Holiday in HK!!!! --> Days 1 & 2

In case you didn't already know, I went for a 1-week-long holiday with my primary school best friend Junhao and his gf to Hong Kong. And boy, was it a fulfilling trip! Never mind the bloody nose and the constantly-forming scab which kept blocking up my nosrils, the having to wake up early every morning, not having a whole big room to myself which I've become so accustomed to thanks to my flying days, which also meant sharing a room with a couple which made me feel like I'm hindering their erm....holiday sexcapades (it's their first overseas trip tgt! But then again, I probably added on to the excitement of not getting caught cos I was sleeping on the upper deck of the double decker bed while they took the lower one), and of course, being away from the people I love...n having to take a break from my riding lessons. =P WHAT!!! I ENJOY MY BIKE LESSONS CANNOT AH??!!!!

So here it is, my holiday~ (I seriously think the mentioned places or the HK tourism board should like pay me or something...lol. KIDDING!!! This is for all of you who wishes to go visit Hong Kong, or have been there and the only thing you've ever done is shopping.)


Day 1

Yes we took Cathay. Because we couldn't manage to get other cheaper tickets already.  Budget airlines are sold out, and so were the SQ promotion tickets.

So sad la! I had wanted to have Toast Box for brekkie, but apparently T1 was under MAJOR renovation, and Toast Box was temporarily gone...grrrr....so we settled for Starbucks...

Junhao having a Starbucks happy moment...

 There. Junhao. My best friend since we were 11. We talked on the phone like EVERY day for hours la, and shared jokes, got into trouble together, played cheat together during mental sums and spelling and dictation, copied homework (he was in charge of Maths, me English, another girl did Science, but she has since lost that familiar touch with us...which saddens me till now...since she was my best friend then, and the reason why I went to Nanyang Girls' later on...)

 

 The aircraft was parked like so far away la...I was tired so I decided to sit on my Samsonite even when I was on the travellator. I know...damn lazy right? But I was tired la!!! Didn't sleep the whole night before the flight leh!!! (Don't ask me why...)

 

Tip: Never, ever, EVER try to pose while trying to balance your arse on a partially hardcase cabin bag...

POSING FAIL!! FAIL!!! FAIL!!!!!!

Pui~

(N I can't believe I'm posting this!)

Fast forward---->

We arrived, bought like all the tickets that according to websites would be cheaper if we got them at the airport, like Disneyland, Ocean Park and Sky Terrace, Peak Tram n Madame Tussaud's Museum tickets. We bought the Octopus card at the airport too. This card's similar to our EZ-Link card, and has a validity of 3 years, after which, you just need to activate the card again at any MTR station counter. (They call their version of our MRT the MTR.) The card costs HKD150(xchange rate's appx 1SGD to 5HKD) and has 100HKD credit, the additional 50HKD is the deposit for the card, and is fully refundable upon return of the card.

We took airport bus A21 (33HKD - standard airport bus rate) to our budget hostel accomodation at 先施大厦, at this place called the Ah Shan Hostel, previously also known as the Dragon Inn. All in all, it was quite decent, since I wasn't going to be in my room while I'm on holiday, each room is fully air-conditioned and comes with its own bathroom, and the beds and rooms are quite clean and comfortable. AND!!!! It's located in Mongkok! It's like Bugis area la! Damn happening, and loads to shop!!!! 女人街 is just downstairs, and the MTR station is like, JUST 1 block away!!! Best part? I paid like less than SG$200 for 6 nights' accomodation!!! Cheap la!!!!!! Since anyway even the 4-5 star hotel rooms in HK are not very much bigger than this.

I suddenly regretted not taking a picture of the other bedroom we got. JH n I shared this room on the first 2 nights, then Huiyu joined us. She was with her school on a school trip, and they were arriving into HK from China. So we changed to a bigger room when she moved in with us.

 OMG I'm in Hong Kong Mongkok!!! Yippee!!!!

