It was the second day of Chinese New Year. Once again, we had to visit our relatives, but now on the paternal side. Like last time, my family was going to my uncle's house. My uncle had ordered a buffet of Muslim food, for lunch and dinner. I wondered why he ordered Muslim food when it is Chinese New Year. But so long as there was something to eat during that day, I did not went to think about it.
We reached there at about 1pm, and we immediately settled down for lunch. Of course, as Muslim food, almost everything was hot, spicy and deep-fried. Yum! There was, as expected, chicken wings, drumstick and fried fish. Thinking that they were nice, I took quite a lot. However, everything, especially the fried fish, was very salty. Yucks! Finally, we had desserts. This time, it was very sweet. Salty and sweet, would I get high blood pressure and diabetes during this auspicious day? Obviously not!
Next, like Chinese New Year Eve, I played Mahjong with my cousins. This time, luck was not on my side. I did not win a round at all! After playing, we had dinner, which was the same food again...
After dinner, we left for home. That day was not as interesting as the past years, so I have very little things to say. That's it, I have finish describing the events during the Chinese New Year season...
Sunday, February 1, 2009
Chinese New Year Day 2
Wednesday, January 28, 2009
Chinese New Year Day 1
The Year of Ox has finally arrived! It is Chinese New Year! Every year on this day, my family would visit my relatives on my maternal side. But of course on this year, we only went to my granddad's house, which is also my uncle's house. The entire family would go there and have lunch. Yum, fried chicken wings and nuggets! Expecting a boring day, as I might not be able to go somewhere else, my aunt suddenly decided to go to the island of Sentosa to watch the Sentosa Flowers 2009. I nervously asked her if I could tag along. Unexpectedly, she agreed.
Without further a do, we set off on her car. My parents also wanted to follow, but there is not enough space in the car(my aunt, her husband-the driver, my two cousins and me made it packed already), so they went there by the MRT trains and the Sentosa Express. When we reached the Sentosa Gateway, we were taken by surprise. There is such a long queue of cars trying to enter Sentosa! So, we had no choice but to follow the queue to enter.
After half an hour of waiting, we finally got onto the island itself.Unbelievably, we wasted yet another half an hour trying to find a spot to park the car. We went from east to west, west to east and back again as we have to pay more than five dollars to park in one of the multi-storey carparks. So, we tried to find a free carpark and we did. There was a free carpark at the beach, thus we parked the car there.
First, we walked to the Sentosa Flowers at the Palawan Beach. On the way, my mum called me up to tell me that they were not coming anymore, as there was a very, very long queue at the Sentosa Express Station at Vivo City. What a shock! The camera was with her and she was telling me that she was no longer coming! Disappointed that I would not be able to take any photos for this post, we continued on our walk across the Palawan Beach.
We reached the Sentosa Flowers at around 4pm. To tell you the truth, this is my first time watching the Sentosa Flowers. How spectacular! Flowers and flowers everywhere, no wonder it's called the Sentosa Flowers! I wondered how they transformed a plain beach into a such a colourful and beautiful scenery. However, the area is quite small, so we took just fifteen minutes to finish watching everything.
After a discussion, we decided to watch the Multi-animals Encounter Show at the Palawan Amphitheatre. On our way there, I found out from my cousin that there would be a solar eclipse starting from 4.30pm. Upon reaching there, we tried to see the solar eclipse, but to no avail. The show started at 5pm sharp.
Firstly,a sea eagle and a falcon came out. There were to fly around above the audiences' heads. At this point of time, my heartbeat increased, for fear that their sharp claws will scratch me, but of course as professionally-trained birds, none of this will happen. Next, a lady would be sent forward to volunteer for something. When it was time for the animal to appear, the entire amphitheatre went silent. After, a few minutes of waiting, a dog was sent out to seek out this particular animal. It went around the boxes that was in audience stand, and at one of them, it suddenly started barking. Something was inside...
