my graduation trip to Taiwan - overview

Haven't written anything about my Taiwan graduation trip since I came back. It was my first time away from home, my comfort zone, so it was quite an unforgettable experience. Fun, but super tiring! think I haven't walked so much since a very long time, but I thought we were all very li4 hai4, to plan and carry out everything ourselves, and we stuck to most of our plans heehee... Well, after this trip, I believe it wouldn't be my last visit to Taiwan. It's a nice and fun place, with many friendly and nice people around as well as beautiful scenery, and not forgetting the unique and good food as well as the many interesting shopping areas!

Some things that left an impression on me.

1) TRANSPORTATION
From the Taipei metro system to the high speed railway, getting around Taiwan and Taipei is a breeze. Convenient and easy to commute by, it is an important mode of transport for many, including tourists. will talk abt it in detail soon....
oh super impressed with the queuing when waiting to board the train. so orderly~! If only we q over here as well.. much "neater" ha.. and the "priority seats" in trains.. and they never fail to keep to the right on escalators.

2) TOILETS
Was impressed with the emergency bells they had in every cubicle. Quite "thoughtful" of them, I thought. And the toilets in the metro stations were so clean! so much cleaner than those over here. One thing that wasn't used to, was disposing the used toilet paper into the bin instead of the toilet bowl, for fear of clogging up the sewage system... hmmm...

3) PEOPLE
Friendly Taiwanese never fail to answer our queries regarding directions or bus fares hehe...and most youngsters dress rather well... as for the senior citizens, I find that a lot of them are really fit. See a lot of them travelling up and down hills and mountains, and even walking the trails (which "killed" me) at Alishan!

4)STREETS / CITY
Find it rather similar to Hong Kong. But the drive from airport to Taipei city reminded me of Malaysia hee..most places are really clean, despite having very few rubbish bins around.

5) SHOPPING
Not as cheap as I expected. Fashionwise, they seem to like layering a lot, in terms of clothings..

6) JAY CHOU
lots of shops play his songs. wonder if it's coincidental or he's really popular hehe..

sodagreen's back with a concert tour! yay!

check out this site :
http://www.sodagreen.com.tw/main/weekly35.html

2 August 2008 - Singapore @ Max Pavilion (Tickets will be available on May 29th.)

heard that the most ex would be $148.

GET READY TO BE BLOWN OFF BY SODAGREEN!

五月天- 天团不是盖的！

Last night was totally a crazy night. Forgotten that I still have exams in abt 3 days time. Just totally lost in the world of rock and 五月天！

Although I don't know all of their songs, and can't sing without looking at the screen with lyrics, I still enjoyed myself tremendously, as the crowd was super high - when the concert just started, we were already on our feet! And the band is really tight and had lots of 默契！of course the climax was when they ran across the length of the stadium towards the centre stage - right at the centre of the stadium. This was really a treat for those who were sitting right at the back, since now the members were just standing right in front of them! And it was 玛莎's birthday last night, so the whole stadium sang a birthday song for him! and with the cheeky members, they kept saying zhu, zhu, zhu during the last line (which could mean 猪！) HAHA.. and along the run, they often stopped and sang amongst the audience - face-to-face! lucky people sitting in front!

think some memorable moments were 石头 singing a song written for his kid (his voice is good!), the bandmates without 阿信 singing 孙悟空, 阿信 singing 洋葱, 阿信 singing 最重要的小事 with the acoustic guitar, and the band-mates solo! think 怪兽 is my new favourite 吉他手 - really cool man! And of course the very high songs, like 恋爱-ing which got everyone chanting "L-O-V-E" for real long!

Love this few songs - 一千个世纪,离开地球的表面,最重要的小事,倔强，人生海海，疯狂世界，天使 etc etc etc...

although this was my first Mayday concert, it definitely's not going to be my last! hehehe.... looking forward to their new album & Mayday 2009's concert! ZTime for some (lousy-quality) photos and vids...


the CENTRE STAGE at the top!