Time for dinner!!! We chose to have KFC for the night!!! Cos the KFC in HK is good la!!!

We ordered Egg tarts (Slurp!!!), Criss Cut fries, Zinger Burger, and Mushroom Rice.

The highlight of the night - KFC Egg Tarts.

Their egg tarts are so insanely delicious, I feel hungry just blogging about them now.... The egg is damn smoooooth lor, and the tart is not those hoon-hoon (powdery powdery) kind...damn shiok!!! Bliss man~~~

Go try them if you're ever in HK, and you'll know what I mean...

And oh! They give out gloves to eat ur chicken with! In case you don't want to dirty your hands, but heck, where the "finger-licking-good" if you eat with plastic noisy shhh-shhaaa-shhh-shhaaa gloves??!!! N licking gloves ain't my idea of delicious~

It was Christmas Eve after all, and we just HAD to go to some happening place tonight, right? JH n HY are not drinkers or clubbers or pubbers, and were just poor average-family students without much income, so Lam Kwai Fong is out. We walked all the way from our hostel across 女人街 to Nathan Road to Canton Road, where supposedly all the fun is.

Check out all the happenings behind us on Nathan Road!

There were like people carolling EVERYWHERE!!!

What we DIDN'T expect was that at the end of Nathan Road, this would be it...

Disappointing to the max...

Day 2

Mainly shopping today, but for dinner...we went to........

YES!!! THERE HAVE BRANCHES IN HONG KONG!!!!!!!! This restaurant is toilet-themed. Like all their food are served in urinals or toilet bowls or bathtubs. And all their seats are actual toilet bowls...

I mean...I've been to the one in TW, Ximending, but I was happy to know that I can get to go with JH n HY in HK~ Company's different ma~ Who you go with makes a lot of difference to how your experiences go~

This one's at Portland Street at Mongkok. inside MPM building.

 

The entrance~

The ceiling lamps are like shit-shaped! And they have urinals on the walls!

 

Toilet bowl seat! You sit on the lids of course...

Because the seats are actual toilet bowls, they need to take precaution...in case some idiots really open up the lids n start peeing in there....

This is some brownie thingy which was highly recommended. Served in a squat pan. (Or whatever you call those type of toilet you squat n hover above.) Turns out it wasn't as fantastic as they said it would be. Oh well...we had fun eating this...

 

Genuinely proceeding with caution, just cos it really looks like shit.

Wah grotesque!!!! Got look like toilet bowl with urine stains not cleaned up properly or not?

Eeeewwwww~~~~~~

Me n my gek-sai face... Food's served in a toilet bowl. This one's called some Thai Tom Yum thingy...I forgot the name~ But it's sedap la~~~ The soup's good lor!

They ordered some Southern or Japanese Curry thingy...but not as shiok as mine leh...Personal taste~~

Not really a fan of gelat stuff....or Japanese Curry...so this didn't work for me....

And dessert was served.... Like some really grotesque brown mess la~~~

This was some Chocolate thing. I remembered I had like BB Chuah Cheh Sai in TW, and that tasted better. And the ice was damn coursely ground lor! Nothing to shout about.

But for fun, we ate this up (or tried to) anyway~

It was effing huge can~ Bigger than my face!!!

 Because it was so huge, and I was used to eating Ice Kachang with like loads of liao inside the ice...I wondered if this monster has ho liao inside the ice, like Atap Chee or something. So I started digging....

Lo and behold! I found red beans and grass jelly inside!!!! Like, REALLY GOT LIAO LEH!!!! Ok la, no Atap Chee or anything, but got 满足感 okay...for discovering things inside the ice....muahaha!!!

The 残局 after the damage was done. Looks like someone had a very bad tummyache....

We went back to our hostel room happy and contented after the visit to the Modern Toilet....ahh~~~

*Si fok sai.....~~*

That's that for the first 2 days. Day 3 is gonne be a suuuuuuuuuuuuuuper long entry so I shall stop here. I will separate the next few days into separate posts so I don't die typing at my laptop.

