Drunk guy and birthday party

Today two unrelated eventful things happened… this is going to be a very wordy post… but I recommend reading it if you have time.


Drunk guy

This morning, at 430am, while I’m sleeping – and in a very deep state of sleep – I thought I heard a knock on my door. But it was so vague that it didn’t really penetrate my consciousness until the next knock. I got up to open the door… but not really expecting anyone cos I thought I was dreaming. But Lina was at the door! (Lina’s my flatmate).

She told me somebody had been trying to get into our apartment for the past 15min! At first I thought “ah?! Break in??” but she went on to say it was probably someone so drunk he didn’t know that he was at the wrong house. We didn’t know whether to open the door to tell him that he was at the wrong place. But in the end we decided to open it… not very smart actually, but cos we knew that Marie had two visitors (one guy and one girl). So we were thinking “well, at least if anything, we can get them up and it will be 5 to 1 with a guy on our side”.

So ta-da! We opened it to see a big sized drunk man. He kept insisting that he stayed here! And he kept trying to get in while saying all the time “I live here, I live here. I got the keys”. No matter what Lina said he replied that.

And then… *jaws music* he pointed to my room and said “that’s my room!” At that point in time, I panicked a bit. I was thinking “Alamak! I don’t want a drunk man to fall asleep in my bed!” That’s when I went to my room, grabbed my keys and locked the door. The guy was just standing outside my door, he didn’t try to budge in, though he said “what the f***” Then I think he tried his keys on my door (but I can’t remember whether he did), and that was when it hit him. Haha… and he was like “What floor is this?” and we were like “3rd!” and then he went “I live on the 4th floor… I’m so sorry, sorry, sorry, sorry…” he apologized all the way out of the apartment.

What a night/day! Fortunately, nothing serious happened due to our stupid move. But then again, I think Lina would have been very disturbed by the key noises he was making as he tried to enter, especially since her room is so near the door (which I agree is unnerving… feels like someone is breaking in).


Birthday Party

Tonight was the surprise birthday party for Yvonne, and a non-surprise birthday party for Hitomi… haha let me explain. I organized a birthday party for Hitomi, without telling Yvonne that it was a double party so that it will surprise her. So it started off with a dinner party for Hitomi with just Andreas, Daryl, Yvonne and me. Then the guys (PH, FX, Ivan, Chee Kiang) rang my doorbell fifteen minutes later. Haha, they brought the lighted candles in and started to sing the birthday song while I got Yvonne the mudpie which I made previously… and Yvonne had no clue at all (even after the birthday song started) until she saw the words on the mudpie cake!!!

Then after that we sang another song for Hitomi with another cake – chocolate cake – which had her name it on written in sugar. Haha. It was such a nice moment… the singing and celebration. And later in the evening Dirk dropped by, but Marie wasn’t around, so I invited him to join in… making it even more like a party cos more people! (There were 10 in total).

"Happy Birthday" "Posters" and the bday girls

Hitomi's chocolate cake with her name in sugar

Above is Yvonne's ice cream cake (aka mudpie) with chocolate words

So anyway, we ate a lot of stuff! Mee Fen (aka Bee Hoon), sushi, pizza, nuggets, green bean soup, and of course the two cakes – I was so full after all the food. And we ended off with a bottle of champagne! We did a really loud “yum sheng”! Haha. (Of course I drank only a few sips. Heehee) And I concluded that my mini kitchen is amazingly equipped with sufficient plates, cups and utensils for 10 people!

champagne with all the mugs/glasses available in my kitchen... haha, looks so odd but cute right?

The whole gang... and all inside my room! It's cool to be able to have a sufficiently big room to have this party.

I had a great time in church today

As the title says… haha. Today was great… first there was this nice testimony from this guy. About how he had been spiritually dry, and the worship just lifted his spirit. Sounds like nothing much, but it was how he spoke – with heartfelt emotions and gratitude =)

Then the sermon was fantastic! (Actually Pastor Shaun’s sermons have always been very nice, today’s was simply more exceptional). It was about the alabaster jar again… yet although it’s a familiar story I think I learnt more from this message than any other message I’ve ever heard preached/taught about it.

After the sermon there’s always sharing (my church here has a more relaxed environment, so Sunday services are like service-cum-cell group). And I really enjoyed today’s sharing too!

And at the end, we sang this song that I’ve never heard before, but I think it’s an old song… I love it – but sadly I can’t live up to the lyrics...

