The August Singapore Trip: Nuffnang.Sg, NUS Rag Day and To See Him*heart*

edited: I’ve noticed quite a few people from Singapore/NUS have clicked on this post coming in from email messages. I’d really like to hear from those who have sent emails to each other about this post.:) Email referrals drive me CRAZY as I don’t know what is being said:P Please say hi or something!

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With every consequent Singapore trip, I start to get less and less touristy. In a way I spent less as I didn’t go all out since Chee Kiang was busy with the NUS Rag Day float(but to his credit he tried to take as much time off as he could to be with me). In my stride, I made contact with more human beings than I ever did in Singapore(previously it was just Chee Kiang and maybe 3 or 4 other people to talk to!) this trip and even learnt a thing or two about the transport system!

This time, I took the FirstCoach bus down to Singapore. For RM100, I board the bus at the FirstCoach office lot in Bangsar and this bus goes pass the cleaner immigrations. Is it called Tuas or something? Yeah..:) Practically empty. After the Singapore immigration, you go up on the bus and in another half an hour, you’ll reach this place called Novena Square! So convenient. 🙂

We did the usual by going out for dinner at Orchard on the first day. Photos sucked, so none for the blog. On Singapore’s National Day, decked out in red and white(according to the dresscode!), Chee Kiang and I made our way to Vivocity’s Golden Village for Nuffnang Singapore’s screening of Rush Hour 3. I didn’t really get the chance to thank Ming properly for extending his invite to me when he knew that I was heading down to Singapore during that time as well.

While free tickets to a movie is nothing short of great but of course the greatest pleasure is the opportunity to meet bloggers you never thought you’d ever be able to meet. Though I wasn’t exactly being overly enthusiastic about making friends, in fact I felt kinda reserved at the event. But I did see some familiar faces who came across the causeway and a few of those whose blogs I’ve been stalking for awhile.

This time around, Nuffnang had more sponsors and more things in their goodie bags! Gotta love that little heart shaped stressball that they included.

L-r: Wenqi(damn woman! I was supposed to take a photo with you!), Suet Li and Ringo

They were there to help out with the event and Ringo tagged along for the trip as well!

They gave out funky name tags which had specific titles. Chee Kiang’s(haih put la link since it’s a blog event. hehe) one was “Hi I’m ______(fill in the name), I’m here for the free food.” Or something like that. And mine is just “Hi I’m a Nuffnanger.” Tim and co had cooler tags. Very much like statement t-shirts except that they are adhesive tags.

My big bag and myself posing with the nuffnang signboard. Since I was resting my head on the side of the board, I caused the board to fall off its stand. Chee Kiang and I had such a tough time putting it back up muttering to each other, “OH…..this is so embarrassing……”

Here’s something Nuffnangers can look forward to at future events..FREE FOOD!:) Delicious food, seriously delicious.

Here’s a photo of the handful of early birds. It was damn awkward. I’ve never seen or heard any he bloggers before. Okay, maybe if I found out their nicknames or URL it might’ve rang a bell. That’s what you get for being antisocial in a foreign land.

Pink goodie bag for girls, black goodie bag for guys. 🙂

l-r: Firdaus, Arsyan, Myself and Chee Kiang.
I didn’t get to talk to Firdaus all that much but Arsyan seemed like a pretty pleasant guy:) He was telling me about how he has been travelling alot lately.

Oh, and since it was Singapore’s national day, they had flags for us to hold. I was telling Esther the other day on MSN that I would be heading down to Singapore during their national day. And she was like, “Wow, own country’s national day also don’t want to support, somemore want to go support other country’s! They’d better give you a PR!” Hahaha.

Dressing according to the colours of the Singapore flag makes an outfit so much prettier compared to dressing according to the colours of our own Jalur Gemilang. How do yellow and blue and red and white go together on an outfit? Yellow shoes? *starts day dreaming about patent yellow pumps. cerulean blue? Mmmmmmmmm…*

SASSYJAN!!!!!! I mixed her up with another blogger and she was like, “I’m going to kill you!” Hehe, sorry, I’m bad with faces! (and names and numbers and textbooks and exams … in fact I even forget what a movie’s about after stepping out of the cinema.) For over a year, I’ve talked to Janice on a forum(at one point, us malaysian girls and them singaporean girls were bonding over the juiciest of information. ;)) after popping by her blog every now and then for a very long time before joining the forum.

