Portland/ Rochester Fair

busy week at work this week... been going back slightly late... continuing with my study... plus there's an inspection on mon... so did a bit of spring cleaning... literally a 'wipe down' can... wipe counter top... machines... even the INSIDE of cabinets and drawers... we were commenting tat we din even clean up our house so cleanly when we moved in...

oh ya.. was trapped in the lift on thur... first time i got trapped in a lift... super funny lor... me and WL were waiting for the lift to reach the level.. then there was a sudden jump and the level indicator went off... think WL din realise... then i told her i think the lift spoil then she realise it.. hahah... pressed the call out button and i think was diverted to the lift company... who then help us make a call to our company and get someone to come 'rescue' us... so we just sat there and wait... feel like the 雾锁南洋 when they open the deck cover... when they open the door... a little awkward.. haha.. we were at the basement when they saved us... but still need to go to the 1st level.. and they were asking.. 'are u sure u wanna take tat up'... hahaha... then we were like 'u r going to be here till we reach safely right?' hahaha... well.. tat's something interesting... from then on... whenever we don feel like working.. we would hope tat we get trap in the lift again... hahahaha....

on fri... it was Mel-lis's bd... her house pple had a surprise installed for her... so we went along with it too... tried to get her out of the house and to Prescott Park... but she keep on saying she wanna watch tv... so we waited at our house for signals to move out... finally when the target left... we went to the park and planted ourselves around... paiseh lor... my bright jacket gave it away when she recognise it... and we have an odd number lor... still say we make it look weird by hanging around in 3s... but anyway... managed to do wat we were there to... gave her the brownies... gave the card... sang the song... took the pic... it was fun to just hang out a bit in the park late at night...

Pics of the night 'stolen' from Ah Muay...

sat actually wanted to go maize maze... but sighz... it rained... it's jinxed... never say we are going to maize maze again.. if not will rain again... haha... in the end we decided to go portland shopping instead... while on our way home after shopping.. we saw this place tat has a globe inside.. so we turned in to see wat is it all about... supposedly it is a map store... and the globe is actually in the Guiness Book of Records... and is made in Maine! it's super big lor... and it takes 18 min to make 1 revolution... cool man... we literally sat there and stare at it move... till about time for the place to close before we left...

We found Singapore!

With the giant globe...

today we went to the Rochester fair... ok only leh... nothing much... just stores of food... games... rides... animals... and to make things worse... it rained again.. sighz... we actually saw it coming from a distance... approaching us.. and it was so sudden lor... as if someone just poured water over u... then we were all wet... everywhere was muddy... after getting drenched... feel very tired... then went to watch the circus... overall was ok la.. animals super cute... and there's this animal called the alpacas... and it makes very funny noises.. haha...

back to work tmrw.. sianz...

-jiahua

Car race / Whale watch

this week's weekend started early... left work at 3pm on fri... went to Scarborough for the Beech Ridge Motor Speedway... some racing thingy la.. reached at about 5+... think a little early... cos not many pple were there yet and there's no queue to get tics... wonder why i skip work to go there early for... -.- but anyway... got good seats la... show started at about 7... anybody who has a car can take part supposedly... there were 3 diff races... the 1st was normal passenger cars.. 2nd was trucks and pick ups... and the 3rd was women car race.... the cars race 2 by 2 till there's only 1 car left... quite ok at the start... but gets a little boring after the 1st race... oh ya.. after the normal race.. was the more interesting reverse race... gets the crowd more excited cos there's more action.. that is... more bumping and crashing into each other... then it was followed by the race of groups of 4 cars to see which gets to go up this small ramp... of cos tat amounts to quite a fair bit of crashing around too... the loudest cheers always comes when a car overturns or knock into one another or skid and go off tracks... rather fun to get together and watch something new like tat la... cheap thrill... but it was quite cold though... so we kinda huddle and sit close to each other... there's even vapour coming out from our mouths... so i guess it was actually quite cold...

yest a whole big group of 23 of us went to Gloucester to whale watch... we went on board this ship or yacht or watever it is.. called miss cape ann... quite a nice ride out to sea... aquarians love the water... hahaha... ride out took about 1 hour before the sightings of whales started... quite fun to watch.. and quite funny when u hear pple squeal and exclaim everytime some whales come up to the surface...