I'm off to bed. More tmr!

Nite!

Holiday in HK!!!! --> Days 1 & 2

In case you didn't already know, I went for a 1-week-long holiday with my primary school best friend Junhao and his gf to Hong Kong. And boy, was it a fulfilling trip! Never mind the bloody nose and the constantly-forming scab which kept blocking up my nosrils, the having to wake up early every morning, not having a whole big room to myself which I've become so accustomed to thanks to my flying days, which also meant sharing a room with a couple which made me feel like I'm hindering their erm....holiday sexcapades (it's their first overseas trip tgt! But then again, I probably added on to the excitement of not getting caught cos I was sleeping on the upper deck of the double decker bed while they took the lower one), and of course, being away from the people I love...n having to take a break from my riding lessons. =P WHAT!!! I ENJOY MY BIKE LESSONS CANNOT AH??!!!!

So here it is, my holiday~ (I seriously think the mentioned places or the HK tourism board should like pay me or something...lol. KIDDING!!! This is for all of you who wishes to go visit Hong Kong, or have been there and the only thing you've ever done is shopping.)


Day 1

Yes we took Cathay. Because we couldn't manage to get other cheaper tickets already.  Budget airlines are sold out, and so were the SQ promotion tickets.

So sad la! I had wanted to have Toast Box for brekkie, but apparently T1 was under MAJOR renovation, and Toast Box was temporarily gone...grrrr....so we settled for Starbucks...

Junhao having a Starbucks happy moment...

 There. Junhao. My best friend since we were 11. We talked on the phone like EVERY day for hours la, and shared jokes, got into trouble together, played cheat together during mental sums and spelling and dictation, copied homework (he was in charge of Maths, me English, another girl did Science, but she has since lost that familiar touch with us...which saddens me till now...since she was my best friend then, and the reason why I went to Nanyang Girls' later on...)

 

 The aircraft was parked like so far away la...I was tired so I decided to sit on my Samsonite even when I was on the travellator. I know...damn lazy right? But I was tired la!!! Didn't sleep the whole night before the flight leh!!! (Don't ask me why...)

 

Tip: Never, ever, EVER try to pose while trying to balance your arse on a partially hardcase cabin bag...

POSING FAIL!! FAIL!!! FAIL!!!!!!

Pui~

(N I can't believe I'm posting this!)

Fast forward---->

We arrived, bought like all the tickets that according to websites would be cheaper if we got them at the airport, like Disneyland, Ocean Park and Sky Terrace, Peak Tram n Madame Tussaud's Museum tickets. We bought the Octopus card at the airport too. This card's similar to our EZ-Link card, and has a validity of 3 years, after which, you just need to activate the card again at any MTR station counter. (They call their version of our MRT the MTR.) The card costs HKD150(xchange rate's appx 1SGD to 5HKD) and has 100HKD credit, the additional 50HKD is the deposit for the card, and is fully refundable upon return of the card.

We took airport bus A21 (33HKD - standard airport bus rate) to our budget hostel accomodation at 先施大厦, at this place called the Ah Shan Hostel, previously also known as the Dragon Inn. All in all, it was quite decent, since I wasn't going to be in my room while I'm on holiday, each room is fully air-conditioned and comes with its own bathroom, and the beds and rooms are quite clean and comfortable. AND!!!! It's located in Mongkok! It's like Bugis area la! Damn happening, and loads to shop!!!! 女人街 is just downstairs, and the MTR station is like, JUST 1 block away!!! Best part? I paid like less than SG$200 for 6 nights' accomodation!!! Cheap la!!!!!! Since anyway even the 4-5 star hotel rooms in HK are not very much bigger than this.

I suddenly regretted not taking a picture of the other bedroom we got. JH n I shared this room on the first 2 nights, then Huiyu joined us. She was with her school on a school trip, and they were arriving into HK from China. So we changed to a bigger room when she moved in with us.

 OMG I'm in Hong Kong Mongkok!!! Yippee!!!!