The guy behind her(like directly behind her!) is none other than the Man of Mystery Cowboy Caleb. Hehe. He’s one of the biggest names in the Singaporean Blogosphere. He tries his best to keep his identity a secret. So secret that I didn’t even get to see how he looks like as he had his back to me the entire time. Even in person, he can still uphold his anonymity. Bravo, bravo.

Chee Kiang and I posing with a ruffled looking Tim! He was being his social butterfly self, ensuring that everyone was doing great. 🙂 Thanks Tim.

And THIS, is perhaps the greatest highlight of my ‘blogging career’. Hahaha. What an honour! You either love her, hate her or respect her. I’ve gone through all those stages accordingly ever since I started reading her way back in 2004.

I was beyond starstruck! Hahaha. Luckily I didn’t get myself into any tongue tying embarrassment.

When Xiaxue and Mike sat next to me and Chee Kiang, I was muttering to Chee Kiang, “Ohmigod, ohmigod, ohmigod”.. Hahaha. Damn pathetic. After awhile, I gathered some courage and said, “hello Xiaxue? Xiaxue? Xiaxue?” No answer, as she was engrossed in a conversation with Ringo. “Um, Wendy?”(after realizing that it was silly to call her by her internet nickname, somemore the way I pronounced Xiaxue is like Sia soo and then I changed it to Sia shueh to see if it would work.;P) and she turned around and I shyly said, “Hello! I’ve been reading your blog for a long time! Like since, 2004.”

She gave a laugh and a smile and said, “Hello! Oh really?” and I was like, “Yeah. I didn’t have the courage to say hello to you earlier, sorry,”. Then get this, she said to me, “I’ve seen your blog before.” 0_0

OHMIGOD! I muka-maintained. Play cool Jo, deep breaths. I didn’t pursue any further questions. Just like the time I first met Kinkybluefairy at a funfair back in Oct 2005. My friends were excited that Adam C was there but I was excited about meeting Joyce instead. Heh. I was equally starstruck and also quickly muka maintained when she said that she’s seen my blog around.(ego got further inflated when she linked me after awhile.)

Alright, back to Xiaxue! She asked me how am I and I told her that I was down to visit my boyfriend. Chee Kiang then popped out from my left side and said, “Yea! We’re high school sweethearts!” And Xiaxue said, “Ohh causeway love!” and then she nudged Mike, “Like us, inter continental love.”

Hahaha, sorry sorry, I don’t know why I remember all these things. It’s embarrassingly fan-girlish. But hey, let me indulge.

Conversations ceased after awhile and I grabbed at what I thought were my Nuffnang goodie bags and ended up tugging on Mike’s sling bag instead.

That’s why sometimes it’s great to carry a portable sleeping bag around so you can just crawl into it whenever you’re in an extremely embarrassing situation.

I leaned on Chee Kiang to hide my face for awhile.

Tried to make conversation with the girl sitting opposite me. She had beautiful nail arts which she drew herself. It was the Singapore flag, done with tooth pick apparently. I didn’t get her name as we were then ushered into the cinema.

here’s one with Ringo! We sat next to each other in the cinema and she was fussing over me because she thought I would be cold.(I told her it’s okay because my layer of fats will do me good to which she gave a polite ketawa kebajikan at my weak joke. I admit I stole that line from The Come Back Kings’ blog.) After meeting her for the second time, I realize that she’s quite a genuine person! I didn’t really had the chance to sit down and talk to her properly back at the April 05 Dome Meet. Glad we got properly acquainted!

Before heading into the movie, Suet Li came to bounce on the seat next to me. She literally bounced. I grabbed her for a photo and suddenly, an awfully familiar voice bellowed behind me, “Jolene Lai! How dare you not take a photo with me!”. And I finally got to meet her Martian. 🙂 It’s funny how he seems so silent in her blog. And so nice and chatty in real life. Then you slap yourself around and go, “Stupid la you, it’s her blog, not his. That’s why he seems silent.” But good for her! No more Hong Kong trips! Now I *might* just have a teman on the bus(or do you fly to Singapore, Su Ann?) trips down to Singapore.

This is Lance! The first intern of Nuffnang! Happy fella running around snapping photos of everyone.