Basically, it was a great morning… the sun was shining, the sky was clear, (irrelevant side note: the moon can also been seen even though it was 1pm. Haha), the food at the service was delicious – thanks to Katya, Ps Shaun’s wife (there’s refreshments at the services… very nice and homely feel right?), I feel more and more at home with my church and new friends, and the service was simply lovely. =)

Here’s the lyrics to “Surrender”

I’m giving You my heart, and all that is within
I lay it all down for the sake of You my King
I’m giving You my dreams, I’m laying down my rights
I’m giving up my pride for the promise of new life

And I surrender all to You, all to You
And I surrender all to You, all to You

I’m singing You this song, I’m waiting at the cross
And all the world holds dear, I count it all as loss
For the sake of knowing You, for the glory of Your name
To know the lasting joy, even sharing in Your pain

1 hour… *poof*

Today for the first time I’m going to lose 1 hour of my life due to daylight saving changes… so officially, my 3am will become 4am… gosh. Haha.

Anyway I went shopping with Hitomi today. It was fun cos we both bought the same top! (Girls like to do such things – generally speaking of course. Haha).

working on our project a in lovely environment

This is the very comfortable, aesthetically beautiful, quiet place that we have in our department where we have been doing our project for the past few days! Makes the project seem so much better right?

Side note: Today Yvonne and Daryl played a prank on me… which was absolutely hilarious… Steven and I were laughing like crazy over this:

A bunch of stuff

I have a bunch of miscellaneous stuff to update… haha.

I’ve been to an ice hockey match (yesterday)!

It was fun to watch! (Price was quite “fun” also… 26euros! Faintz) but anyway, it was worth it cos I know it’s like once in a lifetime! Plus it makes a set – cultural ballet in Russia, and now sports in Finland. Haha.

Anyway, about the match… the home team lost 2-4 unfortunately for them. But the last goal was really a lucky goal. Cos there was only 1 minute left and the score was 2-3, so the home team substituted the goal keeper such that the whole team of 6 could be on the attack. Then while everyone was on the other side of the court, the opponent tried to clear the puck back… and ta-da! Amazingly, it went straight into the goal from across the court! Other than that, there was some drama in terms of fighting… but honestly, it was quite fun to watch them fight… (heehee, evil laugh). But overall I had a great time watching the game – the guys are so good in their skating control! The entire game actually looked graceful but at the same time violent. Hahaha.

in the stadium

at the start of the game... with the cheerleaders in the middle

during the game

I had a candlelight… toilet!

The light in the bathroom fused… and amazingly, the toilet does not allow any light in at all! It was pitch black, i.e. I can’t even see my hands, even during the day! (I think cos the insulation is good so that we don’t feel cold… cos no light in probably means not much air can get in either.) So Lina placed a bunch of her aroma candles in the toilet and her lighter… so each time we went to the toilet we lighted the candles… but it was not romantic (haha duh!)… it just reminded me of fright night! Eeeks.

I had a mix-up fun dinner

Today I cooked miscellaneous local stuff for Lina and Marie. Haha… I cooked prata (the frozen type… and made in Singapore! hahaha), tang yuan, tom yam mian xian and chrysanthemum tea (packet type of course). And I also baked another chocolate cake which is perfect!!! As in it really tastes fantastic and it’s not over cooked nor under cooked – perfect!

Spring is officially here

Lina said today is the official start of spring. Heh.

Tallinn, Estonia

Just came back from Estonia last night (Friday)… but it was only a day trip cos the place to visit – old town – in Tallinn is not very big. We took an overnight ship (although the journey is only 3 hours, haha) and watched movies in the cabin cos Fu Xiang brought his laptop!

People kept saying Tallinn is cheap… but gosh! I don’t think so lo… maybe just slightly cheaper for some things like chocolate and postage. Souvenirs were so expensive!

Anyway, here are some pictures:

Tallinn has alot of old fortress remaining... behind us are some parts of it... and we are just doing a lame pose. haha


More fortress

Zoomed version of the above

Town hall... the centre of the old town

This is where we had lunch... haha, but not beer. Cos a friend recommended this place for food. It's really nice cos of the ambience.

See, even the toilets are part of the ambience

And the menu! Haha

I just thought that their traffic light symbol was cute cos of the bicycle.

Most of the places are about buildings... haha, so I uploaded them in Flicker cos they probably would just look like buildings. HAhAa. Click on Flicker to see them if you're interested. hehe.