Din really take a lot of photos cos the whales movements not predictable.. so quite hard to capture in time.. took mainly video...

think this is the biggest group outing we had since we came to US... had chance to see those pple whom we seldom see or hang out with.... for example vega and shufen... and kaiyan...

With my favourite giraffeeee... the ever act cute SC...

All 23 of us on board Miss Cape Ann...

Round up the whale watch trip with a round of shoes shot...

and a sumptous dinner at Ruby Tuesday... well.. the day din end here for our house... it's back to their favourite past time... drinking... and ym's flaming lamborghini... taste ok... but looks nice with the blue flames... cool...

today was a pretty nuah day for our house... stayed home and clean up the house... and i cut ym's hair! don't look too bad la... achievement of the day...

Not too bad for first timer eh? haha...

-jiahua

Weekday party

woohoo.... blogging on a weekday.... yest we had a company party kinda thing at Red Hook Brewery... as the name suggest.. it's a eat and booze session... went there straight after work... got 2 complimentary drinks... had a beer... which i don like... rather bitter... got another raspberry barcardi... not too bad... 5% alcohol only.. and it's sweet... to my liking... it was quite a fun session.. all TAP pple can have the chance to get together for a while.. despite the difference in dept and shift hours... we drink.. chat.. crap... shake to the hard rock music.. get high... hahaha...

Good times drinking and crapping with the gals...

With more gals...

With Jas and John...

With housemates... YM (aka Xiao Ming in our house) and ever so spastic CK (don know why always must give tat spastic look when taking photo with me)...

Our favourite hand sign ever...

See my out-stretched hands trying to push the disturb-er away... but to no avail... sigh...

This photo only admits those with caps... haha...

it was a pretty enjoyable night... gives u the feeling back in NUS times when we go for bashes... haven really done tat in a while...

the drinking doesn't stop after we went home... took out our own stash of alcohol and continued drinking... faintz... drinking on a weekday night... as if tmrw no need work.. hahaha...

and faintz again... today was a super busy day for me... had a super late lunch at 1.45pm... just to be informed tat we have a meeting at 2pm... -.- after the meeting... it's all work again.. all the way till 5pm... wow.. effectively today i just had a break of 15 min and i think tat's the longest i sat down for today... sighz.. it's either u have nothing to do so much so tat u stare... or u r so occupied tat u don even have time for lunch... -.-

-jiahua

White mountain/ Conway/ York trip

Action packed 2 weekends.. haha.. we decided to go White mountains again this week... again for them la.. but 1st time for me.. but still... my Acadia trip was also a trekking and nature trail trip... this time wasn't as early as last week.. set off at 8am... the drive was about 2 hours... decided to take the trail tat has a waterfall... but the trail was super short... think about 5 min walk.. we reach the water fall already... and abruptly the trail ended there... so we ventured a little out of the trail and climbed over rocks.. and tree roots.. and wat nots... and took a pic on this huge rock tat we climbed onto.. i don have tat pic yet...

One of the waterfalls we encountered:

An all time favourite must-do thing when we go out - Da Tou Tie (Big Head Shot) :

after taking all the pics we want at the waterfall and the Ellis River... we decided to head back up to have lunch and then move on to another longer trail to some summit... 1st stop we reach a bridge... took some pic and PX and me kena splinters in our fingers... duhz... spent a bit of time trying to pluck out the splinter... -.-

after trekking for just half an hour.. the group of us behind decided it was too boring.. haha... so we sat a while to rest... the sky looks a little overcast.. so we decided to head back down.. it drizzled while we were coming down.. and rained just as we reach the visitor centre.. hang around the visitor centre while waiting for the 3 guys who ventured to reach the summit... it was quite a long wait.. so we decided to just go Conway for shopping instead.. hahaha... so much for some trekking trip... Conway was pretty much like the Kittery outlets... managed to get a track suit and 2 pairs of shorts at the adidas shop.. it was supposed to be a steal according to my fren.. but 75 bucks still seems a little ex for me.. haha... went for a KFC dinner before we head home...

today we decided to go to York and take a look.. on our way there.. we saw this place by the waters with a centre walkway and a bridge.. so we decided to stop and go take a look... at the end of the bridge.. there was a mini trail by the lake/ river/ water... watever it is.. tat leads into a mini foresty area..