Time for dinner!!! We chose to have KFC for the night!!! Cos the KFC in HK is good la!!!

We ordered Egg tarts (Slurp!!!), Criss Cut fries, Zinger Burger, and Mushroom Rice.

The highlight of the night - KFC Egg Tarts.

Their egg tarts are so insanely delicious, I feel hungry just blogging about them now.... The egg is damn smoooooth lor, and the tart is not those hoon-hoon (powdery powdery) kind...damn shiok!!! Bliss man~~~

Go try them if you're ever in HK, and you'll know what I mean...

And oh! They give out gloves to eat ur chicken with! In case you don't want to dirty your hands, but heck, where the "finger-licking-good" if you eat with plastic noisy shhh-shhaaa-shhh-shhaaa gloves??!!! N licking gloves ain't my idea of delicious~

It was Christmas Eve after all, and we just HAD to go to some happening place tonight, right? JH n HY are not drinkers or clubbers or pubbers, and were just poor average-family students without much income, so Lam Kwai Fong is out. We walked all the way from our hostel across 女人街 to Nathan Road to Canton Road, where supposedly all the fun is.

Check out all the happenings behind us on Nathan Road!

There were like people carolling EVERYWHERE!!!

What we DIDN'T expect was that at the end of Nathan Road, this would be it...

Disappointing to the max...

Day 2

Mainly shopping today, but for dinner...we went to........

YES!!! THERE HAVE BRANCHES IN HONG KONG!!!!!!!! This restaurant is toilet-themed. Like all their food are served in urinals or toilet bowls or bathtubs. And all their seats are actual toilet bowls...

I mean...I've been to the one in TW, Ximending, but I was happy to know that I can get to go with JH n HY in HK~ Company's different ma~ Who you go with makes a lot of difference to how your experiences go~

This one's at Portland Street at Mongkok. inside MPM building.

 

The entrance~

The ceiling lamps are like shit-shaped! And they have urinals on the walls!

 

Toilet bowl seat! You sit on the lids of course...

Because the seats are actual toilet bowls, they need to take precaution...in case some idiots really open up the lids n start peeing in there....

This is some brownie thingy which was highly recommended. Served in a squat pan. (Or whatever you call those type of toilet you squat n hover above.) Turns out it wasn't as fantastic as they said it would be. Oh well...we had fun eating this...

 

Genuinely proceeding with caution, just cos it really looks like shit.

Wah grotesque!!!! Got look like toilet bowl with urine stains not cleaned up properly or not?

Eeeewwwww~~~~~~

Me n my gek-sai face... Food's served in a toilet bowl. This one's called some Thai Tom Yum thingy...I forgot the name~ But it's sedap la~~~ The soup's good lor!

They ordered some Southern or Japanese Curry thingy...but not as shiok as mine leh...Personal taste~~

Not really a fan of gelat stuff....or Japanese Curry...so this didn't work for me....

And dessert was served.... Like some really grotesque brown mess la~~~

This was some Chocolate thing. I remembered I had like BB Chuah Cheh Sai in TW, and that tasted better. And the ice was damn coursely ground lor! Nothing to shout about.

But for fun, we ate this up (or tried to) anyway~

It was effing huge can~ Bigger than my face!!!

 Because it was so huge, and I was used to eating Ice Kachang with like loads of liao inside the ice...I wondered if this monster has ho liao inside the ice, like Atap Chee or something. So I started digging....

Lo and behold! I found red beans and grass jelly inside!!!! Like, REALLY GOT LIAO LEH!!!! Ok la, no Atap Chee or anything, but got 满足感 okay...for discovering things inside the ice....muahaha!!!

The 残局 after the damage was done. Looks like someone had a very bad tummyache....

We went back to our hostel room happy and contented after the visit to the Modern Toilet....ahh~~~

*Si fok sai.....~~*

That's that for the first 2 days. Day 3 is gonne be a suuuuuuuuuuuuuuper long entry so I shall stop here. I will separate the next few days into separate posts so I don't die typing at my laptop.