Ming’s friends made him a banner and got everyone to sign to show how much they love Ming and Nuffnang. 🙂

After the movie, we excused ourselves and went about Vivocity. Beautiful shopping mall! I didn’t get to explore properly the last time I was there in December as I went in and out to get something in a hurry.

It overlooks the little bit of the sea in between this area called HarbourFront(which is on the main island) and Sentosa island.

How come I was not impressed the last time I went to Sentosa and Suet, Tim et all had so much fun at Sentosa Island? Maybe I didn’t explore properly. I have many many more trips to Sngapore. 🙂 Right, dear?

One for the album!

Two for the album:) I knew it would be a very nice photo and hence I set my settings to like 5mb. 🙂

The back part of Vivocity.

Here we are, making our way back to NUS on the upper level of the double decker bus.

More reasons for camwhoring.

You get a little scared because you keep thinking that the bus has gone up the curb. It’s all an optical illusion I’m telling ya!

I’m not sure if that’s good parenting..

I got Chee Kiang to pose with the empty seats. It’s very nice to have the whole place to ourselves. I had the whole place to myself again a couple of days later when I took the bus all by myself to see Chee Kiang at the parade area.

And there were many more.

While walking back to his hall, we saw a bunch of his block A seniors tossing their mortar boards. Apparently these bunch of seniors are graduating. Must be nice. 🙂 While I walked pass them I could only imagine the memories they must have had. All the fun, all the traditions, all the team spirit…..something us temporary shop lot dwellers will never understand. Hope I’ll get to use the campus when I go back for my third year. *sad sigh*

A view from the room.

About 5pm on (Singapore’s) National Day, I decided to tag along with Chee Kiang to help out with the float that Sheares Hall was working on. They had totally taken over the entire hall cafeteria and turned it into a workshop of sorts.

For the past 49 years, the NUS Student Union have been organizing an event called Rag Day for the freshies. This year they had 11 Faculties and Halls take part in the event. Each faculty/hall would build a float and bag some awards. Emotional stuff that I couldn’t understand. Ah well. You’ve gotta love the spirit of being active though. It doesn’t help that each time I visit Chee Kiang in NUS, I feel so bitter that I’ve never had the chance to experience campus life. Bitter bitter bitter.

For their Rag Day, they even came up with their own superbly stylish website detailing about their upcoming(now over already) Rag Day. They even have write ups alongside professionally taken photos of the committee members. Here’s the link to the committee that Chee Kiang was in. Click on his photo if you can find it!

Chee Kiang’s friend Yen who was in the design committee sat me down with a bunch of spray painted gold chocolate trays and a shy chinese boy. He was a freshie too. I tried making conversation as I didn’t want to feel awkward and sort of fending for myself when I’m without the company of my busy bf. I asked him so many questions about himself and he tried his best to answer me in his best English. At one point he apologised for his English but I encouraged him and said that he was doing very well. He’s one of those shy boys that you just have to keep throwing questions at. Very nice to kacau. Hehehe. I think Chee Kiang could see that I was trying to make conversation from far away because after that he asked me, “Okay! Now can you tell me 5 things you already know about him,”

And I could answer more than that, “His name is We Yi. He’s from Shandong, China. He’s 20 years old. He doesn’t drive to Beijing but takes a nine hour train ride there. He and his friends play basketball and go to KTV for fun, and he rolled his eyes at Yaoming. Apparently, he doesn’t go ice-skating there.(Chee Kiang was like, “Why would you ask him if he ice skates in China?!?” And I was like, “It snows in China right? I’m just making conversation..”)..He’s doing computer science on a scholarship. He’s never been to Hong Kong. He likes Singapore. His mother calls him once a week. He cannot remember my name after talking to him for over half an hour..”

We were supposed to paste strips of the spray painted gold chocolate trays as borders lining this triangular box and then someone else will attach it to this contraption. I’ve no idea what was happening, I was just taking orders. I really hope I didn’t screw up anything for them.

One of the elaborate side props that Sheares Hall built to go with their float. Wait till you see a picture of the float!

It was like a factory. Everyone knew exactly what they were doing. I would have loved to shake the hand of the boss.

These are ONLY the side props. See the girl sitting down there diligently making things?

