLY CUTE korean guy seated adjacently opposite me.

yes. that pretty much sums it all up. trains. :)

sombre sunday

weird.. my previous post refuses to show up on the blog... :( oh well...

as the title states.. today's a sombre grey sunday... skies have been grey all morning and afternoon... raining/drizzling nonstop... today's sermon was about trusting in Him and forgiveness... forgiving others as He forgave us.... simple... stuff we Catholics recite every week at mass... but do we actually really stop to do any of it..? there was a sharing session afterwards, as with every other week... and it took me time but i finally shared.... shared how difficult it is to forgive others.

by right, it's tough to forgive people who have hurt us directly and who have done us wrong. if it wasn't so personal, like a sin committed against another person, it shouldn't affect us as much.... BY RIGHT, it should be easier to forgive in that situation.... but i can't.... i somehow can't bring myself to forgive one who has hurt the one i love.... oh well... at least i let it out today.. feel a little better about it... but i guess i'm slowly beginning to forgive... that's good right?

anyway... decided to come home to rest today. the rest headed out to seoul... really not in the mood for seoul today i think.. just want some quiet..... time alone.. to think....

an old song i sang for a wedding once... heard again on class 95 the other night, all the way here in korea....blogged it before too.. a long way back... miss listening to the song... ciao... hope everyone had a better weekend than i did...

These Foolish Things by Frank Sinatra

A cigarette that bears a lipsticks' traces
An airline ticket to romantic places
And still my heart has wings
These foolish things remind me of you

A tinkling piano in the next apartment
Those stumbling words that told you what my heart meant
A fairground's painted swing
These foolish things remind me of you

You came, you saw, you conquered me
When you did that to me
I knew somehow this had to be

The winds of March that make my heart a dancer
A telephone that rings, but who’s to answer
Oh, how the ghost of you clings
These foolish things remind me of you

The smile of Turner and the scent of roses
The waiters whistling as the last bar closes
The song that Crosby sings
These foolish things remind me of you

Babe, these things remind me of you

emptiness

weird saturday it is for me today... felt strangely empty..... think i can kinda imagine what it feels like having a dementor around..... having the happiness sucked out from you..... drained dry....... and yet i brought it upon myself...

i have nothing nice or happy or encouraging to say. all i have are song lyrics in my head... and how apt some of them are at points in our lives.... what would we do without good songs and lyrics to get us through tough times.....

i guess i'll leave you all with this... at least it's happy.....

That's All by Michael Buble (cover)

I can only give you love that lasts forever
And the promise to be near each time you call
And the only heart I own
For you and you alone
That's all
That's all

I can only give you country walks in springtime
And a hand to hold when leaves begin to fall
And a love whose burning light
Will warm the winter night
That's all
That's all

There are those I am sure who have told you
They would give you the world for a toy
All I have are these arms to enfold you
And a love time can never destroy

If you're wondering what I'm asking in return dear
You'll be glad to know that my demands are small
Say it's me that you adore
For now and ever more
That's all
That's all



i love you....

optimism

the good thing about optimism is... there's always something to be happy about, grateful for, thankful for..

you'd realise, if you stop to think about it, that optimism is the key - to long healthy happy life. no matter what happens to you. there'll be someone who benefits even if it's not you. there'll be something to gain from it, even if initially it seems like certain loss, you might gain a lesson!

the power of optimism.

why can't it be bestowed upon me?...

i've lost the key thing i was looking forward to, to close this year....... and i'm sure that if i adopted the optimism attitude here, there'd be a million things to be happy about, thankful and grateful for....... if only..... if only i could be optimistic.

it's like there's an inbuilt mechanism within me that repels all optimistic thoughts... i must try harder...

you confuse me. i don't get you.. and i think i might never.....

yet another sleepless, fitful night.....
God help me.

the act of crying

in the past i never once stopped to think why we cry. possibly due to the fact that although i did loads of it, there was mostly valid reason to... injuring myself (in however painful a manner), losing precious things/people.... feeling injusticed (however warped my opinion might have been sometimes...)... there was always a "real" reason...

maybe i'm growing.. or my body's changing like rie says.. the falling ill.. the erratic moodswings... the incessant crying... (making myself out to be some pathetic depressive miserable person...)

there's no other explanation otherwise.

and it just got me thinking... scientifically.. the act of crying is stimulated by nerves..... not that i know expertly what i'm talking about.. i could easily wiki it but i'm far too lazy and of not good enough a mood.... but common science sense tells me that there must be some nerve endings that, when sensing pain, also send signals to our tear ducts to release tears. so when there's valid stimuli, like injuries, strong feelings of loss.. fear... anxiety maybe? it's understandable why any one person would cry in any of those circumstances..

