tantalize your senses*

Saturday, June 17, 2006
6:46 PM

hehhh. i know this is really slowww but i'm still gonna blog abt this past week! (: ok, maybe not the week but the first 3 days of the week(: they're prob the FUNNEST (ok, no such word, but still.)days of this hols. so THANKYOUUU karin, ruowei and kailing for the really fun times (: lalala. this post is gonna haf loads of pics! so i'm typing all this in word pad first! (not microsoft word cos they keep correcting your capital letters automatically, which makes the post look really ugly. haha. if you know what i mean)

okie so monday and wednesday we went to youth guidance to do CIP! (: meaningful! haha. we organised activites for the kids for the afternoon sessions. but im really glad jean and yokeee (haha dunno how to spell her name) were there cos they helped make instructions more clear and also played the icebreaker (whacko) which set the mood right. yupp. so on monday aft whacko we played polar bear with the kids! and surprisingly they understood the instructions really quickly and had a lot of fun playing it. ANDANDAND! i sat beside EDMUND(!!!) during whacko AND polar bear! AWWWW. haha. then during polar bear he was one of the polar bears. but he was voted out quite fast lah. then amber was the other polar bear. and when it was another round, he thought we voted her out le (but actually we were still discussing who to vote out)so he was so excited to tell us that we voted correctly he revealed tt amber was the polar bear. so haha. we knew to vote amber out. then amber was all "he told youuu!" and the rest were like edmund! bu ke yi jiang de! si le bu ke yi kai kou! haha. then edmund looked like he was gonna cry =(( haha. so i patted him on his head and said never mind laa! ((: haha. yupp. after polar bear we let them watch the green grass dvd. think they understood it. cos they were laughing at the appropriate parts. but debrief tt time abit sian diao. also quite impromptu lah. haha. but yupp. first day was quite good (: went to study with kailing at bpp's starbucks aft that (: i declare that banana mocha cream frapp is nice (: and coming frm me (the girl who absolutely HATES bananas), that says quite a bit (: but i guess cos the banana taste wasnt too strong and gave the mocha that little bit of sweetness that was needed to make it a positively HEAVENLY drink ((: and it goes well with shilin zha ji pai. hahaha.

on wednesday, our first activity was the HUGEHUGEHUGE snakes and ladders game(: we took like what. 3 hrs to do the board? and karin dunno took how long to do the HUGE die. gave the board and the die to youth guidance aft the game and they were so pleased with it. HAHAHA. we left our mark behind. hehh. and our hard work was worth it! i think the kids did enjoy themselves although they HATED the bonus questions (which were actually supposed to help them move forward faster) and LOVED the sweets (: hahaha. played two rounds, and EDWIN AND EDMUND were soooooo adorable! AWWWWWW. haha. lala. took so many pics of them (: shall post the nicer ones up. haha. after that played capt's ball. which i think they enjoyed the most. haha. yingteng was on the guy's team but he was being a lousy defenderrr. haha. 4 of us dint play cos too many pple le. anyway, i think the kids were quite sweet and cooperative (: and for that i'm thankful. was quite apprehensive at first as to how the cip would be like. was v worried that the kids won't like what we planned or that they wont understand the games (esp polar bear) then was v afraid will leng chang. but thank God none of that happened! (: and so i had a very meaningful monday and wednesday (: and it kind of ignited this passion in me to contribute back more to society and to stop living in my own sheltered jaded comfort zone. yupp.

pics for our CIP (:

our enormous snakes and ladder board! and the 2 HUGE die! (:

ah long, EDWIN, EDMUND!! haha. obvious favouritism here xp

the loveliest “bonus” square. drawn by me of course.

hehh. my 2 darlings (:

ah en and the other kids! this picture is dedicated to huiling! hahaha.

kids playing capt’s ball. yingteng is obviously slacking. haha.

more kids! (:

once again, EDMUND! (with wenshan)

and EDWIN!! (with wenshan also)

US (: at the end, having learnt a lot thru this CIP (:

TUESDAY! we went to the zoooooo! haha. kailing and i were supposed to meet at cck interchange at erm 9:20. haha. but i guess we were both late (her bus refused to come and i took longer than expected to get ready. hehhh) but i still reached earlier! lalala.so yupp. reached the zoo at 10:03 (3 mins late) haha. oh but before that, on the way to the zoo we took this highway that was the same highway that the taxi took when clement and i went to get the pitcher plant (which subsequently died in yaozhen's care rather quickly) last year for pw. haha. brought back a flood of pw memories, and i never thought i'd say this but hey! i miss pw! not really the project itself (like i could ever miss the ants.) but more like working with clement, huiling and yaozhen (: HI138!!! (: anw, back to the zooo. we thought we were earlier than karin and ruowei but they cheated cos karin's mom fetched them there so yupp. haha. then we were so excited to get into the zoo that we forgot the map -.- haha. so had to go back to the entrance and get one. the girl was so amused. blehhh. so anw, stupid karin was niao-ing me frm the moment she saw me lahhh. HMPH. but nvm, it stopped soon aft cos i mean, it's hard to niao me too much. you prob can't bear to niao such a lovable person like me. HAHAHA. so lala. we went for the spirits of the rainforest show. the otter is cuteee!