That’s Chee Kiang standing there gazing up at the float that he and his mates put their sweat and blood into. They used wood and wire for frames. That was the job of the ‘engineers’. Then they passed it on to the Material Engineers committee to decide on the aesthetics. The pumpkin can rotate one okay! It’s supposed to be Cinderella themed.

This is the horse that pulls the carriage. It has a name, apparently. Harry The Horny Horse.

This is Jon hard at work but happy to smile for me.

l-r: Leong Hui, Chee Kiang, Jon.

I don’t know exactly what they used to decorate the pumpkin but I can tell you that it wasn’t an easy job. Something like using can openers to cut open empty can drinks and then cutting out pieces of metal to decorate their float. I assume most of their fingers are covered in blisters after all the hardwork.

🙂 After a bath, Chee Kiang and I headed down to the city centre supposedly wanting to watch fireworks. But we were not fast enough and ended up watching a few from the bus.

Sigh.

It was a good thing that we were on the bus too anyway. It was so packed!

After dinner, we took a stroll down Bugis Street. I’ve been hearing about this place but didn’t quite know where and what it was about. Your usual Petaling Street fare mingled with a little bit of Sungai Wang style and according to Chee Kiang, a bit of Chatruchak(?) market in Bangkok as well.

We decided to head back to hall again after that because he still had to tend to some duties back at hall. They were also having a full dress rehearsal that night.

I went around with my camera going trigger happy as always. They even have a white board for them to put down orders if they were hungry! So cute right! If you look closely you can see that they’ve personalized it quite a bit to their own liking. I was quite amused.

This was too cute as well! They were encouraging others to help out.:) Below the big red words are the ‘criterias’ for helpers.

I was definitely damn free and I’m pretty helpful. Heh.

Here,they were putting up the side props before the dress rehearsal. The girl in pink is Eng Hooi(Leong Hui’s girlfriend). Chee Kiang introduced us back in 2006 when I met the rest of his scholar friends at Luna Bar. As Chee Kiang was pretty busy, I tagged along with Eng Hooi as she was holding a DLSR, getting photos for the Sheares Photography Committee. She introduced me to a Sri Lankan girl named Nithia. And earlier on I got acquainted with a few other girls from Sheares named Dina(fantastic memory), Cynthia and Sandra. There, that’s human contact for you.

Sandra forgot who I was momentarily when Nithia reintroduced me later at night.(We met during the afternoon.) Nithia said, “This is Jolene. She’s new. She has a crush on Chee Kiang!” and Sandra gave me a raised eyebrow. I laughed and then I played along and pretended to hit Nithia, as how I supposed shy lovesick girls would be when their crushes are revealed. Then Sandra said, “Eh don’t lie lah! She’s the girlfriend what.”

What a fun prank!:D

I think the blue hexagonal shapes are made out of Tetra Paks.

They even had a globe. *in awe*

Then we sat around the lounge(whatever it is called) and watched the dress rehearsal. Some guy was leading the crowd, asking us to cheer accordingly. With hand actions.(ie. claps, mexican waves, hand rolls) Ya, I felt like I was at some motivational camp. Must be so fun, being ‘in camp’ all year round.

Since I was in the crowd and didn’t want to stick out like a sore thumb I gingerly joined in on the fun. Chee Kiang, whose job was to rotate the wind totem(a side prop) was apparently watching me in amusement. After the event he laughed at me and said, “Wah, mexican wave, rolling your hands and clapping ah!” I was abit embarrassed and quickly said, “Eh! Nolaaa..after awhile I put my hands down.” “Ya, I know, I saw…” and he mimicked my half hearted hand rolling. -_-

The dancers for the float. They were supposed to be like the mice helping Cinderella with her chores. Not sure exactly what it was.

The Sheares float in all its glory.

Since I had nothing to do, I helped out by measuring out 1cm by 50cm strips on a corrugated cardboard. Again, I had no idea what it was for but just glad to be of help. Abit of a mind game though. Try measuring on a big big cardboard lah. Headache giler.

I made Chee Kiang take a photo of me hard at work. I know I look abit grandmotherly with my glasses. Sleep was blurring my vision, so I needed my glasses.

Since Chee Kiang was busy throughout Friday, I met up with Erin for some good ol’ Orchard gallivanting. This woman will be in Singapore for like a month and she knows her way around so well! I was in good hands. And we definitely bonded over shopping. Hehehe. She and her Crocs. She even put down payment for her Crocs as she almost ran out of money.