but for nothing? or for the slightest things? or... when you cry once over something.. and you recover from it and think that's that... but you end up shedding tears over that same issue over and over and over again... night after night.... that can't be healthy can it?

lucky for me. there's great instant coffee at the office that does what little coffee does for me in keeping me alive and awake..

lucky for me. i've got a nice team to work in/with, with nice colleagues to take breaks with...

lucky for me. any tears shed here in korea can all simply be misunderstood as tears of homesickness, if anyone even catches me shedding any in the first place..

what i'd do for you............. is apparently far too much.

bad sleep in bed, good sleep on train

what is the world coming to? cold rain in summer, hot days in winter... bad sleep in bed, good sleep on train..... everything's turned topsy turvy these days...

sitting here at my desk having photoshopped all day.. didn't really take much of a rbeak for lunch either cos wasn't hungry... plan to take an icecream break later...

ARGH just got given work.. blog tonight maybe then.. ciao...

more on the not-so-fragrant* harbour

not so fragrant cos of all the back alleys that smell funny... because of the smelly little street that rie sometimes uses as a shortcut to work... because of chou dou fu... because... well... i could really delve into how it IS fragrant instead and there'd be lots to say too.. all the lovely food frangrances.... *swoon*... *salivate* hahahaha..:p

alright alright.. back to more photos... i'll hurry so that we can get to korea yeah? cheerio.

okay.. so continuing where i left off last post (before i had to leave to make a model.. which i've finished so back at my desk taking another blog-break)...

howard and i took a stroll down nathan road right? almost to the end.. means from tsim sha tsui to mongkok... near where andy lau stays.. :) so along the way we saw many many buildings.. loads of the stereotypically-hongkong neonlights, all hanging overhead, protruding out from buildings over the road...

and this was further down to the left of nathan road where howard said he'd show me a really really old area with a fruit wholesale market... i got SOOOOOOOO excited cos thought i'd FINALLY get to buy cheap fruit but alas! the market's only open from 12am-5am. :( but walked through the almost-empty market anyway... snapping a few shots along the way... :)

this was the next day when rie was at work and howard brought me strolling again to hongkong island, central... see anything familiar? :) it was a lovely lovely day!!! i swear i've good luck with weather whenever i plan to take cruises or boatrides. :p in london too!!! and i've loads of nice pictures to show for it i think... :)

then we walked past this underside of a flyover.. and i thought it was real cool... it's just a painting on a flat 2D surface of concrete! and i thought it looked real neat so snapped a pic of it... then beside us were two guys smoking... and one of them suddenly asked us where we were from, cos he could hear from our accents that we're singaporean!! eeeks.. haha... then he gave us some tips.. that we could go up to the 43rd story of the bank of china free of charge to take aerial shots if we wanted!!! :)

then we walked to wanchai... where there are many street markets.. like the one above.. and the oldest wet markets in hongkong apparently.. which they plan to tear down!!!! EEEKS!!!! and below is called "wedding card street" cos there used to be, for years, many printing shops along this street.. all the different ones competing against one another.. yet... i think it was a community in itself... with competitors being neighbours and age-old friends.... really saddening... could see the torn remnants of protest flags flying from the buildings.... to protest against the urban redevelopment people.... *SIGH*.....

then there's the Blue House.. (the blue on the left edge of the picture above? imagine an entire 4storey block in that colour... UH HUH...) a very very very old house... old to the point of not having any toilets... when i heard that, i looked up the facade of the building and seeing many clothes lines still being in use, wondered how there could STILL be ANYONE living in a building without toilets...

answer: chamberpots.

*puke from thought of stench*

also, the house is so coloured because they used leftover paint to paint this building and this colour was apparently all they could find at that point.
coolness. :)


anyhow.... this is out of synch. :p this picure was taken my first morning in Hongkong.. when i went with rie to her office... :)

i miss you rie!!!

alright... that's it for now then... finished with work!!! gonna go home now.. YAY!! :) ciao.

what's opposite of monday blues..?

erm... monday pinks? but what if i hate pink and love blue?? then... wouldn't monday blues be a happy thing instead? heh... *sheepish grin* bored and high.. not too sure why either.... didn't go out for lunch today... stayed in to work on a model.. then at half past 12 walked out to the convenience store on the corner to get a sandwich.. figured a sandwich would be better for me than yoghurt again.... and still have half a banana pound left from this morning... can have for tea later i guess... then might not need much for dinner too....