the otter doing its part, recycling! (:

and the seal is ULTRA CUTEEE! seeee! it was pretending to cover its eyes for one of the tricks! haha. AWW. i love marine animals (:

how cuteee! (:

oh and they kinda used the same general idea or suprise/fear for the component of audience participation just like the night safari's show. haha. not gonna reveal much lah. go to the zoo and watch it for yourself. for best viewing you should sit at the middle block about the 5th/ 6th row. yuppp. then only will the show be truly unforgettable and a great experience. yupp after that walked quite alot. haha. at the barbary SHEEP enclosure, everyone took turns taking pics with kailing cos aft all, i mean, we are at the barbary SHEEP enclosure marrr. HAHA. here are the pics with kailing, the star attraction of the barbary SHEEP enclosure. (ok i think kailing is gonna kill me. hahahaha)

kailing and karin! (:

kailing and ruowei! (:

kailing and i! (:

oh and this is me with shades. we all tried kailing’s shades. hehh. for the pics of the rest with shades, go to kailing’s blog. i don’t have the pics.

HEE (:

then we wanted to catch the animal friends show at the children's area. the dogs are cuteee! and ruowei saw her immediate relatives! and her immediate relative-in-law. but so sad. they were having internal squabbles. the relative-in-law was chasing her relatives and scaring them. xp but the show was quite a disappointment lah. became super short and not as interesting as the last time i saw it (in 2003). and the dog was shua-ing pi qi also. haha. anw aft tt we went to kfc and shared 2 buddy meals! haha. you can read kailing's blog for the foodwastage part. i'm too lazy to type out. haha. but tsk. i shld haf just said that i dun mind eating those too. haha. but it was good to eat fried chicken!! (even though it's how oily and unhealthy) and i ate coleslawwww which is my favouriteee! and drank mountain deww! yayy. and contrary to some WEIRD belief, eating kfc is so NOT childish. haha. aftermath of our meal (: too bad we couldn't keep the bucket. whee! superman (:

kfc’s superman buddy meal (:

after lunch the sky was beginning to get dark. but we just continued walking lahh. wanted to visit ALL the enclosures (: so we walked and walked and ended up at the snake enclosure. they were loads of snakes. including annacondas and this really thin long green snake and these other green not so think snakes that looked like a bunch of unripe bananas cos of they way they curl up (hanging on the brance somemore) haha. and THEN. it started raining. like thunder, lightning.. thunderstorm lah. so great we were stuck in the snake enclosure. haha. and kailing who hates snakes was feeeling quite unsettled. haha. so we sat down. and talked. and started coming up with really imaginative stories about snakes sssslithering up frm the drain that was about 50 cm frm where we were sitting. haha. oh but we dint go to the walk thru reptile encounter lah cos kailing dint want to. yuppp. so finally the rain stopped and we continued walking. haha. we were actually complaining that we should have ran to the pygmy hippo enclosure or penguin enclosure and get stuck with cute animals instead of snakes. haha. oooh. then we went to the orangutans part, and there was this really poser female orangutan who was swinging frm this branch v near us (as in there were a grp of orangutans who are not enclosed, and they can interact with humans. yupp. there was even some net-like thinging for them to bounce about and play in high up in the trees) so anw. this orangutan was like pausing every few swings to pose for cameras. haha. so aa. then when she reached the other tree which was the tree we were sheltered by, she was like posing for a while. then she started peeing! (as in the pee won't reach us cos we were not directly under her) THEN she stuck her hand in her flow of pee and started sniffing her hand! like.. ewww! and THEN, she started like flinging her hand to like shake of the pee. and i was all. oh gross. don't start shaking your hand vigourously or all your pee will hit us! haha. quite gross lah. then she started shaking the branches, which made all the rainwater cascade down on us. so mischievous! haha.

the really mischievous orangutan! (:

hmm. i can't really remember the chronological order of the animals we visited, so i'll just randomly write abt animals that made an impression. okie. so there were the white tigers! (: there was this really white white tiger. haha. and another one that kept swimming in the water lahh. i prefer white tigers to the normal orange/yellow/brown tigers.

white tiger!

haha. and there was also the penguins! which are really cute. we watched them playing for awhile. before karin got distracted by her DUBONG. haha. her pet name for the manatees. haha. but the manatees were really FAT and look so clumsy! i dunno how they manage to erm move abt in the water. haha.

penguins! although they look quite like ducks here.

then there was also the pygmy hippos! which are lumbering and fatt. but v cuteee! (: and apparently when pygmy hippos yawn, it's a sign of affection! haha. how cuteee.

the sign! haha(:

and the hippo! pygmy hippos are actually the smallest of the whole hippo family!

and the mongoose is cutee! look at them here. they are like all cuddled up into a pile. haha.