Jed joined us for dinner at Din Tai Fung! That’s him posing with his fried rice.

The much raved about Siu Lung Pao.

L-r: Jed, Erin, Me.

Upon Jed’s recommendation, we had some Ice-cream potong! Jed’s really sweet, he made sure I got on the correct MRT back to HarbourFront station to get back to NUS.(bus 10,30 or 143!! I’m so clever.)

Erin poses next to the fountain outside Ngee Ann City.

the both of us.

This is the view from the top floor of Sheares. You can see the harbour in the distance. That’s the sea already. *swoons* So nice lahhhhh..:( Nevermind!! Aimst got misty mountains. Gunung Jerai roxXooox.

And to the right, that’s deeper into the campus.

And on Saturday, I went to Vivocity before heading to the city centre for the NUS Rag Day parade! I had Subway for lunch again. Damn delicious buns. I remember there’s one somewhere back home, but can’t remember. Does anyone know? Wait, don’t tell me. I don’t want to know. I want to lose weight to look decent in my new bikinis! Yes! I bought bikinis. It’s at the bottom of the post, later only you see okay. Ma man lei.

Another reason for me to go visit Chee Kiang again on the 31st. T_T I really really really really really really really wanna see the cast of Heroes! Chee Kiang, who is with the NUS Radio Pulze..some NUS radio station where he gets to be a true blue DJ…MIGHT MIGHT have a chance to interview the casts. And the silly boy hasn’t even started with the Heroes DVD that I burnt for him. He gets really annoyed with me whenever I pressure him into watching Heroes. But I told him that he will kick his own butt so hard if he watches Heroes AFTER interviewing the casts. He can get hooked on The OC.(my doing also). If he’s going to shun Heroes…….. *shakes head*

My favourite shop in the whole of Singapore – Sheer Romance! Bikinis and tankinis for $30! That’s about RM60 back home! And so many designs to choose from. Now I own like 4 bikinis from them and one tankini!

A view of Vivocity after I proudly got on the bus!

A beautiful quiet Saturday..

Gotta love sky scrapers.

And more sky scrapers.

When I saw the durian(or was it the Merlion that I had to see?), I pressed the bell and got off the bus. Woot, I’m savvy.

I was feeling abit lost while making my way to the grand stands.

When Chee Kiang spotted me, he promptly hopped over the divider and came to say hello.
The poor dear had to transport the float and stay at the padang overnight with the rest of his hall mates.

🙂

Me and the commotion behind me.

Walking past some law students who were in make up.

I’m not sure but I think these are dancers from the pharmacy float.

Yeah, when I saw the multitude of umbrellas, I was like, “Faaaark…”. Even wearing a bra hurts like a bitch now. Oww..;(

I will bear the sun.

The NUS students were getting heated up by cheering on their respective faculties. How fun.:) The ones in blue are from the science faculty.

The ones in green are from the Art Faculty. I bet that the girl sitting high above everyone is currently nursing a sore throat. She was shouting cheers into a mic.

And NUS Rag Day was launched! Such beautiful streamers and beautiful balloons.

You know me and colours, I can’t get enough of it.:)

As it floats higher and higher it starts to resemble those sugary rainbow sprinkles. Mmm.

Next time my wedding I’ll release balloons and doves.:D

This is by Kent Ridge’s Hall. The plane could move abit one okay. I’m not sure if there was someone inside the plane. But the cool part is that all of these are made by hands. The warplane that they made was about the amazing passion of the individual for the community. Digest that if you want lah, I’m just taking snippets out of the programme book.

Some tourists on the Ducktours were pretty impressed as well.

The plane opens up one okay! How cool is that right?

The magical bus in the sky with the green dragon is by Raffles Hall! It’s beautiful!

I was gawking in amazement when the orange phoenix rose from the bus. And the damn bird moves okay! It freaking moves! Well, according to the programme book, the bus is the epitome of a fulfilling student life in NUS because one has to brave many challenges in order to board it.

Eusoff Hall had a futuristic concept. You see the words Eusoff? That panel will come down and a range rover comes out of it. Damn cool okay. And all these floats are like propped up on lorries. So creative.Their message was something about the exploration of limitless frontiers of space.