Fazar chocolate factory visit!

Today was so fun… haha, cos I ate a lot of free chocolate and bought a lot of “cheap” (I put “” cos it’s cheaper than in Finnish supermarkets, but I won’t say it’s cheap) chocolate!

Ok here’s the gist: I visited the Fazar chocolate factory in Finland. Karl Fazar is a Finnish brand of chocolate which is really nice to eat! Anyway, during the visit we got the chance to eat as much chocolate as we could. Hahaha! And after that I bought quite a bit of chocolate to bring back home for my family and friends! But please don’t expect a lot cos chocolate is very heavy… I think I bought almost 1.5 kg worth of it, but it’s not really a lot considering the number of people I have to give it to. *sorry peeps!*

At the entrance to the factory – Hitomi, me, Yvonne

We started off with a presentation/video… typical visit factory type of necessary propaganda… haha but the videos were not the formal type and were quite lame. Hahaha! Anyway these are really cute rocking chairs found in the video room.

We didn’t get to see much real chocolate being made cos of the strict hygiene standards… haha, look at Yvonne and I with the hygiene caps! Anyway we are standing beside the old machines used long ago to make chocolate.

We all crowded around this “chocolate bar”. Hahaha and ate free chocolate like crazy people.

This pillar is filled with chocolate candies!

This is a really special chocolate that I bought…

It’s a real egg shell (washed and cleaned) and filled with chocolate!!! And all must be done manually by the staff. So cool right? Cos its going to be Easter, so there’s this special chocolate – it costs S$3… gosh! But must buy cos once in a life time. Haha.

coffee moment

Last night I had a nice little coffee session with Marie. Haha… I basically experienced a typical Italian breakfast, at night! Hahaha. Anyway, the metal thingy in the middle of the table is something all Italians have to make this super expresso type of coffee really fast! Well, I didn’t drink it pure cos it’s too “heavy”, but the way she prepared it for us last night was to put a bit of the expresso and lots of warm milk! So it was like a latte… very yummy! And plus the chocolate cake that I baked and girlish talk, we had a wen1 xin1 coffee moment. =)

By the way, this is Andres and Hitomi with me in the middle. Haha.

my “Chinese” dinner

Summary:

Tonight was the first time I held a dinner… in the sense that I cooked for others… and it was a failure in terms of the food I cooked… *faint* haha… my fried rice was too dry. Hai, I can’t even get fried rice right! Fortunately, the company was great. I had a fun time talking and laughing with Marie (my housemate), Hitomi (my Japanese friend) and Andres (her Mexican husband).

Let’s start with food:

I cooked fried rice and fried vegetables. Which were edible. Haha. And I also baked a chocolate cake (which I think is nice, haha) and gave them pineapple tarts to try. Haha… although Andres questioned it’s authenticity as Chinese since they were tarts. Marie also baked some pastry thingy with homemade cream inside. It was very nice and sweet! Hitomi made salmon sushi! Ooh it was so delicious, especially the wasabi!

Now the “laugh until cheeks pain moments” (I quote Hitomi):

We laughed so much… from 8 till 12!!! I can’t really remember everything already… basically it was because Andres is the “gao xiao” (i.e. jokey) type of guy. And cos I was so comfortable, I fell into my bimbo mode… in other words, saying silly or diao stuff that causes people to laugh at me (oh gosh… no face le. Haha). Anyway, he “say me” until I had to say “thaaaanks” in the Edelene way quite a few times! And I rarely use that lingo here! (NB. Unless you understand my lingo and history, the previous sentences would have made no sense to you)

Anyway, it was a funny – in the haha way – night! Some things I discovered:

1. Singapore was referred to as “Nazi Disneyland” in an airplane booklet (Andres was the one who read it)! Haha… why? Because it’s so nice and clean and fun and perfect, but it’s full of rules! I felt that it was such an interesting phrase. Haha
   
2. Durian is such a fascinating thing to non-Southeast Asians. Haha… the same airplane booklet described the smell as disgusting. I think Andres and Hitomi will go and try it… but will probably suffer through the experience! Haha.
   
3. Marie was so amazed that NUS only gives you one shot at your exams… cos here in Europe, you get to retake a few times, until you are satisfied… haha, cool right?
   
