Transition

Now for the long-awaited verdict... i survived haerbin!! The cold there is crazy. As soon as I arrived, my glove-covered fingers (i wore ski gloves) were starting to bite. Took me a while to adjust to their temperature. The coldest time was when we went to see the ice city lights. Already, night was cold enough. The icy surroundings just made it worse. I wore every single piece of cloth I had. For my top, i had 2 layers of fleece, 1 layer of cashmere and a layer of down. Then i had 2 scarves, 1 beanie, ear mufflers, down hood, double layer gloves, 3 layers of pants and ski boots with thick socks. I don't think i'll ever wear that many clothings ever again. Now that i'm back in beijing, i feel so hot. While heading back to my house from the airport, I had to wind down the windows and the cab driver was freezing. I wasn't even wearing my down then! When i fly back to singapore this friday night, i'm sure i'll melt!

In haerbin, i think one of the more emotion-provoking moments was the visit to the unit 931 museum where the japanese were performing live human experiments for all kinds of tests to carry out a germ warfare during WW2. It was very very cruel... Once again, I simply cannot understand how a person can lose one's humanity completely and do these things without feeling any guilt. It really made me very very sad. One of the japanese who was involved subsequently confessed, 没有做不到的事，只有想象不到的事. Some of the things they did included switching the human blood with horse blood, cutting away the stomach and connecting the lungs direct to the intestines to see what happens, and other terrible things that i don't wish to describe. Of cos, everything was done without the use of anesthesia to avoid having inaccurate results. And the victims included innocent women, children and teenagers who were just caught off the streets for no reason. There's a book written by a japanese on some of the events that happened, titled "The Devil's Playground"......

Ok, I shall upload pictures of haerbin here when carol has uploaded them. I must "pia" this week and work late every night so that i can make it back to singapore this friday night. So stressful! But i've already got plans to go sim lim sq on saturday afternoon when i'm back. Not my fault this time, it's my friends who need to get stuffs!

Will I turn into an ice carving?

The weekend had been a busy one. Yesterday, i went to get ski boots and ski pants so that i can survive haerbin next weekend. It's almost hitting -30 degrees. Already in beijing i thought i was walking in a freezer. Not sure how i'm going to survive haerbin... Then the whole evening till night was spent karaok-ing. We started from serious karaoke mode and ended the night wild dancing in the room. People outside thought we were crazy!

Today, i decided to foresake capoeira to complete my AOE3 Asian Dynasties, do grocery shopping. buy ang pows, watched a couple of DVDs and work. Yeah, i still need to work. :( Oh, and I'll need to go to the bank to change $10 notes so that I can give my staff ang pows. Why do I have more than 100 staff?? I'm going to be so poor. It's so sad that in China, they have the culture where we have to give the staff ang pows even if we're not married. Hopefully my singapore ang pow collection can make up for the loss here!

First time

Yesterday, I went with karen n rachel for capoeira. Quite interesting with all the cartwheeling and sparring with the rhythm. But my aching body now just reminds me of how long i haven't exercised! Maybe cos their warm-ups are a bit like squad training style..

Then I went for manicure n pedicure. Yes, I got conned by karen of cos. U know i don't do things like that on my own. Manicure was 20RMB, while pedicure was 40RMB. Karen being a regular there (she does it every other day) get 50% discount. I really wonder what they earn.

My entire body is really aching from head to toe. I felt like i could roll down the steps at the client's place. Oh, n i finished AOE3 expansion during the weekend too. Warchiefs... feel like replaying some of the scenarios. Now I've gotta look for more games to download again.

When you're in Japan, spend all your money on brands

Japan is really a branded country. Everywhere you go, it's all the big brand names. In the entire beijing, I think there are only 2 prada or gucci shops. In osaka, every shopping center (even though they're next to each other) has got ALL the branded boutique shops. And people are pouring into the shops like nobody's business, especially since everywhere was having sale for new year! It was so funny to see hordes of people queing outside daimaru at 9am as if everything inside was free. For me, i learnt so much about brands. And spent too much on them too. Like burberry has blue and black labels which are exclusive for Japan. Yes, japanese wear them like they were picked up from the pasar malam. And i bought both types of labels. Still, that wasn't the most expensive brand i bought. This is like the first, and hopefully last, time i splurge on unimportant things! Then again, most of the things were bought for other people in mind...

Oh, i really love the "lucky bag" concept in japan. It's only available during their new year season. They really should bring it back to singapore. For example, you go to the shop selling socks and buy their lucky bag for US$20. You have no clue what design is inside (i call it heng-suay), but for sure, what you get is worth more than what you pay. Maybe US$50 or more. Unfortunately, by the time i realise what lucky bag meant (you see, there's a slight communication problem..), all the ipods lucky bags in all the shopping centers were sold out! And they were only going for around US$58!! Next time, i'll go queue outside the apple shop at 8am. I've just checked out their latest products (japan always has the latest tech stuffs) and they're really cool. The next computer i get will definitely be a mac.

Although i'm back from osaka for like 6 hours already, i still refuse to replicate my office emails. The thought of working is killing me. Tomorrow noon will be a party for a selected group of staff in my dept. I still don't understand why they're celebrating when it's super super peak now till at least end feb. Anyway, i bought some things for tomorrow's gift exchange from the 100-yen shop in osaka. Aiyah, i didn't dare to spend too much in case the chinese staff throw all the jap stuffs away mah! Otherwise i would have bought Shiseido for them instead.. yeah right.