Yeps, I'm back from Vietnam; miss me? XD Well sorry for taking so long to post, I've been dead beat since I reached home; we didn't get a rest day and I had to slave through 10 hours in school on Friday. T_T

Anyhow, here I am writing about my trip, so yay! Overall the trip has been absolutely fantabulous, I really miss everything about it; the bus rides, the mobile lessons, our tour guide Long... But yeah all good things must come to an end, and what follows will be something good that will in turn begin. ^^

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Since long ago I've been looking forward to the trip. But not so much the time that'll be spent there in Vietnam, more like the time spent _getting_ to Vietnam. Yes, I was looking forward to the plane ride! My first and last plane ride before this was when I was in Primary 2 to Goldcoast, Australia. Just imagine the excitement I felt when I was about to board a plane again after 7 years. XD

Unfortunately, my excitement pretty much backfired on me. Entering the airport I felt like such a foreigner; not to the country but to the airport and how the whole thing worked. I didn't know how to do the check-ins, the boardings, yadda-yadda. Basically, I followed everyone else like some blind sheep. XD

That wasn't too bad, it was much worse on the plane. On board I sat between Daniel and Ms. Lydia Yap; I must thank them for tolerating my stupidity and for helping me along the way. For one I didn't know how to use the seatbelt; I tried all ways and means trying to stick the two ends together but they just wouldn't click. > . > Then I tried plugging the headphones into the screen. > . > Then I didn't know how to take the remote out. > . > Then I spilt 7-up all over myself because I fiddled with the table-thingie. > . >

Well it was still fun; peering out the window from the next-to-the-window-seat seat, popping my ears, eating the food, using the on-board entertainment system... And yeah it was a smooth ride. ^^

So we reached Saigon safely, and checked into our hotel. I roomed with Daniel, and yeah in the process "learnt about how he's such a wonderful friend". XD After that we had dinner on a cruise ship along the Saigon River; it was a nice dinner with good entertainment.

The day ended well, retiring back to our rooms after that. Day 1 was spent slow and easy, just a little something that introduced us to Vietnam, I guess.

For the past week I've been busy Peer Support Leader (PSL) -ing; haven't had much time to blog, sorry. But now that the Sec 1 Orientation camp has wrapped up and tomorrow's a public holiday (Happy Hari Raya Haji!); it's time for a recap on the fun stuff that happened during the past week. ^^

Being a PSL has been enriching; looking after a bunch of small, and might I add rather defiant, kids has taught me lotsa' new stuff. (And it gave me a taste of what a teacher's job might be; I brought the kids around places, gave instructions, and marked worksheets. ^^)

At most times everything went well, only thing I hated was when the occasional few'd give me problems!They got defiant and didn't listen to instructions. So yeah I tried being strict and angry so that they'd obey. :D

Other than that weird occasions posed difficult problems for me! Like on Wednesday after the Sports Bazaar my group got stuck at the MPH with no shelter to lead us back to the main building! X_X Then I had to make sure they didn't run about, and had them eat their lunch at the poolside cafeteria. What's more, one person lost his handphone and another, his wallet. Right now they're still missing.

All this went on from Tuesday to Friday on 4 pm, I was dead beat at the end of each day. Plus I had been skipping lessons for the camp, so I still had to come home and do homework and catch up with lessons. I hope the experience has made me more responsible and stuff, I guess.

Saturday was the last day of the camp; in my opinion it was the best day. XD Firstly I wasn't skipping lessons, and secondly it was the day where the closing lunch was held! Golly, the food was _super_! They had sushi, spaghetti, chicken...! And all sorts of other food too, it was like some food fair with food from all over the world~! ^^ Plus before the eating we helped out with the food, that too was fun.

On Saturday I also met my long-lost buddy, so exciting~! ^^ When I was in Primary 3 I was attached to a P1 through the Buddy Programme we had, so yeah I helped him out with the school and recess and stuff. Now that I'm in Sec 3, I met the Sec 1 him again after all these years! His name is Shane, and now I've gotten him on my MSN so we can talk often. ^^ Catching up with him after 6 years, I found out that I actually left quite a "lasting impression" on him; to the point that he wanted me as a brother! I must say I'm quite honoured, I never knew I could leave such impressions. =) Well now we're "godbrothers", and he's even joined the Library on Tuesdays so that we could see each other every week. ^^

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Well right now lessons have finally started proper for me in school, and so far I think everything's going mighty fine. Plus tomorrow's a nice rest day, and after Wednesday we'd be jetting off to Vietnam for my OEP; will be looking forward to a nice vacation. ^^

Only thing now'd probably be the dance I've to choreograph for my class to perform as part of CIP at Vietnam... Anyone got any ideas? Hope the dancesteps don't turn out like some chicken dance. XD

First off, here's to wishing everyone a happy new year! Know you'll have a pleasant and happy year ahead. ^^

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This year was no exception, my family had our Annual Countdown Barbeque at my gramp's again; boy was it fantabulous! I think it's the best one we've had all these years.