The beautiful sea of blue - lots of blue lightsticks! (as requested by them)

the band in white!

charismatic 阿信！

beautiful, i thought。

The crowd at the back - whole stadium was standing throughout！

天团 in action!@
the 5 at the centre stage

the last goodbyes - the band and other 幕后工作人员！

the 5 concert-goers!

revision - mayday

must revise ..... mayday's songs!!!! 回到地球表面！！！woohooo....

五月天-小太陽

no more school! =(

Schooling has ended for me! After don't know how many years.. let me think...6 + 4 + 2 + 4 = 16 years of school... mugging.. tests, exam,s lectures, tutorials, projects.. now has come to an end! And I;ll be a 社会人 soon....unbelievable... don't feel like it..

My 4 years in pharmacy school, although had been really not easy, cos so much to study, and school's always been hectic (5-day week very common!), but it's been an experience. And have come to appreciate that so much is done to bring that little pill to the patient.. from lead compounds, drug discovery, pharmaceutical analysis, dosage form design, tabletting, formulation studies, PK studies, clinical trials to patient counselling... wow... the small pill really comes a long way...

And not forgetting the bunch of pharmers, of whom 90% are girls haha... quite a fun, amiable, friendly and cute bunch! heehee..and my "clique", alwayts thinking what to eat even before lecture ends, always eating yong tau foo, drinking milo, and keeping a lookout for the milo van! all the gossips and "hala-ing" during breaks, the cold jokes, the "suan-ings"..haha... thanks friends, for all these memories.. and lab partners as well! apologise for being so slow always ha...it was fun working with u guys too!

k really must jia you for this last leg! although i know this is only the beginning, since pre-reg will be much more tough ha...

the 3 sodagreen fans!!!

my patient lab-mate!
the class of pharmacy 08!

nice songs

I finally found the title of this song, which I heard on the TV!!!

黃建為 OVEr the WAY



I thought that it was by an English band, but it's actually by this Taiwanese singer-songwriter, 黃建為! I remembered that he won an award at the 金曲奖,but did't bother finding out who he was.. so now I know.. and also he's slowly being recognised in Sinfgaopre, that's why.. Wednesday's 早报 had him, today's 100。3 talked about him as well... nice nice! quite relaxing, his songs.

纯真
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MHhNlPvWr-Q

another English song
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=71d_pcLQX8s

This is by another Taiwanese female singer, please don't be too shocked! i was shocked when I first saw/heard this...the song's catchy though.. the tune..

魏如萱Waa-女人經痛時MV
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DE3CcXqRPWU

I believe she's 娃娃 from 自然捲. another nice one...

魏如萱_世界末日的某個角落
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LPwyF6M1VQg

local musicians..

Check out some of these local singer-songwriters!

Bevlyn Khoo
Active in the wedding performance scene. Sings in Mandarin, English, French...

her website
http://www.bevlynkhoo.com/home.html

Myspace
http://www.myspace.com/httpwwwmyspacecom107266823
伍家辉
Malaysian, wrote Jacky Cheung's 黑白画映, Stefanie's 祝你开心。

一人一半 live + half of new song 无家可回
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KFvzt37QRoU

L vs Yutaka?

Wow I'm L! Na.... not as smart as him! haha...


What Death Note Character Are You?
Hosted By theOtaku.com: Anime and Fandom

Recently watched Death Note on TV. Quite an extreme story ah.. only interesting character is L, and I thought the Shinigamis...no wonder so many of my friends like L...

Matsuyama Kenichi 松山ケンイチ - quite cool la, and acted really well as L, but still prefer Takenouchi Yutaka.

Don't you think they look alike? Both have sexy and pouty lips haha..

So random again

Found this when I was blog browsing haha..

75 words

Speedtest

and here's a pic of me and my poster! the effort of travelling twice to Sunshine Plaza was not wasted, as I won something for the poster competition hehehe...