4. Nokia is amazing… according to Andres, who works for Nokia, they do all sorts of stuff to the phone to test its endurance… hai, Nokia is zai… pity that the designs are not as pretty as the Japanese/Korean phones. By the way, Andres has a 1000 Euro (gasp! S$2000) Nokia phone which is a really good 3G phone with a camcorder!!
   
5. Hitomi told us that in Japanese… there’s 5 levels of you, and me. What I mean is, for example in an extreme case where you are very high ranking, I will use the 5th level of “you” when refer to you when I speak, and the 1st level of “me” when I refer to myself. (in which 1st is lowest, 5th is highest) But most of the time they use middle level. Haha.

Exams…

I just finished two exams here… gosh! Exams are super duper different here… I don’t need to feel stressed over “not enough time”. Then I can slowly think out my answer… instead of doing “flying pen”.

In other words, it is so much less stressful compared to NUS… help!!! NUS is crazy! I can’t go back there?! I’m so dead for my final year when I get back. (But on the bright side… I think I learn more in NUS – kills me to say this)

Home food

I know I talked about how much I love Finland in the previous post… but there’s one huge lack – local FOOD! Gosh, you know I love food… (and actually I’m really enjoying all the cooking that I’m doing here. The food is actually nice to eat hor. Haha.) but there’s things that I can never get here, like spicy ramen, laksa, nasi lemak, ban mian, zhi char… and so much more! But actually, the only thing I’m craving for, which I finally discovered recently, is the hot hot hot spicy ramen. Haha, definitely one of the first things I’ll “attack” when I get home. Haha and of course ban mian. =)

Anyway, my point is, I went to the Asian shop yesterday, and bought some stuff that was quite expensive but local, so I couldn’t resist spoiling myself.

From left: mian xian, garlic chili, roti prata and tang yuan!

And here’s my pineapple tarts (thanks Happy12Friends!)… half way through already… sob sob.

Actually, I have an exam in two days... but argh! I can't seem to study... so decided to "doodle" away my time blogging.

Falling in love with Finland

I love this place… but before I start saying why, I must clarify first that I still love Singapore. After all, Singapore is my home country with the great sun and great food and the list can go on, but this is not a post on Singapore, haha, so that’s for another time.

So anyway, why do I love Finland? (haha… but every point has it’s pros and cons.) Here goes:

1. Their transportation is fantastic. Do you know that they have timetables for what time which bus will arrive for every bus stop? And the more amazing thing is that buses (and trains) will arrive at the precise time that is given! Let’s say the bus is supposed to arrive at 14.37… guess what? It actually does arrive at 14.37! (to me, it’s 99% of the time accurate)

Bad news: if you miss it… that’s it. There is no hope when it comes to their transportation.

2. I love the air. It’s super fresh here… It’s wonderful! And the coldness/ coolness!!! And the snow! Haha.

Bad news: it gets kinda too cold in winter… haha, but since I’m here only for 6mths, it’s enjoyable. Haha. Another downside is that not much sun… oh well. That’s not what I’m here for anyway. Hahaha.

3. The people. They are nice and their accent is easy to understand (for me). And they are very honest people! Seriously, I’m not worried about thieves and all that… cos it’s safe here because the people have good hearts, not because of the law. (of course the law enforcement is good and all that, but if the heart is good, it’s so much easier to enforce the law right?)

Bad news: sometimes, I feel very “ah tiong” here… if you don’t get the word, ask me personally, haha.

4. My apartment – my room is so comfy, I have a sweet little kitchenette to cook, and a clean toilet that’s just beside my room which makes it so convenient.

Bad news: how can I go back to RH again? Haha… my apartment is too wonderful.

5. The water is great! Out of the tap, I get to drink icy cold water (the water in Finland is good so I can drink straight from the tap)… and if I turn it to the other extreme, the water will be extremely hot… even I cannot take it. So I only turn to ¾ when I bathe… and I love bathing in hot water!!!

Bad news: I think I’m addicted to ice cold water now…

6. Things are simple here… people just live simple lives. No one works too much, people can have time with their families, have time for themselves.

Bad news: so that’s why there’s absolutely no 24hrs store or hotline or anything 24hrs here. And on Sundays, huge department stores (e.g. Stockmann) and huge shopping centers (e.g. Sello in Leppavaara) are closed!!! Unbelievable right?

7. It just feels like second home now. Especially when I came back from Russia, I felt such a sense of home when I arrived in Finland. To see signboards in Finnish (and understand some words cos of my Finnish course) and see friendly faces again. =)