We started the fire at six; to much more success than our class barbeque. XD (Always pays to have an adult help with these kinda' things. Unless of course, you're one yourself. XD)

All the chicken wings, satay, corn, potatoes, sausages, tomatoes and garlic bread quickly found their way onto the grill and into our stomachs. And just imagine we were eating non-stop from 6 to 12+! (A long meal that spanned 2 years! XD What a great achievement. ;))

Of course, we weren't only eating, we were chatting lots too! Not only that, my uncle brought this huge projector/screen thingie and had it set up outside the house! We were watching Finding Nemo and Racing Stripes throughout the night under the stars; so cool hor!

While the adults were outside, the kids were playing Gamecube and Xbox inside the house, so fun! Yeps, I shuttled between the two since I'm somewhat in between. (Ahh, the benefits of being a teen. ;D)

Before we knew it, it was nearing twelve! Watching the countdown on Channel 5 with the huge screen, we counted down and popped champagne (Actually just sparking juice to be child-friendly.) at the stroke of midnight! The kids then played lotsa' lotsa' sparkles and ate lotsa' lotsa' marshmallows! (I joined in on this one. =P) Oh and we managed to catch a glimpse of the actual fireworks, lucky us! ;)

I would've loved to enjoy the first few hours of the new year, but I was dead beat and settled for the first few minutes. (Hehe.) Not too long I plonked myself onto the bed and fell fast asleep. Zzz.

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For me, the highlight of the first day of 2006 was Wu Tao Gou (Yu Tou Gao/Yam cake.) and painting. Like every weekend at my gramp's we always get to something fun. ^^

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Yep, this week we made our own Wu Tao Gou, and it's really tough! You have to...

1. Peel the yam.
2. Cube the yam.
3. Steam the yam cubes.
4. Mash the yam cubes into paste. (This one's the tough one, my hands are sore after doing this. T_T)
5. Mix this with a dozen of other ingredients. I can't remember them all, but there's flour, mushrooms, spring onions, onions, preserved veggie, and a lot of other stuff that I'm not sure.
6. Steam it.

We had three batches to steam, and only the first one succeeded. x_x" The other two had too little water. We managed to salvage it, though: By mashing the failed ones and re-steaming them. (Gosh, more mashing. > . >)

Still, all the Wu Tao Gou turned out fine and tasty in the end, so yay! And miraculously my hand felt better after eating them. ;D Well now we all know the hard work that goes behind a delicious plate of Wu Tao Gou you get at the market for $2.

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My aunts were walking along the paintings' section of Ikea some time back, and wanted to buy a painting for my Gramp's place for Chinese New Year. You know, just to make things look pretty. They picked one... And then put it back. It was so expensive! And just for a painting that you could do yourself. *snap* So why not do our very own painting for less than 10% the original price?

After that my aunts got about to buying a canvas from Spotlight at around $8, and just yesterday we created our own masterpiece that's hanging on the walls of my gramp's place right now. ;)

I don't have a picture of it right now, but it's a somewhat abstract piece of some leaves and trees. Not very professional lah, but still quite cool; we tried to be 'arty-farty' about it. XD Will post a picture of it when I have the chance. ^^

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Today we had a surprise guest; Doggie~! ^^ After waking up at my gramp's for the second time this weekend, we found a dog outside the main gate! We think it signals the good fortune we'll be getting in the new lunar new year. ;D

Well we named it Doggie for that time being, and since it was panting, we fed it some water. We tried speaking to it in Dog! And all the other dialects like Retrievian, Daschund and all that, we weren't sure what species it was. We were trying to get him to drink the water, so we were going, 'Woof-woof-woof, woof woof-woof-woof-woof, woof!'. Apparently it translated to 'Broccoli is pink and have wings.' or something, he didn't drink the water. XD

Soon, the novelty wore off and bigger problems concerning it's owner and all that came to mind. > . > We were about to call SPCA when he suddenly walked away! We followed him a few streets away, until we reached this other house which he walked in. Guess he went back home.

Hope he visits some time again! ^^