Here's another pic of my FYP lab-mates and our very important postgrad student, Emily, who helped us so so so so so so much throughout the FYP period. Really really grateful for her, guiding us along, assisting me with the assembly and cleaning of the milling machines, helping me vet through the terribly written and raw reports and basically just seeing us through the whole thing. Without her, I wouldn't have known what it would have been like. Thanks so much Emily! And thanks for the treat at Foster's at well! But I still can't believe 3 of us lost out to u in paying... we were too slow... haha... And thanks to these cute cute FYP lab-mates, Jiayi and Wanyu as well! All the complaints, the whinings during the meetups early in the morning and the staybacks in lab after school... the encouragements and support...We finally finished this!@ heehee...

And these, are pictures of orchids taken at....... Novartis! Saw these pretty orchids at the reception area of Novartis in Tuas. Went for this fieldtrip to the manufacturing company, and got a chance to don the "cleanroom garments" made of Tyvek, and got blown by this super fans & walked through double-lock doors. Got to see the high-shear mixer, blender and the huge IBCs heehee..

And then, AC actually let us see some Parkinson's disease videos from youtube on Friday, and thought it was quite sad... the resting tremors, the shuffling gait, the rigidity, bradykinesia... really affects functioning, and very disturbing or irritating to the patient. And the levodopa-induced dyskinesia was really not a good sight at all as well... really wonder how the patients can cope. think the worst thing about growing old is all the sickness, illness and disease that come along. It's sad.. when you have to 度过晚年 in such a manner. sigh..

Think ah, I better go mug liao... haven'; started for Tuesday's test.. sigh...

Wa! it's been a long time!

Woohooo! although exams n CAs still not over, still feel really really good, as i can finally bid goodbye to FYP! now that it's over, come to think of it, it's really not that bad. It's truly an experience, now I';m glad I got the chance to do FYP, cos all the stuff that I did for FYP, don't think I'll have the chance to "touch" them again in my life, unless, well I research in that area, which I think is impossible as research is not my forte, or unless I join a manufacturing company hehe... well, you never know what will happen right? who knows 10 years down te road i'll be in a herbal company, optimising the milling of herbs! hahahaha....

So, although I was one of the 5 who did not get scheduled to present on Saturday, it was actually a blessing in disguise, aS I had more time to prepare, as well as more time to recover from my potent virus! My potent virus got me really sick for about 1 week plus, everyone's so scared of me, and thinks that they got my potent virus! luckily all the sniffing and coughing's gone! happy hehe..

Nevertheless, while I was in the midst of all the blowing-of-nose and wet-coughing, I actually still attended KT Tunstall's concert in Singapore! All the wrong priorities - didn't attend lecture but attended concert ahha.. but I was sick wat... and paid for concert ticket already.. so go lor! haha... And sure I didn't regret going. She's really a great singer-cum-songwriter-cum-guitarist-cum-entertainer-cum-moodlifter. Think she cured my flu la haha... she's so funny, witty, down-to-earth, and her singing's so fantastic! The music was great, atmosphere superb, audience as cute as she was, and just really fun! Her voice's powerful, but when it comes to the acoustic numbers, her voice's so clear and high registers really resonates. Love the backup singers as well, and the drummer with the , guitarist with the cute mandolin, bassist, trumpet....and finally saw her live having fun with the audio loop! and her guitars were really beautiful too! i think she had 4? 2 electric, 2 acoustic. dam cool! ahah..wonderful night! hope KT comes back again!

So waited for pple to post videos onto youtube and didn't take any, since i was sitting quite far away. no point ma.. fotos didn't turn out well too..

Little Favours

The famous Black Horse and the Cherry Tree with the audio loop!
Full version

one of my favs, and her funny plastic surgery joke haha... Saving my Face

1 great acoustic song - can hear her clear voice. Universe and U

it's different from Sandy Lam's version! Paper Aeroplane

Another of her "theme' song. Other Side of the World

Funny Man

Aiya shall just upload some random fotos. this is like so long ago la.. months ago... when i was writing my FYP report.. sodagreen's autograph session hehe..

k this one not too long ago - just before i fell sick haha... dinner at swensens!

k that's all for updates! looking forward to mayday's concert! woohoo! haha..

Joi Chua - Singapore's-not-to-be-missed-talent

Watched Spop on Monday night, and then on Tuesday my friend and I were talking about her. She has such a great voice, so clear, bright and soothing, but it's a pity she took such a long time to be truly heard. At least she's being heard right? hehe..

