shanghai motivational trip...

i really agree that i'm really one damn lucky guy. exactly just 1 month after joining novartis, i had the chance to travel with them to shanghai for the company's annual cycle meet. this trip was supposed to be in may, but was postponed due to H1N1. the last time i went to shanghai was 14 years ago with my family. i'm sure it had changed tremendously. let me take you through a brief snapshot of what i've done in shanghai over 5 days...

it was free and easy on the first day. shijie and i went out on foot to explore the whole stretch of nanjing road to the bund. unfortunately, many parts of shanghai including the bund was undergoing major construction in preparation for EXPO2010

we stayed at royal meridien hotel. it was fantastic!

in the evening, we had dinner at a posh chinese opera house where they showed traditional chinese opera show while we feast...


on the 2nd day, it was the corporate event in the morning and team bonding session in the afternoon. everyone of us had a calligraphy of our names framed up as door gift... kudos to michelle for the wonderful work done in superimposing the photos of our big boss and managers

the 3 emcees for the event: keith tong, peggy yong and myself...

every team had to come up with a short performance...

be afraid, be very afraid of... the original axe gang!

the CVM team...


on the next day, we travelled to suzhou and visited the 100 year-old water village: zhou zhuang

in the afternoon, we visited cheng huang miao and did some shopping. it's a pity that i didn't get to try the food at this famous nan xiang restaurant where they serve excellent 'xiao long bao', coz the queue was suuuuper long!


at night, we sang at shanghai ge cheng ktv till 5am!

the next day, lee kien's husband's friend, ray, showed us around and we got to try many different types of local delicacies...

in the evening while waiting for marie, i head to the hotel pool for a dip. it was excellent as the pool had an excellent view of shanghai city. the gym was fantastic and well-equipped. the locker room had sauna, steambath and jacuzzi facilities as well, great!

World EXPO2010 scene was everywhere...

on our last day, marie and i visited the mdm tussaud's museum...

later we took the train to shanghai technological park...

name of this restaurant: dong fang ji bai... up to your own interpretation

home sweet home...

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sightings @ geylang serai

went for a morning photoshoot with Hoa @ geylang serai. guessed we were too early, coz many shops were not opened yet...

fruitful saturday...

what a fruitful and awesome saturday...

at noon, i went to princess's elise baby shower at chili padi restaurant @ heng mui keng. it was a great meal as well as a meet up session with my xerox ex-colleagues and friends.

after which, went to COMEX and got a digital camera for mum and dad. bought a Fujifilm A170 and it was great bargain!! i'm sure they'll have a great time playing with their new toy...

later, attended La Patria by NUS Symphony Orchestra at the national library.

overall, it was quite a good show, repertoire selection was great. I loved 'Polovtsian Dances' the most. I thought it was very well performed, and the dynamics was very well expressed. 'Sketches of Singapore' was rather disappointing though. I think the wind section brought down the whole song. there were so many broken notes and that tempo was all over the place, especially when the wind section took up their solo part in 'Rasa Sayang'. 'Dance of the Yao People' was not too bad as well and i enjoyed it. i can say it's actually one of my most familiar orchestra pieces, so shan't be too critical about it, though i thought the percussionists were a little bit too reserved.

lastly at night, went for ice cream dessert at Udders. sam brought me there for the first time last sunday and i totally fell in love with their ice cream. so this time round i've decided to bring the girls to try it for themselves. we ordered rum raisin, earl grey, strawberry, lychee martini and vanilla beanz. phew...all tasted heavenly!

rum rum raisin: the rum was super strong and the taste was wholesome!!! earl grey: it tasted soooo authentic strawberry fields: i love this the MOST!!! it's made from real fresh strawberries, and it was sooo refreshing. i can have the whole pint to myself!!! VaMilla: down-to-earth and all time favourite vanilla flavour lychee martini: not too strong, just nice and light for my taste bud

last but not least, the ultimatum was MAO SHAN WANG DURIAN!!! how do i describe the taste? mmmm.... it tasted exactly like frozen durian!! u actually can feel the pulp and they dun stinge on the ingredients. that's how good their ice creams are.

besides their great tasting ice-creams, the service crew's very energetic and service was superb! for more information, you can visit their website @ http://udders.com.sg/ . thumbs up!

ace that durex interview...

if you're planning to join durex, please watch the following clips for tips...

janie's farewell...

last thursday, we had a farewell lunch with janie. she'll be going off to france to pursue her dream in culinary study for a year. can't wait for her return to 'taste' her fruit of success! have a fruitful stay in france janie!