King Edward VII Hall came up with a stadium concept. Apparently there’s a stadium called Kallang National Stadium in Singapore that has been torn down. This is like a tribute to it. The dancers were footballers, tennis players, bands, etc. The stadium that they called OMNIS(Latin word, “For all”) sort of paints an image of a gathering of all kind of people with all kinds of passion.

Look at the crowd on the sweltering hot day.

Ahh, the beautiful Sheares float. They won EIGHT awards okay! No doubt they were very emotional about it.

The dancers in action. According to the programme book, they mentioned, “We will embark on a journey following the transformation of waste materials into something truly astounding.” Well said!

That’s Chee Kiang’s wind totem that he had to tend to. He was spinning it real good! Hahaha.

I noticed these bunch of people. There were many more. What do they learn in Pirate Training Academy??

I think this was a wayang kulit performance by Temasek Hall. I’m too lazy to list out the messages, so you’ll just be looking at the aesthetics.

This was the law faculty! What they lacked in design, they sure made up for in dancing.

I can’t remember..

This was by the NUS Students’ University Scholar Club! Something about the Land of Tolkien and the world of the Matrix.

I can’t remember which one was this. You can see the stark contrast when you compare the faculty floats to the ones made by the halls. It’s a case of lack of man power. kesian.

I can’t remember..

By the arts club. Some girls behind me thought that the submarine was a fish.

Now THIS was something to write home about! The science faculty came up with this. The deity in the centre can move one!

See the dude painstakingly controlling the hands. Haha.

by the dental faculty. SIgh.. they would’ve been my coursemates if I had worked very very very hard.

I think this was done by the engineering faculty.

The medicine faculty.

Spotted some dancers while I was walking around.

I met up with Jiun Haw and Jiun Jeh too!! The two brothers are in Raffles Hall and are damn active in hall apparently. 😀 Hehe Esther, Jiun Jeh called me okay when Chee Kiang gave him my Singapore number! He didn’t say, “Welcome to Singapore” to me! Ne ne ni bu bu.:P Esther was damn pissed off the last time she was in Singapore. She told Jiun Jeh that she was going to Singapore and Jiun Jeh was like, “ouh, okay.” and she was like, “huh? That’s it?” then he continued, “Welcome to Singapore.”. Hahahha she was damn angry that he didn’t suggest to meet up with her.:P

Before the results were announced, the team spirits were burning strong.

One more before I let him go back to his Sheares mates to cheer. And cry together with them because of the amazing bagging of awards. Can you see my sunburn?:(

That’s Raffles Hall cheering.

Body art on a dancer. How fun.:\

While waiting anxiously for the results to be announced. As a spectator, all I could do was watch. *duh*. Imagine if I was a part of all this! 🙂 Ah, at least I have a boyfriend planted in this university. Good enough, good enough. I’ve been wanting to go to NUS ever since I was in form5 when I knew I wanted to do dentistry. I didn’t even try to apply. It wouldn’t have been possible with my paltry results anyway.

That’s Kent Ridge cheering!

That’s the school of design and environment, me thinks.

And this is proof that some men look good in makeup. Spot the hotties, babes. Spot em!

Sheares Hall congregated and sang their hall anthem(.. chee kiang didn’t want to sing it again for me, so I don’t know how it goes either.). Glad that it turned out this way for them. These people are mad, they work around the clock just to ensure that they complete the float.

After the event ended, we made our way over to Raffles Place(I think?) for dinner.

That’s the court house. 🙂 And it was my last night in Singapore. I miss him very very much now. 🙁

Right, here are the bikinis that I bought! Beaufiful right! Furthermore it’s not the string bikinis. It’s got thicker straps, sort of like a halter neck kind of top. Better support. 😉

My soft toy bookmarks from a gift shop in Vivocity! So freaking cuteeee. There were alot of cute things in the gift shop in Vivocity. They even had a toad stool that was a.. well, a stool. And a beancurd soft toy. I want to buy them but I don’t know if I will continue to love them. Haha. I’m too old for this shit.

AND I SPENT SO LONG DOING THIS POST. Moving from my brother’s computer, to the dinosaur in the living room… my computer died on me. But there’s Dell’s fantastic tech support, so no worries there.

This is another long ass post. I hope it goes appreciated. ;\