庆幸有你爱我 Live

A very calm and relaxing song. Very beautiful!
Original French version: Je m'appelle Hélène - Hélène Rollès

Joi's Mandarin version:依恋

A very different side of her, I feel. It's originally a Korean song I suppose?
Yesterday

倒愛

Some other older songs.
永远的愚人

One of my favourites - 他和她

My 2nd sis's favourite - 恋之憩

And I Love You So (Live in Taiwan)

cool version of 愛如潮水

random fav songs

terrible me

Oooo it's been a while... CNY celebrations has passed, 1st FYP draft has been submitted (scary..), Kungfu Dunk watched, Ah Meng passed away (and I didn't even get to eat breakfast or take phto with her so sad!)and the Pharmacotherapy test was just finished, which left me feeling really groggy, as i didn't know how to SOAP... totally blank la...

anyway, found this online, really cute, like Guitar Heroes, but it's for piano and only songs from Secret. I scored lousily.. 1st attempt only 10% ! terrible... haha.. but quite cute..

http://www.jay-bbs.com/thread-1445-1-1.html

And sodagreen's coming next week!
22/2 Fri 6.30pm Autograph session @ Chinatown Point
23/2 Sat 5.30pm special appearance in Jam! concert at Botanic Gardens

And i'm going for Mayday's concert! Which is like 3 days before my first paper of my last school exam! Can't believe myself...don't dare to look at my results..

Sigh today went back to school and realised I haven't got a lot of things done. But still can;t get down to doing them..

Chinese review of the concert
http://omy.sg/showbiz/enews/200801/20080121_004_jay.html

Like the last 2 paragraphs:
演出整体来说相当成功，意义有两层。第一，当然是周董自己实力的展现；第二，就是近年来他转战电影，但还是证明了自己在音乐上的成就和人气。

毕竟周董，是周董事长的意思。正因为周杰伦懂得如何在乐坛做出精彩的事情，首席的地位才能坐得久、坐得长。

video clips by Stomp
http://www.stomp.com.sg/stompcast/

and lots more fan taken videos on youtube, just do a search! haha..

周杰伦演唱会08

哎哟！不错哦！周杰伦真的很忙，在台上也超忙的！不但要换七，八套服装，还得弹钢琴，弹吉他，弹古筝，击鼓，跳舞，扯铃，唱歌。。。。真的是太精彩了！我觉得我不是再看演唱会，而是在看周董表演，耍帅！

他不愧是亚洲小天王，每一个举手投足能得到大家的欢呼掌声。而我呢，光是看到他就已经high到不行，根本都没理会其他人！每次看演唱会都很失态，唉，不懂大姐的朋友有没有被我吓到。

不管了！豁出去了！霍霍霍霍霍霍霍霍！！！这是encore的时候大家都在喊的！哈哈。。。

我不能再写长篇大论了，因为还有很多事没做！值得一提的是他古筝真的是弹得很棒，扯铃时也是太帅了！跳“牛仔舞”（牛仔很忙）和“僵尸舞”（本草纲目）时也是太可爱，太棒了！弹钢琴就不用讲了。是有目共睹的帅。而他在和辣妹g共舞时的尴尬笑容真是太好笑了。。 哈哈。。南拳妈妈改编的不能说的秘密也很搞笑，什么“从安静到千里之外都用同一个和弦”。。。而那位女生拉的二胡也是很好听，太有feel了！

还好他有演唱几首脍炙人口的旧歌，如黑色幽默，安静，开不了口。可惜他没唱很多其他的歌曲，如我不配，青花瓷，回到过去，还有很多我喜欢的旧歌。奇怪的是我最讨厌的阳光宅男和甜甜的都让我很high!