anyway... as promised. will update you all on my hongkong trip before launching full-fletched into korea exchange 2007. okay? :) i'm a girl of my word. haha...

the Hongkong International Airport.. the night i arrived... 4.5hours after rie.. heh... she had to wait for me a really long time.. poor che che rie..... i felt awful... and then we still had to travel back more than an hour on express bus to nathan road... the main shopping street of tsim sha tsui.. :) where rie lives!!

so this is near rie's home... she lives just across from work and so when she and her colleagues have lunch, plenty of cafes and cha tings and restaurants are all around her home. :) this was one of the random apartment blocks with a central atrium (not much of a view to look out to if you ask me. :p) and at the back on the gorund floor is an eatery!! hahaha... like it just popped out from nowhere... :p lovely though... for photos.. :p

took a long walk... down almost he entire length of nathan road, with my really kind and patient guide, howard, (relation is complicated. erm. sis' boyfriend's brother's good friend?)

anyway, so he brought me on a stroll.. passing by many buildings and chatting as we walked...

this one's some apartment-block-cum-backpacker's-hotel? looked cute.. :p

then there was langham place... WHICH. as i was told.. is one of the many unofficial red light districts of kowloon. hahahaha... loads of old apartment blocks and small old dilapidated complexes...

hongkong urban redevelopment authority came and plonked this modernity right in the centre of this seedy area. maybe it was a conscious bid to convert the area? no idea.. but that's apparently the hotel that paul and his family stayed in just two weeks ago.. :)

relaxing weekend...

it's a lovely sunday evening.... waiting for the heater to warm up before i head to the shower... and my plan to rest this weekend was achieved!!!

well... not entirely seeing as i only slept 5hours last night.. but about 10 the night before?? so thats great... to make up for the utter lack of sleep on weeknights. :p

slept in till 2pm on saturday.. and slacked the day away uploading photos to my photobucket*.. had simple dinner and walked around the centre of ansan... nice dessert too!!! i'll get back to that soon i'm sure.. all in all a great relaxing day.. :)

today was my first time singing for the english service here at saeansan methodist church!! and it felt great... to finally be back serving Him in what i do best.... *sigh of satisfaction* i'm happy. :) ooooh!! and i bought some stuff to start on a miniproject here in korea... hopefully i succeed!! :p

alright... now comes my dilemma.... i've tonnes of photos from my hongkong trip still unpublished....... and i'd love to show the people i love (assuming they still come by here! :p) what a great time i had in hongkong.... with rie.. and if anything too, to give rie a chance to reminisce for a bit.. :)

SO.

here's the plan. i'll just do a few quick posts of photos and happenings... and then get back to my boring life (compared to exciting holiday in hongkong) in korea. think that sounds like a good plan. :) alright!

i'll get started after my shower then. (if i'm still awake..... :p)
ciao.

* http://s92.photobucket.com/albums/l1/fi787072/

monday blues.. on a friday...

freaky friday..? maybe.... feeling crappy on a hot-but-otherwise-lovely korean friday morning.... intern partner's last day today... starting monday i'll be so lonely... woeropda.... *sigh* it's been fun having him around to chat with and work with and take ice cream breaks with... oh well.... guess i'll have to get by on my own from now on..... :(

had a long chat on religious stuff last night....

think i'm beginning to morph into dad.... what IS the meaning of life? what are we here for? cos it seems that happiness is too tough to find.... but we can't possibly be put here to suffer in misery can we? pretty darn sure He isn't so sadistic...... :p

oh well... feeling slightly more awake after the espresso i had on the train into seoul... visiting hongde tonight after work... from what i hear it's the best clubbing pubbing area in seoul.... better than itaewon and gangnam... hope so... need a break...... a nice drink.....

oh! heard about the yogyakarta trip appearing in SA magazine last month.. then heard last night that there's a photograph.. with me in it... and i got quoted??!!....... hope i looked fine....... it was pre-6kg-loss.... and that i didn't sound like some lame bimbo. :p haha.....

for a moment there i almost forgot i haven't read the last instalment of the boy wizard series..... soon i guess....

oooh!!! for anyone who's planning to visit me or korea in the near future... there are lovely lovely places to bring you to!!! i'll make a good guide i promise.. know food names and my way around transportation.. (a bit lah..:p) *raises hands, waves in the air* pick me pick me!! :)

guess i'm feeling better already... alright then.. ciao...

thank God it's friday.