SUPER cute! (:

can u see the really tiny one? ((:

and we saw the babirussa! which looks like pumbaa frm timon and pumbaa. haha. but it's quite gross lah with its 3 or 4 horns. haha.

pseudo-pumbaa! haha!

and there were kangaroos! and they hopped across the path where we were standing on. so cuteee! (: hoppity hop. i like kangaroos! but the ones i saw in aussie were bigger and nicer. haha. so you should go to australia to see the kangaroos in their natural habitats. but nonetheless, here are the kangaroos (:

kangaroooooos!

oh and there was this interesting legend of how the tapir came about, but i forgot to take a pic of the sign. so here's the tapir anyway.

hoho. and there was this really spastic camel. HAHA. cos he/she was resting there, but its mouth wasn't closed. its like it was purposely jutting out its teeth for everyone to see! so i came up with this theory of how the camel had a blocked nose and so had to open its mouth to breathe. haha. so intelligent i know.

camel with teeth jutting out!

and a more normal camel. haha.

and polar bears are TALLL! and we read the life story of the polar bear cub! except that he's quite old. 16 years old i think. haha. look at how we measure up to the polar bear at full height!

karin and kailing (:

garbies with the polar bear! (:

the crocodiles were HUGE and SCARY. their bodies looked like scaly slides.. they were THAT huge. haha. oh but there was this crocodile called the... MUGGER CROCODILE! haha. maybe it was first discovered in singapore. now that would be so appropriate! haha. GINORMOUS crocs:

scaryyy.

mugger croc! haha.

oooh and the racooons were sooooo cute! they were hiding after the rain. but yuppp. managed to get a pic of them in their lil cave (:

AWWW.

oh and on the way to looking at the racoons we were pai-ing this video. that was erm highly entertaining! (: cos karin and i are such good actresses. haha. hidden talents we do have. lala. haha. we were laughing and laughing when we watched the video. haha. the snippets of what we said should give you an idea what the video was like. it went sth like this. haha. "oooh where are we?!" "i don't know!" "oh! we're looking at the map upsidedown!" "oooh! you're so smart to figure tt out!" "oooh look PINK!" "oh look the sign says 'garden with a view'!" "oooh! we should have gardens with b,c,d, until z views! then we'll have 26 gardens!" "ooh yeah! one garden for everyone in our class!" "oooh teehee!" *excited squeals" HAHAHA. okie. i have to say karin and i were ACTING. yupp. haha. then went to this place with loads of plants. took some pics there (: actually most of our grp pics were taken there. haha. here they areee.

actually this was outside the cheetah enclosure. haha. kailing, me, karin! (:

ruowei.kailing.me.karin (: notice the pink flowers in the background! (:

us again!

oh and we also walked thru the fragile rainforest and saw so many super cute animals! like flying foxes (which are in reality bats) and lemeurs and ducks! (: cuteee!

the lemeur. it came real close to us!

cute lil duckie! (:

finally we saw karin's beloved lions. haha. she got so excited hearing the roars. haha. and of course the meerkats! who are ABSOLUTELY adorable! ((: karin spotted this really really tiny baby meerkat which was soooo cuteeee! haha. here is a meerkat doing sentry duty. on tiptoes! haha.

cuteeeeee! ((:

oh and might i add that i absolutely love the zoo dustbins cos they are soo cute! haha! here am i with a tiger-striped one! (:

okie finally we exited the zoo and went to have affairs with jerry and ben. haha. yummy yummy BEN&JERRY'S! (: had phish food and strawberry cheescake. phish food was HEAVENLY (: i like the choc fishies inside! haha. loads of laughter and smiles while feasting on ben&jerry's.

haha. “euphoria to go!” indeed.

phish food + strawberry cheesecake!

lovely way to conclude a lovely day! (: yayyyy. i really enjoyed myself this past monday, tues and wed! ((: and once again, lovelove! to ruowei, kailing and karin (: *HUGS.

my current desktop pic (:

oh my goodness this entry took me 3 hours. ARGH. ok i better get off now.

love, huili.