I'm off to bed. More tmr!

Nite!

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!!

It's 2010!!!!!

Finally, a new year, new job, got refreshed after a great but exhausting yet fruitful holiday, new clothes (from HK), new shoes *squeals* (from HK), new calendar (I got new Lillian Too's feng shui calendar for 2010 to ensure that EVERYDAY goes as smoothly as possible for me!!!), new WONDERFUL beginning for me as I embark on a new career!!! (Don't ask why am I so ecstatic and full of zest and skippy, you'll find out in due course... )

Breathe~~~~~~
Ah~~~

It's great when you feel new again, you know? I have been sick and unwell the past 2 weeks, with a bloody nose which keeps forming scab in my nosrils and which irritates me big time cos I can't pluck it out in public, bad backaches, fever that's coming and going but refuses to actually come or go...and exhaustion because I have been running around and waking up early in HK EVERY DAY I was there, but other than those, I've been telling myself that 2010 shall be a happy year for me, yes? 2009 was too depressing. (It was la! For those who know me, you know...and I thank you for being there. *loves!*)

I know you must be dying to see my HK pics! I'm in the midst of arranging them properly so I can post them up! Hang on okay! You will get the first of the pics by tmr! I swear~! Meanwhile.....

Enjoy the last of the season's holidays and savour the long weekend before it's gone!

Loads of Love and Hugs,
Silver

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!!

It's 2010!!!!!

Finally, a new year, new job, got refreshed after a great but exhausting yet fruitful holiday, new clothes (from HK), new shoes *squeals* (from HK), new calendar (I got new Lillian Too's feng shui calendar for 2010 to ensure that EVERYDAY goes as smoothly as possible for me!!!), new WONDERFUL beginning for me as I embark on a new career!!! (Don't ask why am I so ecstatic and full of zest and skippy, you'll find out in due course... )

Breathe~~~~~~
Ah~~~

It's great when you feel new again, you know? I have been sick and unwell the past 2 weeks, with a bloody nose which keeps forming scab in my nosrils and which irritates me big time cos I can't pluck it out in public, bad backaches, fever that's coming and going but refuses to actually come or go...and exhaustion because I have been running around and waking up early in HK EVERY DAY I was there, but other than those, I've been telling myself that 2010 shall be a happy year for me, yes? 2009 was too depressing. (It was la! For those who know me, you know...and I thank you for being there. *loves!*)

I know you must be dying to see my HK pics! I'm in the midst of arranging them properly so I can post them up! Hang on okay! You will get the first of the pics by tmr! I swear~! Meanwhile.....

Enjoy the last of the season's holidays and savour the long weekend before it's gone!

Loads of Love and Hugs,
Silver

The Ten Most Influential Women In Games Of The Past Decade

Every year-end,websites release their own top ten list of...whatever that was impactful to their relevant field.This can range from best songs,best film to best Youtube vids.But variety they do not have.So it was by great chance that I found this interesting list while I was browsing Kotaku recently.These ten have greatly contributed to gaming at large,and they're not male.Here's the ten most influential women in gaming,by Gaming Angels founder,Trina Schwimmer.

"This is the time of the year where most sites are doing their top ten lists about different subjects. Personally, I hate top ten lists. If I'm going to do one, then it's going to be about something I'm passionate about. Therefore, we have two top ten list articles on GamingAngels.com. Here we are looking at the ten women that influenced the gaming industry in a big way over the last ten years. This isn't an all-inclusive list and I'd love for you to join in the conversation by including your nominees in the comments. The game industry is starting to see change and some of it is due to the women on this list paving the path. Here in random order, are ten women that really changed the game industry over the last ten years."

"Lucy Bradshaw has to start the list with her work on the Sims beginning in the year 2000. Lucy and the Maxis team created a game that would be named the best selling PC game to date. The Sims is also credited for bringing more women into playing games. Lucy Bradshaw now leads the efforts of the Maxis team on the various Spore titles. She is an amazing speaker and is always pushing the industry forward."