Two professionals were sent to find out what was inside the box. After removing the lid, in one swift lift, a two-metre long rock python was suddenly lifted up from the box! One of the audience in front of the box out of shock ran away, but came back after that. The amphitheatre became very noisy, some were laughing at that audience who ran away, while others were shocked to see the python. After this, the show ended. The python being kept in the box, was part of the show, just to showcase both the dog and the python.
It was 5.45pm already, so my aunt sent me home in her car. What an experience I had that day! Sorry that I do not have any photos taken from Sentosa...
To visit the official website of the Sentosa Flowers, click here.
Chinese New Year Eve
Once again, I know it is too late now to talk about Chinese New Year Eve, but I seriously have no time at all during this season to post. Just take it as if you are reading on that day.
Chinese New Year was coming in one days' time. It was time for spring cleaning. My entire family woke up early to start cleaning up the house. My dad vacuumed and mopped the floor, my mum washed the clothes, wiped the fans, sofa and everything that needs to be wiped, while I changed the bedsheets to entirely new ones. Then, my mum prepared some food, which was our own family reunion 'lunch'.
Every year during the eve of Chinese New Year, my family would have a reunion dinner with our relatives on my paternal side. We left home quite early to help out with the preparations for that night's dinner. Other than having steamboat which we have every year, this year we were also having the traditional YuSheng.
YuSheng is a Teochew-style raw fish salad. It usually consists of strips of raw fish mixed with shredded vegetables and a variety of sauces and condiments, among other ingredients. YuSheng is considered a symbol of abundance and prosperity. This dish is served as an appetizer to raise 'good luck' for the new year. In a celebration, families and friends gather around the table and proceed to toss the shredded ingredients into the air with chopsticks while saying auspicious wishes out loud to mark the start of a prosperous new year and it's customary that the higher you toss, the greater your fortunes!
Tasty and delicious it might look, I did not really like it. It tasted wierd, especially with the carrot shreds and a strange sauce. This is a picture of a YuSheng from Wikipedia, as I forgot to take a photo of it.
After dinner, I would always play mahjong with my cousins. Of course, we never placed any bets and did not use money at all, cause that is gambling, isn't it? We were just playing for fun as we did not have anything else much to do. As a beginner who was just taught how to play, I did not expect to win. But unbelievably, of the four rounds, I won two of the rounds! That was not easy for a beginner like me.
It was finally late at night, we had to return home. Together as a family, we watched the countdown on television. 10...9...8......3...2...1...0! It is 12 midnight. The Year of Ox has finally arrived! HAPPY CHINESE NEW YEAR!
Tuesday, January 27, 2009
Chinese New Year Celebrations
It is finally the Chinese New Year season! Now I will talk about last Saturday, which is a long time ago, as i have no time at all for posting throughout Chinese New Year. So, try to imagine reading this post on that day itself!
Chinese New Year was coming in two days' time, so my family of three went to the Marina Bay where there is a sort of carnival, with spectacular lanterns on display, to celebrate Chinese New Year. This carnival, called River Hongbao, is held every year, most of the time at the Queen Elizabeth Walk. This year, fortunately, it is held at the Marina Bay Floating Platform, which has been used for the National Day Parade in the past two years.
This is a banner with the new logo of the carnival. 
We reached there at around 8pm. This is the picture of the entrance arch. My dad is the one in blue while my mum is behind him. 
We first rushed to the tent that says 'Food Street' to have our dinner as we were starving. The 'Food Street' sells delicacies worldwide, but we still restrained ourselves to local delicacies, such as satay. 
After dinner, we took our first step onto the Floating Platform, where the colourful lanterns were displayed. The ground was unexpectedly soft, because it was actually covered in fake grass, like the ones in our school's synthetic field. We entered the Garden of Spring where we first saw a magnificent lantern with a Chinese phoenix on top. It was brightly lit and looked very attractive. Next, we saw the twelve zodiac animals, as expected. They are displayed every year, but definitely with different designs. The last display in the Garden of Spring was a lantern pagoda which we could enter. 