According to the sign... this is the Barrell Mill Pond Dam... and the foresty area is the Steedman Woods.. we took the short walk through the woods and moved on with our trip to York beach... think the beach is called the Long Beach or something.. and has mud-like sand.. soft and nice to walk on.. but hard to leave foot prints behind... and when mixed with water.. it looks like bird shit if a drop falls on ur feet...

It feels like the time when i was at Bondi beach... sun was up but wind was super cold... though Bondi was so much nicer...

Wanted to put a pic of my feet.. but too many scars... so here's a pair of pig trotters...

It was quite fun at the beach la.. playing with sand and the cold water... except they got my shorts a little too wet lor.. and caked sand on wet feet... like muah chee... -.-

Da Tou Tie again! spastic smiles... esp CK! hahaha....

after having enough fun on the beach.. we decided to drop by the lighthouse we saw on the beach... Sohier Park/ Nubble Light...

Oh ya... very qiao... bump into Vega and Celest.. they came to York too...

wow.. seems like i only blog once a week... drats.. my life here is too boring.. haha.. only weekends got things to write about... well.. back to work tmrw.. heard they are going to let us try something new.. which would keep us busy...

-jiahua

Labour day weekend

long weekend cos mon is labour day here... yippie! no work! went with the gals to Acadia National Park... woke up super early... left at 5++ am... the drive there was about 4-5 hours... as usual.. being the passenger.. i slept most of the journey... except the occasional chit chat and toilet breaks...

reached at about 11++ i think... wanted to check in to the hostel... but the check in time starts at 5pm.. -.- and the hostel is like a house only lor.. rm super small with 5 bunk beds... ok la.. this is wat u get for paying just $25... still think Aust's YHA provides better housing for $25...

we decided to go check out whale and puffin watching.. but the rates is super ex lor.. $49.. so we decided to try somewhere cheaper next time.. maybe like Newbury or something... in the end we went for a scenic drive... great view.. trees.. rocks... lakes...

At Frenchman Bay...

At the summit of Mt Cadillac...

At Sand Beach...

At Thunderhole...

While walking along the trail at Otter's Creek... we came across this.. an artistic piece of work... which only me and Rachel had the depth to visualise it and appreciate its natural form.. tag and tell me wat u think it looks like... haha...

after checking in to our hostel... and painstakingly making our beds with bedsheet tat doesn't fit... -.- we went for a seafood dinner... ex... -.- then walked around the shops in downtown bar harbor... temp was freezing... bbrrrr... reached back hostel at about 11+.. to find tat there is to be no showering after 10pm... -.- fine.. went straight off to bed after brushing teeth...

the rest of the gals woke up at 3am to go to the summit to see the sun rise.. no one called me.. so i continued to sleep till some ang moh ah soh started packing her stuff and make so much noise with the plastic bags.. irritating... -.- had to check out at 10am... so after brushing teeth.. we set off again for breakfast.. the place we ate at was pretty American... those with pple eating at the counter types.. but we took the upstairs seats... and had the standard American breakfast.. 2 sunny side up... a sausage... cubed potatoes... and 2 pancake... plus my orange juice.. ooo.. i like such breakfast... and no i don think i eat a lot.. don make me sound like a dinosaur... -.- ok ok.. maybe i eat a little more than the rest... cos we ordered 3 sets of the above mentioned.. and 2 sets are shared by 4 of them and i took 1 of the set myself... =p

after breakfast... went for our trek of the day.. took a trail up to the top at a place called bubble rock... it's a rock at the edge of the cliff... diao there...

then after that... followed the trail down and branch off into another trail... which led us to the trail tat has a higher level of difficulty... cos it was all climbing rocks all the way down the mountain to the lake...

as we near the lake we could hear the water... but could see nothing... finally when we reach the lake.. the climb was all worth it.. view was magnificent... SM says it's trips like this tat push her to work hard cos must earn more money then can go more places.. hahaha...

then we followed the circumference of the lake to an exit point where we walked along the road to where our car was parked... and by tat time it was already 4+ and it's time to head back home...

the boys were very guai while i was away... they help me vacumn my rm... washed my bed sheets and even rem to wash my socks and towel this time! hahaha... very good... full marks... they went grocery shopping too and cooked tom yam soup... nice home cooked tom yam soup when i came home starved at about 10+... aww... so sweet... it's nice to be home...

oh man... just now 2 of them cut hair for each other... super funny... told them i cut for them already... see la.. now the hair look so gong gong...

-jiahua