觉得最美中不足的是他好像生病感冒了，所以影响到演唱功力。。。而且也太短了,11pm 就结束，太早了！

尽管如此，我还是觉得这场演唱会超赞的！杰伦真的是很用心，很卖力，而且服装造型都很好看，都很有视觉效果！我也觉得他的嘴巴很甜，不过没说太多话啦。。还逗我们，问我们要他几时再来开演唱会，明天还是明年，哈哈。。

Official Setlist on the 19/1 Concert - Credits to : serene_sg @ jay-chou.net

黄金甲/ Huang Jin Jia
无双/ Wu Shuang
最后的战役/ Zui Hou De Zhan Yi

不能说的秘密/ Bu Neng Shuo De Mi Mi
退后/ Tui Hou
麦芽糖/ Mai Ya Tang
牛仔很忙/ Niu Zai Hen Mang
听妈妈的话/ Ting Ma Ma De Hua

piano
黑色幽默/ Hei Se You Mo
最长的电影/ Zui Chang De Dian Ying
安静/ An Jing

**Piano with Yu Hao**

千里之外/ Qian Li Zhi Wai
菊花台/ Ju Hua Tai

** Nan Quan Ma Ma sang their songs: Tonight, What Can I Do, Mu Dan Jiang **

本草纲目/ Ben Cao Gang Mu
夜的第七章/ Ye De Di Qi Zhang
夜曲/ Ye Qu
迷迭香/ Mi Die Xiang --> Jay's Grandma came out.. =)

** Edited version of: 双节棍/ Shuang Jie Gun **

彩虹/ Cai Hong
开不了口/ Kai Bu Liao Kou
甜甜的/ Tian Tian De

Encore:
阳光宅男/ Yang Guang Zai Nan
发如雪/ Fa Ru Xue
霍元甲/ Huo Yuan Jia
双节棍/ Shuang Jie Gun



ps: if u want the audio recording, just tag or email me. heehee...more photos here, all taken by my 2nd sis! heehee..


Jay Chou concert 19/1/08

http://community.webshots.com/album/562200888AMTWwg?vhost=community

KT TUNSTALL coming to Singapore!

Woohoo! I'm glad I knew about her and her music before this. Just read Life! today! She's coming on 27 MArch for a concert at Suntec City! Tickets are priced at $75, &100, and $140 (free-standing)! tickets will start selling from Sistic on Jan 23 onwards. Any takers??

Wa hope this year will be a good year for concerts.. hope sodagreen comes back!! before ah gong goes for army...

Looking forward to : JAy Chou this Saturday! =)

song recommendation

王菀之 - 学会
nice Mandarin song by Ivana, who's very popular in HK...never really listen to her songs, only know 我真的受伤了& 手望 or something..but this caught my attention. like the prechorus, the buildup to the chorus..

许茹芸 - 爱人动物
another nice song, by Valen, Xu RuYun who's back with a new album! lots of heavyweight songwriters too.. this song's by Qingfeng of sodagreen.. heehee

S.H.E. & 飛輪海- 新窩
and 1 more song. very catchy and cute, especially the MV, with lots of eye candy haha..

Wild Day Out 08 in Hong Kong

I so want to go~ Cheer Chen, sodagreen, Faith Yang...Those in Hong Kong now should really go to this concert. I guarantee + chop that it'll be worth it. Too bad... I'll be stuck in Singapore..

BRAVO!!

This little boy is AMAZING!! so skilful, so much feel, so relaxed and enjoying himself also.. just like a pro, put all of us to shame haha..

California Dreaming - Sungha Jung


Waltz - Sungha Jung


While my guitar gently weeps - Sungha Jung

HAPPY 2008!

HAPPY 2008! SO fast... 2007 has gone and 2008 is here... But life's still the same..

and recently, been busy watching COffee Prince - 咖啡王子1号店. really funny, interesting and cute. Although a wee bit draggy towards the middle. A bit like 花样少年少女, but less childish since the setting's not at school. Great cast as well! Yoon Eun Hye 尹恩惠 's really cute, and so natural in acting! heehee... the lead actor's also quite man. and the supporting actors very funny also...and the dog! Old English Sheepdog! so cute! Haha... and I like the OST, rather easy-listening and different from most Korean OSTs.. nice..

And Arco, whose 2 songs appeared in the OST, is actually a UK indie band! Interesting hehe.. their myspace page: http://www.myspace.com/arcomusic