My family went to the Chess Formation next. Amazingly, they have used the soldiers, horses, chariots, cannons and even the generals from the Terracotta Army to make a complete, giant Chinese chess formation. Of course, it is not the real clay Terracotta Army, they are just lanterns. This is a picture taken by my mum, so it is not a very good picture, but it is the only one I have. 
Finally, we left the Floating Platform and placed our attention to the humongous lantern statue of the God of Fortune. It is placed right at the centre of the promenade, in front of the seating gallery. 
It was about time to go, but my dad wanted to join in the traditional Chinese riddle-guessing activity. This was just the chance for me to take some photos hopefully for posting on this blog, while my mum sat on one of the seats to take a rest. These are pictures taken from all the way at the top of the seating gallery. 
Lastly, the photo of the traditional Chinese riddle-guessing activity and the additional photos of which I did not describe about.
Tired and weary, we returned home at around 11pm. We still have loads of things to do for the next few days!
To visit the official website of the River Hongbao, click here.
Sunday, January 18, 2009
Science Buskers Festival
Congratulations to the THREE BUSKATEERS for being the CHAMPIONS of the inaugural Science Buskers Festival! They have won S$1000 and a 1-year renewable contract to perform of need basis(with remunerations)! Also, they have won S$150 for 'Best Stage Presence'.
As for the PYRO-CYRO, they might not have gotten the top three, but at least they got the 'Best Dressed Award' as they were the only team wearing colourful costumes. They failed in two of their experiments, but their overall performance was fantastic!
You seriously have wasted your morning if you never came for the finals yesterday. There were only five of us. What's wrong with the rest of you?
We were supposedly the ones voting for the teams, however the Sec 1s(obviously did not know the teams) were sent for voting, while we were left with the PSLs to support.
Despite this, the Three Buskateers had their family members, so they had an audience vote of up to 105! They were also the only team with two full 10 points from the five judges, thus emerging victorious.
At the end of the event, all the Victorians present did the 'VS Unite' on the stage, receiving everyone's attention.
(From my post at the VS2A Blog)
This is us at our seats, with the PSLs(red shirts).
These are the online videos on Youtube.
From the Three Buskateers...
...and...
From the Pyro-Cyro...
Fascinating? These videos have their rates and views, which contributes to 25% of the final marks, and of course the Three Buskateers got the Champions partly because of this! Once again, congrats to the Three Buskateers!
Friday, January 9, 2009
2009 1st NPCC Training
Wow, I have been in NPCC for a year and all trainings would have drills session and no games at all. Today's training, however, is much different from what we had in the past, which we had 1 to 2 hours of drills and most of the time, nothing else.
Oh yeah, today's attendance was much more than what we had for the past trainings, maybe because of the Unit Training Camp(UTC) at the end of last year. Well, that is good after all.
We had our campcraft session first. This time, they are teaching us how to tie the round lash and the square lash. It did not take very long to learn. Physical Training(PT) was next. We did push-ups, half-squats, crutches and some others. It was not very tiring, but I was sure to get aches all over my body the next day. Ouch!
The next part of PT was doing chin-ups, inclined pull-ups, log-lifting and monkey-bars at the fitness corner. If you could not do the chin-ups or the monkey-bars, you have to do push-ups. This IS tiring! At the end, with a current strength of 20, each person had to do at least 1 chin-up, to a total of 30 chin-ups. Of course, we had to help out one another, especially the weaker ones, by pushing one of the legs up. The better guys did more chin-ups to make it to 30.
The last, but fun part of today's training was GAMES! But instead of the anticipated game of soccer, we had to play Captain's Ball. We were split into two teams and the game started. Our opposing team was very strong, so within a short period of time, they won us by 10 points. The NCOs and CIs joined us in hope of winning the opposing team. But, the opposing team stayed strong and we lost the game.
But as they say, it is not whether you win or lose, but how you play the game. We might have lost, but we have played to our best. However, the most important thing in games, is to have fun!
This is our squad photo(taken during UTC)!