"Kim Swift took the game industry by storm with the much praised hit, Portal. Swift was hired by Valve after graduation and won many awards with a title that appealed to casual and the hardcore. Swift has now joined Airtight Games to assist with games aimed at a more diverse audience."

"Jade Raymond was the producer on Ubisoft's Assassin's Creed. While she had been a producer on previous titles including The Sims Online, Jade definitely had to put up with controversy from men that couldn't get over her looks. Yes guys, it is possible to be gorgeous and talented."

"Corrinne Yu is an amazing woman. She's the principal programmer at Microsoft's Halo team. I met her at a GDC Women in Games luncheon where she was rewarded for her work on the Halo series. She dresses like a rock star and talks about programming theory unlike anyone I know. Corrinne is an inspiration as we look at the problem of not enough women going into programming as a discipline."

"Megan Gaiser is the President and CEO of Her Interactive. Through her work at Her Interactive, she has helped make intelligent games for the younger female audience. Her Interactive games create the Nancy Drew series of games that are very popular. Megan works hard in both talks and through her work at Her Interactive to get more girls interested in gaming both as a hobby and as a career."

"Kellee Santiago is an amazing young woman from the Interactive Media program at USC. She is the president and co-founder of ThatGameCompany, a company that strives to create games that create an emotion in the player. Their first two games, flOw and Flower on the Playstation 3 are not only beautiful but also appeal to a more diverse audience. During our interview with her at the Spike VGAs, it was great to see her passionate and excited about the future of ThatGameCompany. We look forward to Kellee pushing the boundaries of what we think about games."

"Amy Hennig works at Naughty Dog as the Creative Director on Uncharted and Uncharted 2.Uncharted 2 is second in the top 20 ranked Playstation 3 games on Metacritic. Amy concentrates on story and actors and it shows. Uncharted 2 has some of the best voice acting of any game out there. It will be interesting to see how close to films that Amy and the Naughty Dog team can take video games."

"Deborah Mars is the Managing Producer at SCEA Santa Monica Studio who worked on PSN title, Fat Princess. The title had early uproar from various websites because the game was built around the mechanic of feeding your princess cake so she would weigh more and be harder to kidnap. In the end, Deborah and her team proved that Fat Princess is an incredibly fun title."

"Cammie Dunaway is the executive vice president of sales & marketing at Nintendo. As one of the most powerful people at Nintendo, she led the way to reach out to women gamers with the Nintendo DS and Wii. She has had a rough road being criticized for being too nice or even fake. I interviewed Cammie at the 2007 Women's Conference and she was sweet but also very knowledgeable about the products available. She genuinely wants to see a more diverse audience enjoy gaming."

"We end our list with a female that has taken community on the Xbox 360 to another level. Christa Phillips Charter, better known as Trixie360, was responsible for many community initiatives for the 360 that is what makes us feel at home on the 360. She organized Game with Fame nights, Community Spotlights, Gamer Spotlights, and created/founded GamerChix a place where female Xbox gamers can gather to talk about gaming. Christa has always made herself available to gamers. Her new title is Social Media Lead of Xbox LIVE and we can't see where she takes Community and Games next!"


"I hope you enjoyed our list and I'd love to hear who you think should be on the list. We didn't include the wonderful women that run amazing communities or clans, but they definitely could be here as well. I'd like to thank Robin Yang for working with me on ideas for this list. Here's to another 10 years of greatness from women in games!"

Trina is not just another girl gamer caught in the Wii and Yahoo Games boom.She's been hooked ever since she got hold of the Atari 2600.At eight,she's already programming her own games with Basic and started on her comic book collection.During her time playing Phantasy Star Online,Trina created a female-based guild.From there,she had the idea of forming an online platform for girl gamers.Thus,Gaming Angels was born.Initially a cosplay site,it has transformed into an online community where girls are able to share everything geek with their peers.